Off Topic — HabitableZone

Off Topic » in reply to I cannot accept that.

"Snuff out a flame, relight the candle."
nick hoffman — (archived)

No, don't snuff it out.

Take one candle, and bring another up to it.

Light the second from the first.

you now have two flames, from one lineage.* Identical candles**, Identical flames***.

Now - blow one out. Either one.

You still have a candle, a flame.

From the primary lineage.

But was it the original or the copy you snuffed out?

Who will ever know, except the candle itself???

* (We have an emotive link to flame and continuity, perhaps as a race memory from the caveman days when a clan would live or die from the continuity of their fireplace. This lives on today in concepts like the eternal flame that marks fallen warriors, and many other religious and social aspects of flame and fire)

** To avoid any silly nit-picking here, cut the second candle in half to match the accumulated burn time of the original, let both burn for a while to even-up the melting, and don't look too closely at them, so you don't get a distinctive fleck of wax to focus on. Then spin them.

*** Ionised particles in a plasma are, in principle, indistinguishable...

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