I was recently reading a great thriller and I was inspired by one of the chapters – “The Dead End”. The main character crossed his path with a psychopath suicide bomber and the psycho told:
If what you say is a lie, I will press the button and blow the bomb. On the other hand if what you say is a truth, I will detonate the bomb via the wires.
What should he say in order to get out of this ridiculous situation without bomb explosion?
The Dead End Puzzle
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Some may consider that if the main character stand stool and said nothing – that is a possible solution. But what if the bomb has a detonator anyway?
Another possible solution is to ask the psycho a question (this way we are going to avoid the lie and truth factor), but if he considers that as a cheat – he is going to push the button/ cross the wires.
We should construct such sentence – neither lie, neither true. The best and shortest solution I have found so far is using the Russel Paradox schematic. What if the main character says to the psycho – “I lie.” (“I am lying.”). If he is saying the truth, then he is a truth teller and sentence like “I lie.” is contradiction. On the other hand if he is lying then “I lie” is false statement, therefore he is a truth teller and again we meet a contradiction. We can continue like that forever and we are not able to determine is this sentence is true or a lie. So this will really perplex the suicide bomber and we can avoid the damage for sure.
I also used a paradox for my answer, but slightly different:
If what you say is a lie, I will press the button and blow the bomb. On the other hand if what you say is a truth, I will detonate the bomb via the wires.
So, what if I were to say "you will press the button"? If it's viewed as a truth, he will use the wires, thus making it a lie. However, if it's a lie, he will use the button, making it a truth.