Can we undertake the Impossible?

I bet some Shamans did think of it and perhaps even perceived that they did.

 

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There's a difference in what is being claimed between "it is impossible to go to the moon" and the qualified "it is impossible to go to the moon... with just a bit of paper (aka inadequate technology)".

 

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There's a difference between impossible and impracticable.

 

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"the impossible" is a moving target.

 

I disagree: either something is impossible or it is not.
If it is impossible it can not be done.
If it is possible but not achieved then it is because it has not been attempted in the right way, or with the right things etc.

I would say that the impossible is an absolute - one merely has to understand exactly what is being considered impossible when the term is used.

Perhaps you could given an example of when "the impossible" moves?

 

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Perhaps you would care to elaborate?

 

Clearly we can attempt to achieve many goals that are impossible for us to achieve, whether impossible in principle or impossible due to our current circumstances.

But the idea of undertaking to acomplish something does seem to suggest that we know how to begin, that we have some idea of a method or procedure that leads us where we want to go. Undertaking a task suggests taking the first steps towards accomplishing it. Undertaking is different from desiring that something be done and different from resolving to do it ourselves (sometime).

Sarkus' idea of counting to ten to the twentieth is an example of something that can easily be undertaken, since we all know how to begin counting (1,2,3...) which provides us with the initial steps towards getting to our destination, as unreachable as it might be in practice.

This suggests that it might be impossible to undertake tasks where we have no idea how to to proceed, no idea of the first step to take.

 

or:
It is impossible to know what is impossible.

for homo-sapiens-sapiens:
The only constant is change.

Pure speculation: (I suspect that we have a series of psychological limits built into our hard wiring which preclude change in some directions while fostering change in other directions)

Then can the manifestations of future change be estimated?

It would seem that certain science fictions have tapped into the likely direction of change, and by creating a niche where today's impossible seems ordinary, create the framework for eventual change to remove the fiction from previous "science fiction".

What man can conceive, man can achieve.
Within limits?
if so
Can the limits be delineated?

 

It reminds me of my house renovation. My builder says to me anything is possible. It's just a matter of money.

 

Perhaps you should check your facts before posting. Here are example stories envisaging a trip to the moon, prior to 1700 A.D. There are others much earlier.

• Somnium (1541) by Juan Maldonado.
• The Dream (Somnium) (1634) by Johannes Kepler (written before 1610, but not published during Kepler's life). An Icelandic voyager is transported to the Moon by aërial demons; an occasion for Kepler to offer some of his astronomical theories in the guise of fiction.
• The Man in the Moone (1638) by Francis Godwin. A Spaniard flies to the Moon using a contraption pulled by geese.
• The Discovery of a World in the Moone, or a discourse tending to prove that 'tis probable there may be another habitable world in that planet. (1638) by John Wilkins.
• Voyage dans la Lune (1657) by Cyrano de Bergerac, inspired by Godwin.[4] Cyrano is launched toward the moon by fireworks

Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moon_in_fiction#Early_stories

 

And the Chinese have a legend going back to, according some sources, 3,000 BC [1] about travelling to the Moon.
https://books.google.co.uk/books?id...AA#v=onepage&q=rising dew travel moon&f=false

1 Other sources give 2,000 BC and 16th century.

 

Speaking about doing the impossible....... we've just found out how to unboil eggs. http://www.thenakedscientists.com/HTML/news/news/1000633/

 

I did not open, but bet it tells you to feed them to chickens.

I came here to tell that I did undertake the impossible when young. Like many, I had a few very realistic dreams where I was flying - over trees and houses etc. just with arms outstretched and waving. A few days after one, I went to small slope where no one would see me, ran half way down it, waving my arms - even a small jump at the end did not get me any extra air time. - I certainly did "undertake the impossible."

 

Whatever is or is not allowed for, or not forbidden by the laws of physics and GR......Given sufficient time.

 

and, perhaps, another evolutionary step