When a boat disappears over the horizon, does a distant observer detect the last moment in which the boat is visible, or the first moment in which the boat is not visible? This apparently ludicrous way of reasoning, heritage of long-lasting medieval debates on decision limit problems, paves the way to sophisticated contemporary debates concerning the methodological core of mathematics, physics and biology. These ancient, logically-framed conundrums throw us into the realm of bounded objects with fuzzy edges, where our mind fails to provide responses to plain questions such as: given a closed curve with a boundary (say, a cellular membrane) how do you recognize what is internal and what is external? We show how the choice of an alternative instead of another is not arbitrary, rather points towards entirely different ontological, philosophical and physical commitments. This paves the way to novel interpretations and operational approaches to challenging issues such as black hole singularities, continuous time in quantum dynamics, chaotic nonlinear paths, logarithmic plots, demarcation of living beings. In the sceptical reign where judgements seem to be suspended forever, the contemporary scientist stands for a sort of God equipped with infinite power who is utterly free to dictate the rules of the experimental settings.

当一艘船消失在地平线上时，远处的观察者是在看到船的最后时刻还是看不见船的第一时刻？这种看似荒谬的推理方式，是中世纪关于决策极限问题的长期辩论的遗产，为当代关于数学、物理学和生物学方法论核心的复杂辩论铺平了道路。这些古老的、逻辑框架的难题将我们带入边缘模糊的有界物体领域，我们的大脑无法对简单的问题做出回应，例如：给定一条带有边界的闭合曲线（例如，细胞膜），你如何识别什么是内部，什么是外部？我们展示了如何选择替代而不是另一个不是任意的，而是指向完全不同的本体论，哲学和物质上的承诺。这为新的解释和操作方法铺平了道路，以解决诸如黑洞奇点、量子动力学中的连续时间、混沌非线性路径、对数图、生物分界等具有挑战性的问题。在判断似乎永远暂停的怀疑主义统治下，当代科学家代表着一种拥有无限力量的上帝，他完全可以自由地决定实验环境的规则。