Aliens have taken you aboard their ship. You will be asked to make a statement. If the statement is true you will be blasted into atoms. If it is false you will be ejected into space. One statement can get you out alive. What is it and how does it spare you?

The individual must request the aliens that he should be ejected into space.

Now, if the individual is indeed ejected into space the statement is false, so that to make the statement true he must be blasted into atoms.

However, taking the "atoms" option implies that the statement made by the individual was true at the outset, which is a contradiction.

This would generate a paradox, which the aliens will be unable to resolve, forcing them to release the individual.

 

Edited on August 20, 2007, 12:55 pm

Posted by K Sengupta on 2007-08-20 12:54:07