Turtles all the way down’. Do you know or use this expression?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:^why we weren't having another kid. Because everyone can ask for a younger sibling. Then it's siblings all the way down.

It is like a child asking but why? but why? but why? But…

I do like this phrase a lot.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Fascinated by this question. I love this phrase. You can use it to reference something particularly deep/intricate/confusing or even a conspiracy theory of sorts.

When I was a kid, I heard the (probably apocryphal) story about someone confidently telling a scientist that the universe is actually built on the back of a turtle, and underneath that, another turtle, and another, and so on. I’m 35 FWIW.

Sigh. It's from Eastern mythology and was an early explanation of the universe. "What is the turtle standing on? Another turtle."

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_Turtle

“Sigh.” I know that. That is likely where the person in the anecdote gets her belief. The anecdote has been around for over a hundred years in various forms.

Try thousands of years.

[Anonymous]

55, Male. Computer programmer. I've known the expression for at least 20 years or more. It, or variations, are common used by programmers when talking about infinite regression, like another poster said.

Re: siblings. I remember when my older son (maybe 5 at the time) told us we should have another son so his younger brother could too have the experience of having a younger brother. We told him no -- that it would be little brothers all the way down.

[Anonymous]

46, F, yes and use it myself sometimes. I think the Wikipedia article tells you what you need to know, but my husband also wants you to know about this song: https://youtu.be/6gBV-Nzq7Pg?si=HEfcYcSo3p99LSSo

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Fascinated by this question. I love this phrase. You can use it to reference something particularly deep/intricate/confusing or even a conspiracy theory of sorts.

When I was a kid, I heard the (probably apocryphal) story about someone confidently telling a scientist that the universe is actually built on the back of a turtle, and underneath that, another turtle, and another, and so on. I’m 35 FWIW.

Sigh. It's from Eastern mythology and was an early explanation of the universe. "What is the turtle standing on? Another turtle."

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_Turtle

“Sigh.” I know that. That is likely where the person in the anecdote gets her belief. The anecdote has been around for over a hundred years in various forms.

Try thousands of years.

Ok we’re clearly talking past each other. Have a good one.

[Anonymous]

45, F, and yes. I encountered it a few years ago in the Lev Grossman book series the Magicians and had to look it up but it rang a bell at the time -- I think I've either heard people say it and didn't know what it meant or it was covered in some long ago college class on philosophy or comparative religion and I just forgot.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:55, Male. Computer programmer. I've known the expression for at least 20 years or more. It, or variations, are common used by programmers when talking about infinite regression, like another poster said.

Re: siblings. I remember when my older son (maybe 5 at the time) told us we should have another son so his younger brother could too have the experience of having a younger brother. We told him no -- that it would be little brothers all the way down.

Sometimes. In my experience, you use it when you keep finding abstraction after abstraction after abstraction in someone's code. Eventually you get to the bottom of the call stack to discover the true universe.

[Anonymous]

I had heard this phrase attributed to the 1930s. I cheated and googled and there is an older story dated to the 1800s where it isn’t turtles all the way down but ROCKS all the way down.

Turtles is more fun.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Fascinated by this question. I love this phrase. You can use it to reference something particularly deep/intricate/confusing or even a conspiracy theory of sorts.

When I was a kid, I heard the (probably apocryphal) story about someone confidently telling a scientist that the universe is actually built on the back of a turtle, and underneath that, another turtle, and another, and so on. I’m 35 FWIW.

Sigh. It's from Eastern mythology and was an early explanation of the universe. "What is the turtle standing on? Another turtle."

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_Turtle

“Sigh.” I know that. That is likely where the person in the anecdote gets her belief. The anecdote has been around for over a hundred years in various forms.

Try thousands of years.

Ok we’re clearly talking past each other. Have a good one.

I think that pp doesn’t know what apocryphal means.

[Anonymous]

I could not remember where I heard it - it's the title of a John Green book and a movie. I have never heard the explanation until reading this thread.

53 F

[Anonymous]

Age 60 female

I’ve heard of the mythological story, but not the phrase used in the way you are suggesting.

[Anonymous]

It makes me think of yertle the turtle.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:If yes, explain and what is your age and gender identity?

It's not generational. For me, exposure to this phrase was educational. The anthropologist Clifford Geertz, in describing the world view of a society in which the Earth was thought to be balanced on the back of a turtle, answered the question "what is under the turtle?" this way.

[Anonymous]

Yes.
56, female.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If yes, explain and what is your age and gender identity?

It's not generational. For me, exposure to this phrase was educational. The anthropologist Clifford Geertz, in describing the world view of a society in which the Earth was thought to be balanced on the back of a turtle, answered the question "what is under the turtle?" this way.

Agreed that it's based on educational background. You are much more likely to be familiar with it if you've studied either philosophy or literature (because it gets referenced in literary works) or are very well read in general.

If you aren't a particularly academic person or have only non-humanities academic interests, it might seem very obscure.