Cliquant heredes

clinquant (adj.): Glittering with gold or silver; a false and showy glitter

heredes (n.): Heirs

Funny words today. Clinquant comes from French, but it was actually first brought into English by William Shakespeare. You know, this isn't too surprising though - he actually 'invented' (i.e., took from other languages) thousands of common English words. Like "bump" for example. Next time you use the word 'bump' you can feel secure in your sophisticated-ness.

Heredes actually isn't an English word. It's a Latin word. Unsurprisingly, it means 'heirs' in Latin. But just like other Latin words, it sometimes crops up in the context of law, where the word 'heirs' isn't anywhere near good enough, of course =).

Anyway, I'm not really sure what to post. I could talk about why the moon was red, but I don't feel like it and you probably all already know it's because of scattering in Earth's atmosphere. So instead, I'll keep this post short, and present a nice little paradox my friend showed me:

You've probably played a lot of two-player games, like Tic-Tac-Toe, Chess (it has rules to make sure it is finite), two player Ghost, Halo, etc. Most such two-player games are finite - meaning that you finish after a finite number of "turns" or a finite amount of time.

However, one can easily invent infinite two-player games. For example, if we randomly make a game Asdfmas where turns consist of saying numbers and if someone says a negative number, they lose, is very easily infinite.

Now, one would assume that a given game is either finite or infinite - after all, if a game doesn't take an infinitely long time, then it has to be finite, no?

Well, then, consider the two-player game called Metagame. The rules of Metagame are simple. Player 1 chooses a finite two-player game, and Player 2 moves first. The question is, is Metagame finite or infinite? (If you immediately think it has to be finite, think again for a bit. Then scroll down.)

Obviously, the Metagame has to be finite, right? After all, they just play a finite game, which can't take infinitely long? Well, since it's finite, Player 1 can choose the Metagame. Oh, then Player 2 can choose a game too. Why doesn't she choose the Metagame as well? Player 1 also feels like playing the Metagame again. Hmmm...

So, the Metagame is infinite? But how can that be? After all, they just play a finite game. Hmmm....

Hopefully that's fried your brains for now. Until next time, ciao.

-squidout

PS: Here's another paradox for you, this time with a touch of Godel:

What is the smallest positive integer that cannot be defined with less than 81 characters?

(Hmm, "the smallest positive integer that cannot be defined with less than 81 characters" happens to have 81 characters...)