Interview with Paradox

[Katatoniopeth]

Paradox


A veteran, an all round great player and a pretty cool guy (literally and figuratively), lets learn more about the man, the legend, Paradox!


Katatoniapeth: So Paradox, I remember you used to give lessons on skype, how many Tetris players have you taught and who was your best pupil?

Paradox:: I'm sure I've helped over 50 people. It could be really small things like answering a simple question. There were a few that I helped in great detail and gave them hours of lessons. My greatest pupil was Polaris. He surpassed me in some ways and he grew to be a player with a style very similar to mine.

Katatoniapeth: Oh wow, that is quite a lot of people! Yeah Polaris is a great player, he is in that top bracket range for sprint.

Katatoniapeth: If I am not mistaken you are a musician/composer, what is your favorite genre of music and how would you describe your writing style?

Paradox: I like a wide variety of music like many musicians. I played saxophone in high school in both jazz band and wind ensemble. I also play the organ. I haven’t composed much but I wrote a few classical songs.

Katatoniapeth: Wow, it is awesome that you are well versed in so many instruments/styles.

Katatoniapeth: What is your best non-Tetris related memory?

Paradox: Relating back to music, I really loved the feeling of playing Jazz and improvising. Hundreds of people watching you then finishing that solo. It's a feeling of accomplishment.

Katatoniapeth: Yeah Jazz is awesome, it can break the rules of musical modes and time signatures, and I especially love how unorthodox the drumming is.

Katatoniapeth: (And still be awesome)

Katatoniapeth: TTO3 is coming up, are you planning on following the matches, or doing any commentary?

Paradox: I will follow along with the tournament. Not to be a downer but I don't expect this one to be as successful as the previous ones. We have had many chances to build Tetris up and it requires the motivation of both the community and community leaders.
With that said I hope that it is a great success because I always want Tetris to succeed. I'd be willing to commentate if I'm requested but I won't be actively seeking it on my own.

Katatoniapeth: Yeah, That is understandable, I am hoping for the best!

Katatoniapeth: And for my last question in regards to your previous answer, what do you feel we could do to make a positive impact on the community?

Paradox: We need to stand together and support one game and one tournament. We need those with influence in the community to be united as well. We have to be very organized. When the top players and popular personalities stand together we can take tetris to new places.

Katatoniapeth: I agree, great answer, well thank you for taking the time to answer all of my questions!

Paradox: ;D

[Sisu]

where is belzebub buried?

[myndzi]

I've always wondered, just what paradox is your handle referring to?

[Sisu]

Explain your past feuds with solo, rosti, and ryanjcarlson.

[Paradox]

I've always wondered, just what paradox is your handle referring to?

That is an interesting question and it isn't referring to a particular paradox. I do have reasons for choosing the name though:

1. I'm a Philosophy & Communications major and I love learning about paradoxes. I enjoyed them even before I went to college though. Here is one that has recently interested me and I tried to come up with an explanation : Wikipedia Article

2. I think the word somewhat describes myself in a loose definition of the word. If you know me well you will probably ponder upon this and give a silent nod.

3. It sounds cool.

I can't tell if some of these reasons reaffirmed my liking of the choice of username or they were my initial reasons for picking it.


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[!--quoteo--][div class=\\\'quotetop\\\']QUOTE[/div][div class=\\\'quotemain\\\'][!--quotec--]Explain your past feuds with solo, rosti, and ryanjcarlson.[/quote]

To be completely honest with you any feuds on here that I may have had were because I was younger and more immature. Note that I'm not claiming I'm mature now but rather more mature ;p.

I'll state now that I have no grudge against anyone on this forum no matter what was our past. On both sides things have been said that could have been worded better (or not said at all). I honestly cannot point out a specific reason I had quarrels with any of them. It just started out as a thing here or there that caused a persisting dislike. I regret any past negativity but don't expect to be excused from anything.

[PolarisTR]

I always get a tingle when I'm mentioned in a post. :0 :DDD

[caffeine]

What do you make of Zeno's dichotomy paradox, paradox?

[Lucho]

yo feel the flow, que pasa paradox ?

[Paradox]

What do you make of Zeno's dichotomy paradox, paradox?

I'll start off by saying that my goal is never to come up with a correct explanation when I approach paradoxes but to examine and think about the paradox (which may turn out to end up nowhere.) I look at paradoxes as a misunderstanding. It is something that appears to be a contradiction but only because we lack understanding of what really is.

