Wednesday 28 January 2009

To the Queen of Elsewhere

Does elsewhere mean everywhere else? Like the old logical puzzle: you meet twins where the road forks, and one always lies, and one always tells the truth. The former twin has the much harder task; because the lie is always more fertile than the truth. If you happen (unable to tell them apart) to ask the truth-twin ‘which is the right way’ he will point down the correct road; but ask the other, and he will have to decide: ‘should I point down the wrong fork, or—to be the truer liar—should I point down both the wrong fork and back along the road the traveler has come? That’s not a question that admits of easy resolution.

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