eli5: What is the bootstrap Paradox?
In: 361
In addition to the time travel answer, it also has practical answers.
A PC, when you first start it, doesn’t know how to read instructions, because it can’t read the instructions on how to read instructions. It’s like if someone handed a child a book on “how to read”, the child would be like “???”. Just like you can’t pull yourself up on your own boot straps to fly, you can’t teach yourself knowledge you don’t have.
That’s why we have the Bootloader. It *forces* some basic knowledge into the PC after it has been *booted* up, so it can read the rest of it’s instructions. It “bootstraps” the PC, which is also the origin of the phrase “to boot a PC”.
Latest Answers