Hi Lehel,

Just found out about this cool questions section on your blog. Maybe you have an answer to the question above. Will life end in an endless loop? Will Pinocchio survive? Is there an answer to it at all?

Thanks for taking your time!

Best,
Alex

Dear Alex,

Thank you for your question, I will give you my answer for your consideration.

The short answer: His nose is growing and his nose is not growing at the same time. As a matter of fact it would have grown and not grown in the same time even if he would have never said anything. But Pinocchio the “observer” will have his focused consciousness in only one of those two realities. The one he willingly or unwillingly chose.

The Long answer:
Take seat, bring some beer this will take some time.
1. We must go higher
It is not uncommon that a problem is (or seems) impossible to solve, including the Pinocchio problem. We meet these kind of problems every day in high level math an physics when we try to model our universe. Before we go into the universe let’s just look at another example.
Take these 6 pieces of matches-> |||||| put them on your desk, and make 4 triangles with them, the rule is that the matches can only touch at their ends, meaning no crossing each other. Go get the matches an try it out for one minute.. I will wait.
…
OK so you probably didn’t try it out but I URGE you to at least get the matches and put them on you table. You will realize that you can only solve this problem if you leave the “plain” of your desk and form a Tetrahedron, holding the matches together at the top. This is what mathematicians do many times, if there is no solution they you just go and increase the dimension in which the problem is defined. I think currently we are in the 11’th dimension while trying to model our universe at the CERN.

2. Let’s understand the higher dimension
Skip this step if you already know the wave/particle duality of our not so solid world. I would actually like to spend all day on this but I think it will be faster for you if you just go and watch this video (~26 minutes):

3. Reality is boiling
ONLY continue reading if you watched the video. Basically speaking matter and wave are the same, in the sense that they are two different states of the same energy. Quarks in the sub atomic level tend to “act” as waves when there is no observer and act as matter when there is. The observer is the one who collapses this hazy wave state into “solid” reality. Hoverer in the solid reality there can be only one outcome, the one the observer focuses on will either happen or not, reality is somewhat like the steamy surface of boiling water in a pot.

In that moment of “now” Pinocchio’s nose is growing and not growing, actually it was doing so even before he thought of saying anything, Before he says anything he’s consciousness chose to be in the “condensed” steam of reality of not growing. What he believes in the “now” will not necessarily influence the outcome, but the reality he’s consciousness will continue to have.

As Judit told me: When you have a  lottery scratcher, in your hand, you are at the same time both a winner and not, until you scratch it. :)

Thanks,
Lehel