That which cannot be reached or achieved.
"America has been a land of dreams. A land where the aspirations of people from countries cluttered with rich, cumbersome, aristocratic, ideological pasts can reach for what once seemed unattainable. Here they have tried to make dreams come true. Yet now...we are threatened by a new and particularly American menace. It is not the menace of class war, of ideology, of poverty, of disease, of illiteracy, or demagoguery, or of tyranny, though these now plague most of the world. It is the menace of unreality."
-- Daniel J. Boorstin
Yet.
If something is unattainable it is because everyone, for now, has deemed it to be unreachable, unobtainable, or unachievable. No matter how impossible, unrealistic, or implausible the goal may be, things change. More information becomes available, technology advances, attitudes change.
If the game is unwinnable, if victory is unattainable, it doesn't necessarily mean one is defeated. One can lose the battle but still win the war. Time marches on, and Opportunity marches with it, after all.
wishful thinking for
iron noder