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Topic: Nice to meet you (Read 780 times) |
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Uberpuzzler
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Nice to meet you
« on: Sep 23rd, 2003, 11:17pm » |
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Mr. Jones goes to a big cocktail party. He talks to only one person the whole time he is there. The following day he receives calls, telegrams, and email from everyone who was at the party saying what a pleasure it was to meet him. What happened?
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They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety. <Ben Franklin>
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BNC
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Re: Nice to meet you
« Reply #1 on: Sep 24th, 2003, 2:16am » |
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Maybe Jones was interviewed, so everyone "met" him virtually.
Or, he's a mime, and not talking doesn't interfere with his social skils.
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| « Last Edit: Sep 24th, 2003, 2:17am by BNC » |
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How about supercalifragilisticexpialidociouspuzzler [Towr, 2007]
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mistysakura
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Re: Nice to meet you
« Reply #2 on: Sep 24th, 2003, 4:45am » |
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After BNC's guess, ventriloquist?
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Speaker
Uberpuzzler
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Re: Nice to meet you
« Reply #3 on: Sep 24th, 2003, 5:36pm » |
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Nothing so technical or artistic. It is something that might occur at any cocktail party in the last 100 years.
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They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety. <Ben Franklin>
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SWF
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Re: Nice to meet you
« Reply #4 on: Sep 24th, 2003, 7:41pm » |
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:Mr. Jones does not speak the same language as anyone else in the room except for one: a translator.
Or, only one person at the party was not deaf. He communicated with the others without talking.
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Speaker
Uberpuzzler
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Re: Nice to meet you
« Reply #5 on: Sep 24th, 2003, 7:43pm » |
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Your first answer is the one I had in mind.
The other seems to fit the riddle also.
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They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety. <Ben Franklin>
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BNC
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Re: Nice to meet you
« Reply #6 on: Sep 25th, 2003, 12:14am » |
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Speaker, I don't agree that's an appropriate answer.
When to talk to a friend on the phone, do you then say you talked to the phone or to your friend?
Or to make it more specific to this case: say you and I were to meet the the upcoming "Wu riddlers' convention", where you found I don't speak a word of English (or any other common language for that matter), so I have a translator -- a certain mr. Smith.
You and I discussed some riddles, with Smith translating. Then, someone would ask you -- whom did you talk to? Would you say "BNC's translator" or "BNC"?
What I'm trying to say is that the translator is just a (very sophisticated) instrument by which we talk until someone will discover the babel fish. Mr. Jones was talking to the other guests in the party. The translator only made sure they understood him.
And that's why I think SWF's 2nd suggestion is better.
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How about supercalifragilisticexpialidociouspuzzler [Towr, 2007]
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Speaker
Uberpuzzler
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Re: Nice to meet you
« Reply #7 on: Sep 25th, 2003, 12:22am » |
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Well, I disagree.
You certainly communicate with the other people, and that is why everyone agrees that they met. But, you only talk to the translator. The translator then talks to the other people. The other people then talk to the translator and the translator then talks to you.
So there. 
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They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety. <Ben Franklin>
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SWF
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Re: Nice to meet you
« Reply #8 on: Sep 28th, 2003, 12:02pm » |
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I would hate to discredit my own solution which was already accepted as correct, but I agree with BNC. When talking through a translator to another person, it is probably more common to direct one's words toward the recipient of the translations rather than to the translator. I almost did not propose that solution for this reason. Depends on what you mean by "talk to".
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Speaker
Uberpuzzler
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Re: Nice to meet you
« Reply #9 on: Sep 28th, 2003, 5:55pm » |
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Well, as I already accepted your alternative answer, making the point moot, and that I should not need to defend my answer as it is fine, because it is the one I chose. Here goes.
Indeed the question depends on what you mean by "Talk to."
When having a dialogue through sign language the participants are also going to say they were talking. Of course when pressed to be more specific they may mention that they were talking in sign language, but they are still talking. Then, if given a leading question, they may state simply that they were "signing."
If we accept this reasoning, then we might also say that the people at the cocktail party were not talking, but were in fact speaking. And, that is how they avoided talking.
When we see heads of state speaking on stage with interpretors seated surreptiously behind them, they will appear to be talking directly to each other. However, this is the exception to the rule, and it is in every meaning of the word; "staged."
Interpretation more commonly occurs in a triangular formation with the conversation being conveyed along two sides and around one corner. A speaker looking at the translator when speaking, then looking at the other party to listen to their answer, then back again to listen to the answer provided by the translator. This would be even more the case were the milieu to be that of a cocktail party. Maybe my point is not the need to define "talk" so much as it is the need to define "to."
But, again everyone, at the party, would admit that they had been talking. My use of this word in the riddle itself may have been misleading. But then we are back to definitions.
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They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety. <Ben Franklin>
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