ZENO OF ELEA
              Musing philosophical and the Professor

                         by Neil Shipman

In adventures (and real life) how do you get from A to B? A simple
enough question with, you would reckon, an equally simple answer.
But you only have to think about the bridge in Beyond Zork and all
of a sudden matters become a bit more complicated.

In this Infocom adventure there is a bridge across a chasm. If you
begin to cross it from the southern end your first move north
takes you to a location "Halfway to the North End", your next to
"3/4 of the way to the North End", your next to "7/8 of the Way",
and so on up to "16383/16384 of the Way" after which your position
is just given as "Immeasurably Close to the North End". You get
similar descriptions if you try to cross from north to south.
Indeed, once you are on the bridge it is impossible to get off it
on foot. Magic or the use of a particular object is necessary to
resolve the dilemma.

If you read the notice hanging at the entrance to the bridge and
you're a student of philosophy you might have expected something
like this to occur. Why? Because this is what the notice says:

                          ZENO'S BRIDGE
                      Cross At Thy Own Risk!

Far from being just another of the many strange fictional names we
adventurers are used to seeing, Zeno really did exist. Born in the
fifth century B.C. in Elea in ancient Greece, he was a philosopher
and logician. He is famous chiefly as the propounder of a number
of paradoxes which bear his name and it is the first of these,
properly known as The Dichotomy but more commonly just as Zeno's
Paradox, which is relevant here.

Since the days of Pythagoras a century earlier, space and time had
been treated mathematically as consisting of a plurality of points
and instants; but they also have a property more easily felt than
defined, which is called "continuity". By logical argument Zeno
sought to show that the subdivision of continuity into points and
instants is impossible.

Zeno's Paradox argues that before a moving object can travel a
given distance, it must first travel half that distance, then half
the remainder, and so on without limit. As each bisected part is
finite in length and there are an infinite number of them, it
follows that one cannot traverse a given distance in a finite
time. Taken to its ultimate conclusion for any speed and distance
this means that no motion of any kind is possible.

First, consider the process of subdivision to be complete. Then
either there will be left certain smallest possible parts that are
indivisible but infinite in number, or else the subdividing
results in parts that have no magnitude, i.e. they have vanished
into nothing. Both conclusions are absurd - the first because so
long as any part having magnitude is left the process of division
is not complete; the second because if the parts have vanished
into nothing then the original whole must be composed of nothings.

Aristotle answered Zeno's paradoxes by claiming that the
infinitely small was a potentiality only, not an actuality. But
although this appeals to sensory perception and imagination it is
not acceptable to modern mathematics. (Now however, following the
nineteenth century formulation of the properties of infinite
classes, these problems are no longer looked on as paradoxes.)

It should come as no surprise that the author of Beyond Zork was
"Professor" Brian Moriarty. Well-educated, with an English
Literature degree from Southeastern Massachusetts University, he
has always done extensive research for his adventures and used the
breadth of his knowledge to enhance his work. Just think about the
authenticity of much of the gameworld in Trinity, or of the
characterisation of the Elders of the Weavers in Loom, named as
they are after the three Fates of Greek legend.

Since completing Loom he has been employed in the educational
department of LucasArts Entertainment. Whilst there, however, he
has been formulating his new adventure entitled The Dig. This has
a science fiction scenario and is a collaboration between the
Professor and movie director Steven Spielberg!  It will be more
than a little interesting to see what this forthcoming game is
like. But there is one thing you can be sure of - if Brian
Moriarty is involved it will be impeccably researched and, if you
know where to look, you are almost certain to find some classical,
philosophical or literary reference.

Such detail, virtually hidden from the cursory look of many
players or, regrettably, unrecognisable by most, adds a further
dimension to his work. It is one of the qualities that, for me,
elevates a good adventure into a great one and promotes the
Professor to the top of my list of best adventure writers.

So next time you come across a strange name in an adventure don't
assume that the author has just made it up. Far from being
fictional it may well have considerable meaning - and a little
research on your part might well prove interesting and add to your
breadth of knowledge too.