parallelism as riddles

heretic5 — Thu, 20 Mar 2008 14:03:05 GMT

I would like to introduce the sort of puzzle called a "parallelism". One way to summarize this sort of puzzle would be to say that it consists of a collection of comparisons. The comparisons can be either of similarity or of contrast of at least two items. In the case of a similarity, both halves of the comparison must be explicitly written. In the case of a comparison, merely one half of the contrast must be written because it is always possible to construct the other half of the contrast from the half which is explicitly written.

One consequence of this situation is that some parallelisms of contrast seem to be merely declarative sentences. Not so. In a puzzle, which consists of a collection of parallelisms, what might seem to be a mere declarative sentence is always a parallelism of contrast.

As to the method of solving such a puzzle, the usual method is to compile lists of similarities and contrasts. For instance, let us say, for the purpose of illustration, that in comparison number 1, A is shown to be similar to B, while in comparison number 2, B is shown to be similar to C, while in comparison number 3, C is shown to be a contrast to D. In such a case, we could list these relationships in this way:

A ~ B ~ C â D

Eventually, we might have a list similar to this:

A ~ B ~ C ~ G ~ H â D ~ E ~ F

Having such a list as the latter, we might have enough characteristics to be able to decipher what it is that is being alluded to by each group of similarities, which groups are in contrast to each other. In one instance, it turned out that the word "mind" was being contrasted to the word "memory" although the word "memory was not explicitly mentioned in any of the parallelisms.

Having summarized this sort of puzzle, let me now mention that I discovered such a puzzle or riddle in a very unlikely place, to wit, the Bible. At least, it seemed like an unlikely place to me. In fact, I did not at first realize that I had discovered a puzzle, or riddle, of the parallelism sort, because I was unaware of even so much as the existence of the parallelism sort of puzzle. So I have not yet completed the solving of it. If you would like to try your hand, you are welcome to do so. The beginning of the puzzle is displayed at http://greatriddle.flifree.com

A word of caution: one particular parallelism is pointed out to be the starting place by the fact that it is emphasized above all others. This is a word of caution because I did not originally notice the emphasis and therefore started elsewhere, with the result that I soon became bogged down in a morass of comparisons which were only distantly related. A restart at the indicated parallelism resulted in smooth progress. Difficult, to be sure; but smooth.

As to the extent of difficulty, some puzzles are of the 6-minute sort, while others are of the 60-minute sort. On that scale, "This Good Riddle" would have to be rated as being at least of the 600,000-minute sort. However, that rating would be for total solution. Partial solution is possible, even inevitable, with the result that it is similar to a trail of bread crumbs in which the crumbs become increasingly larger as the riddle is increasingly solved. So the riddle is noticeably easier at the 60,000-minute level than at the 600-minute level.

As to the appelation "most high God", although it is not of my invention, it nevertheless seemed appropriate to me because of the implication that we live in a virtual reality. The idea, that we are in a virtual reality, has been spreading more quickly since 1993.

On the off-chance that this idea has not yet come to your attention, the details of it can be found at:

Wikipedia, overview

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Simulism

Nick Bostrom, 2002

http://www.simulation-argument.com/

Brian Whitworth, 2007

http://www.newscientist.com/blog/technology/2008/01/vr-hypothesis.html?DCMP=NLC-nletterbanner&nsref=blogtech

In addition to those arguments, one way to understand the apparent fact that space and time and mass and energy are quantized would be to say that their quantization is a result of the fact that the 3-D monitor, in which our virtual reality is displayed, has a finite spatial screen resolution, and a finite repetition rate.

Hoping that you find this riddle to be of at least as much interest and benefit as I have, heretic5.

Puzzles, Riddles, and Word ESL Games

parallelism as riddles