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Top 3 Astonishing Paradoxes of The Cosmos

A paradox is a theory that contradicts itself and has two parts that are opposite to each other. The parts are contradictory as well as intermingled. One phrase which explains the word paradox the best is 'Unity of the opposites.' The parts are opposites yet they run together. Some people believe it holds invalid logic but also involves a huge amount of critical thinking.

A paradox can be classified based on Quine's classification or Ramsey's classification. They can also be divided based on what the paradox is about such as infinity, geometry, and probability.


1. Fermi paradox-

This paradox is named after the most well-known Italian-American physicist Enrico Fermi. He along with other scientists was going for lunch discussing objects which can move faster than light, UFOs, and other cosmos theories when suddenly it struck Fermi with a question "Where is everybody?". This led to the paradox that contradicted the lack of evidence of extraterrestrial life and presence of it in the universe.

The Fermi paradox is divided into two parts, the first one says that extraterrestrial life is present. As a resolution to this paradox, certain conclusions have been put forward such as that the life span of extraterrestrial life is very short, they are very rare or we are unable to detect it. During Fermi's time, there was no evidence of the availability of exoplanets but today's science confirms that there are other planets where life may exist other than our Earth. The other part states there is no evidence of such living anywhere. Humans are still searching for life in the universe.


2. Bootstrap paradox-

It is a theoretical concept regarding time travel in which when a piece of information or an object is sent back in time and it gets stuck in the infinite loop of cause and effect which further loses its origin. When an object or data is lost in such a loop it is impossible to trace back the starting point and the ending point of it.

This paradox is also called an ontological paradox deriving its name from a study dealing with existence and being. The term means to pull oneself from one's bootstraps over the fence which signifies that it is impossible to do so. The bootstrap paradox violates the 'Law of causality' as well as the 'Law of entropy.'

Let me explain this theory with a simple example. Mr. Q goes back to past by time travelling and teaches Marie Curie about the 'Radium and Polonium' elements and then Mr. Q travels back to his time(future). Curie later publishes her work about radium and polonium in her papers in her present time. The papers are read by Mr. Q after many years of Curie's work in his present time. So here is the loop wherein we cannot determine where was the initiation done. Whether Curie's papers taught Mr. Q or Mr. Q taught Curie.

"All I know is that I know nothing"
-Socrates

3. Olbers' paradox-

In the year 1823, a German astronomer Heinrich Wilhelm Olbers discussed this paradox in which he questions that millions of stars are present in the universe and every line we stretch from Earth reaches the stars, this should illuminate the entire path due to the star's light and when we consider infinite stars and their brightness the universe should be completely bright rather than dark. The paradox contradicts the darkness of our universe. It states that the static infinite universe with infinite stars and illuminating objects distributed in an infinitely large universe should be bright rather than dark.

The paradox is explained using a model of concentric shells and stars in space. Even Johannes Kepler, a famous German astronomer argued upon this theory. Some conclusions were drawn from this paradox stating that the light of stars is too short to reach Earth and our universe is expanding due to which light is unable to reach us. Other resolutions base themselves on the big bang model of the universe.

Many scientists have led down various paradoxes some of them including 'The paradox of tolerance', 'Coin rotation paradox', and 'Rusell's paradox'. Comment down below and let me know which one blew off your mind or any other paradox that could put people into deep thinking.

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