Outcomes

 

Impossible

But the world is full of zanies and fools
Who don't believe in sensible rules
And won't believe what sensible people say
And because these daft and dewy eyed dopes keep building up impossible hopes
Impossible things are happening every day\

There is a difference between impossible and improbable.

Improbable means that there is only one outcome, or a few outcomes, out of the myriad of outcomes that could happen.  Impossible means that there is NO  outcome.  The problem is when the number of outcomes gets very large, or the popular wisdom rules out certain outcomes as impossible, people confuse impossible with improbable.

Automatic sliding doors that detect the approach of a person who wishes to use that door, did not exist at the time of the production of the original Star Trek TV series.  To appear futuristic, the doors on the StarShip Enterprise appeared to open automatically.  In reality, this was a practical visual special effect where an off-screen stagehand pulled the door open when an actor approached.  Automatic door opening was an improbable outcome in 1966, not an impossible outcome.  Now most retail stores have automatic doors, sliding or folding, and what seemed improbable in 1966, has become so possible that it is common place.  Before 1969, a man walking on the moon might have seemed an impossible outcome, but now we know that it was merely an improbable outcome.

Impossible things can never happen.  But many improbable things are often incorrectly characterized as impossible.