Zeno's Paradox of Achilles and the Nick Rekieta thread
Nick Rekieta's thread challenged Achilles to a race, claiming that it would win as long as Achilles gave him a small head start. Achilles laughed at this, for of course he was a mighty warrior and a swift reader, whereas the thread was heavy and slow.
“How big a head start do you need?” Achilles asked the thread with a smile.
“Ten pages,” the latter replied.
Achilles laughed louder than ever. “You will surely lose, my friend, in that case,” he told the thread, “but let us race, if you wish it.”
“On the contrary,” said the thread, “I will win, and I can prove it to you by a simple argument.”
“Go on then,” Achilles replied, with less confidence than he felt before. He knew he was the faster reader, but he also knew Nick Rekieta was more retarded, and he had lost many a bewildering argument in the thread before this.
“Suppose,” began the thread, “that you give me a ten page head start. Would you say that you could cover that ten pages between us very quickly?”
“Very quickly,” Achilles affirmed.
“And in that time, how far should I have gone, do you think?”
“Perhaps a page — no more,” said Achilles after a moment’s thought.
“Very well,” replied the thread, “so now there is a page between us. And you would catch up that distance very quickly?”
“Very quickly indeed!”
“And yet, Nick has just spent three hours screaming at a woman and generated 50 more pages, so that now you must catch that distance up, yes?”
“Yes...” said Achilles slowly.
“And while you are doing so, Nick shall have spiraled a little way farther, so that you must then catch up the new distance,” the thread continued smoothly.
Achilles said nothing.
“And so you see, in each moment you must be catching up the distance between us, and yet Nick Rekieta — at the same time — will be reaching new lows, however small, for you to catch up again.”
“Indeed, it must be so,” said Achilles wearily.
“And so you can never catch up,” the thread concluded sympathetically.
“You are right, as always,” said Achilles sadly — and conceded he would never see the body cam footage.