There's this town with two blacksmiths - one, a swordsmaker and the other, a shield maker. The swordsmaker's swords can slice through anything as a rule and the other guy's shields cannot be destroyed. Now they get cut up with each other for some reason and pit their wares against each other. What do you expect happens?

This seems to be a variation on the theme of "What happens when an irresistable force meets an immovable object?"

If the swords can slice through anything, then nothing can exist in the universe which cannot be sliced, so the shieldmaker cannot make his indestructable shields.

Likewise, if the shieldmaker's shields are indestructable, swords that slice through anything cannot exist, because the shields prove otherwise.

Since the possiblity of one negates the existance of the other, if the two were to be pitted against each other, the universe would vanish in a puff of logic and be replaced by something even more bizarre and inexplicable (with credit to Douglas Adams).

Posted by Ender on 2003-03-17 07:35:14