Re: RAT Sarah Kane

[Mark Savage <savagela@idt.net>]

NashGay@aol.com wrote:

> Okay, Goddamnit!  Am I an idiot or is Anonymous?
> -r

> << "The Barber shaves all and only those who do not shave themselves.
>  If he does, he doesn't. If he doesn't, he does."
> 
>  -Anonymous >>



I'll take this one...

Anonymous spends time on the newsgroup Rec.Puzzles. It's a classic
recursive paradox:

The Barber Shaves All
AND
The Barber Shaves only those who do not shave themselves:

THEREFORE

IF the Barber DOES Shave ALL (Including himself) He DOESN'T Shave only
those who do not shave themselves. 

and 

IF the Barber DOESN'T shave ALL (by excluding himself) He DOES shave
only those who do not shave themselves

It's the 'himself' part that makes it a recursive paradox. 

Kind of stupid, but I think that Wittgenstein used it to prove that
there can never be a complete system of mathematics that doesn't include
a contradiction. Something like that.

You feel like an idiot because the wording is so vague, but that's what
puzzlers do to torture each other. Cute, huh?

Mark Savage
Playwright, LA