Marc, himself, his blogs, and you reading them.
July 08, 2004
Mmmm long talks going over this that and the other, jumping wholes and back about everything and nothing in particular...
We quite unexpectedly ended up with riddles, which is absolutely the kind of mental gaming I crave for. Ah blast now I remember how we got there: jumping in from the mentioning of the prisoner's dilemma and never got to actually talk about it any more :-)
In any case, I was confronted with this (new to me) classic sounding one:
Someone was sentenced to death, but since the king loves riddles, he threw this guy into a room with two doors. One leading to death, one leading to freedom. There are two soldiers, each one guarding one door. One of the guards is a perfect liar, the other one will always tell the truth. The man is allowed to ask one soldier one yes-no question and then has to decide, which door to take. Which one question can he ask to find the door to freedom?
I hope you like it as much as I did.
# Posted by mpo at 12:33 AM | TrackBackDo'h, now I'll have to google for the prisoner's dilemma up all by myself ;)
Posted by: Karel at July 8, 2004 01:45 AMKarel,
Solve it. It isn't that bad, really.
-Brian
Posted by: Brian McCallister at July 8, 2004 05:55 AMJust some t-crossing and i-dotting:
/1/ This riddle is _NOT_ the problem known as the prisoner's dilemma
/2/ Karel: you don't need to google it up since the post has a href to the wikipedia page that talks about it (read up it's a very interesting read)
/3/ Brian: Karel himself was the reckless dude that confronted me with this riddle last night IRL (and he knows the answer) :-)
Posted by: -marc= at July 8, 2004 08:41 AMI think I was a boy when I first heard this riddle, then I found it again in D. Hofstadter's book "Goedel, Escher, Bach". The answer is below.
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Ask any of the two soldiers the following question: "If I were to ask your buddy which one is the door to freedom, what would he reply?", then take the other door.
Posted by: Ugo Cei at July 8, 2004 02:50 PMAh yes, Hofstadter's book was part of those long talks Marc was writing about as well. I had forgotten however that's where the riddle came. I really should pick G,E,B up again sometime.
Posted by: Karel at July 9, 2004 01:25 AM
Fun, thanks =)
Posted by: Brian McCallister at July 8, 2004 01:18 AM