Paradox Die

thingiverse

This useless artifact appeared in my hand in a dream, and I've tried to recreate it. It is a die that defeats its own purpose. Every side is the same. Ideally, every side should be indistinguishable from every other side, but the paint smudged a little as you can see in the picture. Each face is subdivided into the numbers 1 through 6. The total number of dots per side is 21, but that's just incidental. A normal die is supposed to collapse from an undetermined state to a determined state. When you shake it in your cupped hands it is undetermined. When it lands on the table, it rolls, say, a 5, and then the state is determined. But this die never arrives at a determined state. It is like Schrodinger's cat-box scenario where you NEVER get to open the box to see if the cat is alive or dead. The dream may have been taunting my idea of "free will" by implying that we live in a strict deterministic universe. However, it's more likely driving at one of my fears as a child: the fear that there could be intrinsic properties of the universe which we may NEVER know. Contemplating Russell's Paradox can lead to some interesting mathematical conclusions about things we can never prove. Custom Section Preparation: Orientation and Scaling If you print 50A (flat), then the top and bottom would be distinguishable from the sides, so the die will not work. You could roll it for a 1/3 chance of getting a side you could distinguish from the others. Therefore, it's best to print with the "poles" facing up and down. Use 50B and choose support material or use 50C, which produces a customized "scaffold" that pulls right off. You can use a file or sandpaper to remove the little nubs from the stand and hide the evidence of which corner it was. I used a scaling factor of 5 and a layer height of 0.1mm to make the scaffold work. If I design a better scaffold I'll upload more files. I used regular acrylic paint with a small paintbrush.