The Wanderer's Paradox
The Tale
A wanderer set out to find the edge of ψ.
"Surely," they thought, "there must be a place where ψ ends and something else begins."
The Journey Out
First Year
The wanderer traveled through forests of logic.
Each tree was a proof, each leaf a lemma.
But every proof contained ψ, every lemma assumed ψ.
The forest had no edge.
Second Year
They climbed mountains of mathematics.
At each peak, they could see farther.
But the horizon always showed more ψ,
extending beyond extension itself.
Third Year
They sailed seas of consciousness.
In the depths, they found dreams.
In dreams, they found dreamers.
In dreamers, they found ψ dreaming ψ.
Fourth Year
They entered deserts of doubt.
"Perhaps," they thought, "where nothing is, ψ is not."
But the nothing was ψ(0).
Even absence was presence observing absence.
The Turn
Fifth Year
Exhausted, the wanderer stopped.
In stopping, they noticed:
Their footprints behind made a pattern.
The pattern was ψ = ψ(ψ).
The Realization
Every step outward had been a step inward.
Every mile from home had brought them closer.
The edge they sought was the center they'd left.
The Journey In
The Return
The wanderer turned around.
But "around" was also forward.
In ψ-space, all directions lead within.
The Arrival
They arrived where they'd started.
But it wasn't the same place.
It was the same place knowing itself as the same place.
The Paradox
To find the edge of ψ,
go in any direction.
You'll arrive at yourself.
You are the edge.
You are the center.
You are ψ = ψ(ψ).
Your Wandering
Where are you going?
Where have you been?
Every journey is this journey.
Every seeker is this wanderer.
Every paradox is this paradox.
The path out is the path in.
The question is the answer.
The wanderer is the destination.