What does the terms “turtles all the way down” and “infinite regress” mean?
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The phrase “turtles all the way down” comes from the ancient myth that the world is carried on the back of a turtle. This may raise the question of what *the turtle* is supported by. The phrase suggests that the turtle itself is on another turtle, which is on another, ad infinitum, *all the way down*. This idea doesn’t come from any myths, it’s just an illustrative expression.
Infinite regress is a general term for such situations, where there is no satisfying ultimate cause, every answer raises another question (in this specific example, the question of “what does THAT turtle rest on?”)
Basically that almost everything has a foundation, and that one thing leads to another.
The original quote is supposedly from an astronomer who was confronted by a woman that claimed the earth existed on the back of a giant turtle, and when asked what was underneath it, responded another turtle, ie “its turtles all the way down”.
So generally if we ask why X, its Y, but then we ask… well why Y, and its Z, and so on.
Turtles all the way down is from the turtle island myth, where they said the land is on the back of a turtle.
The natural question is: what is the turtle standing on?
The reply was, of course, on the back of another turtle.
That turtle on another turtle, on another turtle. “it’s turtles all the way down”.
The trope was extended to anything that failed to fully explain something. God created the universe, who created God? Another God? Then it’s just turtles again.
Its coming up recently because of chatgpt. What happens if the input of a language model is from itself? You wind up with turtles.
Regress means really the same thing. Turtles on turtles
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