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        riddles >> medium >> Don't do what I say, eat!
        
(Message started by: cool_joh on Dec 26^th, 2007, 9:07pm)

Title: Don't do what I say, eat!
Post by cool_joh on Dec 26^th, 2007, 9:07pm

Imagine a guy says to you "DON'T DO WHAT I SAY!". Then he says "EAT!"

What should you do? Eat or not?

Title: Re: Don't do what I say, eat!
Post by towr on Dec 27^th, 2007, 1:39am

Do I have any reason not to ignore whatever he says?
All things being equal, I'd eat when I want to and wouldn't when I don't.

Title: Re: Don't do what I say, eat!
Post by Archae on Dec 27^th, 2007, 1:52am

Drink some bottled water.

Title: Re: Don't do what I say, eat!
Post by tiber13 on Dec 27^th, 2007, 5:07pm

he was neither lying or telling the truth, so do wat you want.

Title: Re: Don't do what I say, eat!
Post by tiber13 on Dec 27^th, 2007, 5:08pm

and noise is physical vibrations, so it must be reworded to "dont do what the impulses to your brain tell you the originated from me"

Title: Re: Don't do what I say, eat!
Post by temporary on Jan 22^nd, 2008, 9:41pm

[hide]A paradox is not a riddle.[/hide]

Title: Re: Don't do what I say, eat!
Post by towr on Jan 23^rd, 2008, 12:46am

on 01/22/08 at 21:41:05, temporary wrote:

[hide]A paradox is not a riddle.[/hide]

Sounds familiar...
However, a paradox is a riddle; in the sense that there is (implicitly) the question of resolving it.

Title: Re: Don't do what I say, eat!
Post by HiddenHeart on Jan 23^rd, 2008, 3:37am

At the first instruction cycle i will process the command "Don't do what I say!" and realize that the speaker says "don't obey my commands given from the next instruction cycle" (because my human language processing program says me to do so :P and i have already processed this instruction!) if i am bound to obey the command of this particular speaker then [hide]I will not Eat[/hide].

Now the question is: Where's the paradox? ???

Title: Re: Don't do what I say, eat!
Post by sad_clown on Jan 23^rd, 2008, 3:45am

[hide]if (status==eating)
{
continue;
}
else if(status==hungry && food==ok)
{
eat();
}
else
{
dont_eat();
}
// the person's screaming is a bit annoying![/hide]

Title: Re: Don't do what I say, eat!
Post by Optimus Prime on Jan 23^rd, 2008, 4:15am

@ HiddenHeart:
When a person says "I am lying" or "This statement is false", then it is a paradox. For more of this kind of paradox, see:
http://brainden.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=204

That is there is no use of saying "i have already processed this instruction". "what I say" is present simple and so it means to all what I said, what I am saying and what I will say.
Therefore, "if i am bound to obey the command of this particular speaker", then when he says not to do what he says, then he is saying me to do negative of "don't do". This is the paradox.

Title: Re: Don't do what I say, eat!
Post by towr on Jan 23^rd, 2008, 4:22am

Well, going down that road; you can do what he said, rather than what he says. So when he says "eat", wait till he has said it, and then you can do it. :P

Title: Re: Don't do what I say, eat!
Post by HiddenHeart on Jan 23^rd, 2008, 4:41am

on 01/23/08 at 04:15:02, Optimus Prime wrote:

Ok,
"This statement is false" is a single statement which i process in one instruction cycle and get a paradox.

but "Don't do what I say, eat!" here we have two instructions where the first instruction indicates(or modifies the method) how to process father instructions from this instructor. I take it this way because i cannot undo what i have done already according to this instructor's command!
and i don't find any paradox here!!:P

so when i process the first instruction
1. i check whether this person is my administrator.
2. i don't do what he tells me to do from the next instruction cycle (note that i don't do the opposite of his commands)
3. This person has his other privileges. just i don't obey him anymore. (that i eat if i am hungry, his commands don't affect me anymore)

so, even a machine with this logic will not hang itself and someone will use him instead of an Optimus Prime ;) (i mean the robot, no hard feelings:P)

Title: Re: Don't do what I say, eat!
Post by temporary on Jan 23^rd, 2008, 5:51pm

[hide]It's like saying to flip a coin to determine what the coin will land on, heads:it lands on tails, tails:it lands on heads. I will one day solve paradoxes, but not until after the end of the world.[/hide]