I believe understanding this paradox requires some knowledge that is out of my scope (math, physics, etc). While I find those interesting I am pretty unqualified to give a well thought out answer. I will do my best to answer without much knowledge of these concepts (and all that is implied by them) to aid me.

If I understand it correctly I think the whole deal is that if you travel 1 mile, you must also travel half of that mile. You can always divide in half how far you have to travel which means you will always have some distance to travel. I'm not sure if I have restated it properly but I'll have my go at it.

One possibility that comes to me intuitively is that there may be a smallest distance and a smallest time 'fragment'. Meaning there may a point where we can no longer divide in half in a spacial sense and in a chronological sense (if that is the correct wording.) So while we can still divide mathematically and do that infinitely, it may turn out that the world doesn't reflect that on a very small scale.

Motion seems to be something fluid which is why we see it as a constant progression from one point to another. It is possible that instead of a fluid motion from point A to point B (with infinite points in between.) That there are not an infinite amount of points between and rather there is finite set of points and motion is just the state change from one point to another.

An analogy that might work is that say I have 4 Whole oranges (whole being the stipulation that makes this work.)  I can divide that by 2 and have 2 whole oranges left. I can divide again and have 1 whole orange left. I reached a point where anything smaller than 1 whole orange will leave me with no whole oranges. I have reached a point where I can divide and mathematically come up with 1/2 but it would not make sense to count whole orange and divide one in half.

To relate this to the finite amount of points that I proposed, when we count the whole oranges we use whole numbers to count them and there are not an infinite amount of parts. I just thought of this analogy on the spot so it probably is a very bad one and I'm sure its flawed. It does operate under the assumption that there are no half whole oranges which seems to be a good assumption to me.

Anyway that is my initial thought about the paradox and I'm sure it is made up of points that have already been made and possibly disproved.

I read a bit more about it to see alternative answers and I personally like the idea that if I divide the distance traveled I also divide the time taken. The issue also arises that there will always be time left to be cut in half which poses the same problem.

I hope I didn't use an cringe-worthy reasoning but this is just my humble attempt. Thanks for the question I enjoyed reading about it.


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[!--quoteo--][div class=\\\'quotetop\\\']QUOTE[/div][div class=\\\'quotemain\\\'][!--quotec--]I always get a tingle when I'm mentioned in a post. :0 :DDD[/quote]
[!--quoteo--][div class=\\\'quotetop\\\']QUOTE[/div][div class=\\\'quotemain\\\'][!--quotec--]I always get a tingle when I'm mentioned in a post. 8::::: D[/quote]

FTFY its a really really happy face crying tears of joy guys, get your mind out of the gutter

[myndzi]

If we're posing paradoxes (paradoxi? paradoces? ), here's one for you:

but who was phone???

[Paradox]

If we're posing paradoxes (paradoxi? paradoces? ), here's one for you:

but who was phone???

A: The person who was phone
B: But who person was
Q: French Fries

A â†' ¿B
~Q
(X â†" B) â†' ♫ â†' ~Cheese
∴ 42

[myndzi]

Damn, I never thought about it that way. Brilliant!

[ohitsstef]

[Paul676]

The actual answer to the time paradox is fractals, and infinite geometric series which add up to a non-infinite number. Starting with 1/2 and dividing by 2 infinitely adds up to 1 (in this case in space and time) - so after 1 unit of time, you've still travelled 1 unit of space. It's a misunderstanding to suggest that it adds up to infinite time

[caffeine]

It's a misunderstanding to suggest that it adds up to infinite time

That doesn't necessarily have to be the misunderstanding. Say someone wants to travel 1 mile. Normally, with a finite number of steps, you can describe how he got there easily. "He took 2000 footsteps. First he took footstep 1, then 2, (...), then after footstep 2000 he arrived at his destination.

With an infinite number of steps, you can't do this. Yes, the sequence 1/2, 3/4, 7/8, 15/16, (...) approaches the limit of 1. There's no problem with summing an infinite number of partial miles into a finite 1 mile.  However, there is no particular step in that sequence that comes right before the destination. There is no point, while the act is taking place, where there isn't at least some infinitesimal gap between it and the destination. I believe this is what gives most people problems with this paradox. It is not satisfactory to simply acknowledge that, by a mathematical definition, he traveled a mile.