"Turtles all the way down" refers to an infinite regression belief about cosmology and the nature of the universe. It is a modern retelling of ancient beliefs that the world is borne through the universe on the back of one or more enormous animals (such as a turtle in Native American creation myth),[1] though these myths do not normally include an infinity aspect or multiple/endless layers of animals.
Origin
The most widely known version appears in Stephen Hawking's 1988 book A Brief History of Time, which starts:
| “ | A well-known scientist (some say it was Bertrand Russell) once gave a public lecture on astronomy. He described how the earth orbits around the sun and how the sun, in turn, orbits around the center of a vast collection of stars called our galaxy. At the end of the lecture, a little old lady at the back of the room got up and said: "What you have told us is rubbish. The world is really a flat plate supported on the back of a giant tortoise." The scientist gave a superior smile before replying, "What is the tortoise standing on?" "You're very clever, young man, very clever," said the old lady. "But it's turtles all the way down!"[2] | ” |
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