There is plenty of impossible things in mathematics. Possibly the most real part of it, computation theory, gives us a basic truth - it is impossible to solve the halting problem.
I have to wonder, where is this thread coming from?
As a physics and cosmology student, it's worth bringing up the idea of a multiverse (which essentially says that there are more many more universes than just our own), which has gained a good deal of traction in the physics community. Little is known about what those other universes would be like, but among other things many physical constants would likely be completely different, and logic from our universe could easily break down making what we consider impossible to be possible.
In another universe it's very possible that I could pick up one rock with my right hand, pick up one rock with my left hand, and then suddenly be holding in total three rocks. It wouldn't be any more outlandish to say that the halting problem could have a general solution in some other universe, and that what we believe to be impossible could be very possible.
@Disch
Logic is the method of deriving supposedly true statements from supposedly true assumptions. It is not about being right, it is about being consistent. The method by which you decide religion to be wrong is not logic, it is a rational heuristic. All questions in life, including that of religion, are entirely outside the scope of logic. All you have is that one heuristic, probably born in a critter in the bottom of the ocean some billions of years ago to feed itself more efficiently. This mechanism is incapable of truth. But you state things as true, because it feels good.
I understand why you keep attacking religion. I hear you have it pretty bad in US. But it's not actually religion that you have problems with. It's just plain ignorance. So I'd appreciate it if you named it as such.
@ascii
Mathematics is entirely separate from the physical world. The fact that if you take one rock, another rock and have two rocks is reflected by 1+1=2, but does not cause it. If instead you then had three rocks, the regular + would still exist, though we probably wouldn't be talking about it. There is actually no one true logic. All logics exist in all universes.
I heard that the big bang could be a higher energy universe leaking into out lower energy one, Science sounds farfetched and spiritual even when its being real
Mathematics is entirely separate from the physical world. The fact that if you take one rock, another rock and have two rocks is reflected by 1+1=2, but does not cause it. If instead you then had three rocks, the regular + would still exist, though we probably wouldn't be talking about it.
Fair point.
All I was trying to say anyhow is that the mathematical rules and laws that our universe abides by could be so radically different from that of another universe that deeming anything as impossible is ridiculous.
Thankfully, I'd hope most programmers have a logical mindset, so I'm willing to bet the majority would be an atheist response.
Atheism (the belief that God doesn't exist) is as irrational as believing that God does exist.
I consider myself to be agnostic because I can't see how it can be proved either way. I have accepted that I posses neither the wisdom or intelligence to find the correct answer myself.
If anyone here has played this level I feel your pain. In all seriousness if the premise of the multiverse point holds true, then nothing is concrete. Life as we know governed by the "laws" we live by is basically religion in the sense that it is a crutch used as a placeholder until more evidence has been found.
Making a machine that will always show the future correctly is impossible, because seeing the future will change the future.
Proof:
For. eg. let us assume (assumption 1) that seeing the future is always possible
Now if I decide that if the future-showing-machine shows that I died while sitting in a car, I will never sit in a car and if it shows I died in a different way, I will sit in a car and kill myself.
Now this decision will never let 'assumption 1' be true. Hence, seeing the future is not always possible.
But do you believe in parallel universes, or a single universe where time can be changed? If the latter, then your idea about seeing the future would create a paradox...