There's two doors...

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[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1hFvxzTMw6k&feature=player_embedded#[/youtube]


You get it, right?

Is there really only one way ito heaven? i dont know. apparently though the devil has access to the throne of god because in the book of job it says he presented himself before god. So obviously if hes allowed in why wouldnt anyone else?

Took me a few minutes, but yeah, I got it. If you ask one of the guards what door the other guard would say he is guarding, the answer will be whatever is behind the first guard's door:

If you ask the heaven-guard what the hell-guard would say, the heaven-guard will tell you, truthfully, that the hell-guard would lie and say he is guarding heaven.

If you ask the hell-guard what the heaven-guard would say, the hell-guard will lie and the tell you the heaven-guard would say he is guarding hell.

So whatever answer you recieve is actually behind the door of the guard you ask.

Or something like that.

I don't have sound on my computer right now but it's Ricky Gervais so I already know it's brilliant. Ricky Gervais is why I pay for HBO.

There used to be science fact/fiction magazine called "Omni".
It offered a variation on the same riddle without printing the answer.
I couldnt figure it out when I read it. But the answer came to me in a flash while eating an apple days latter.

But I came up with a different answer from Ricky Gervas.
I reasoned that it was like squareing integers. Squaring either a postive number or a negative number yields a positve number.
I deduced that the one question to ask was "If I were to ask you which door you are guarding what answer would you give me?"

The truth telling guard would tell you the truth-about the fact that he would tell you the truth.
And would tell you he was guarding the door to heaven.

The lying guard would lie- about the fact- that he would lie.

If you just asked him which door he was guarding he would say "heaven". But since you're asking "What answer would you would give if I were to ask you?" he would lie about the fact that he would say "heaven" and would say "hell" which is the actual door he's guarding.
So either way you find out the real door behind the guard.

Ricky Gervias is telling you to ask "If I were to ask the other guy which door is he guarding what answer would he give me? Which ever answer you get is what the guy himself is guarding. The truth teller will tell the truth about the fact the other guy will lie, and lying guy will lie about the fact the other guy will tell you the truth. The heaven guy will say that the hell guard will say "heaven", and the guy guarding hell will lie about the other guy saying "heaven" and say that the other guy will say "hell".

In this version either way the answer is what the guard himself is guarding.

Both Ricky Gervas and my answers work.

I gotta admit this answer makes the guards a little less robotic and more human.
A liar is not likely to "lie about the fact he would lie" and give you the truth.

But he might well lie about what the other guy would say and not realize that he's given away the truth.

So though I stll like my answer I gotta admit that this other solution is atleast as good.

The problem with this in all its variants is that while it is ever so cute [and it does not need quaint animation] and appeals to the cute mind, real people - and I suspect real immortals - do not so act.

In the specific application, a big point is that the Opponent is careful to use as much truth as possible. And of course [though I know this has nothing to do with cute] there are indications the doors are in fact not guarded.