My work tried to get cute the other day – throw out a little quiz to the peons and figure out which of the monkeys are starting to think for themselves (at which point they’ll become management or trimmed from the tree). The what of the quiz is not important; the hub of this blog lies in the answer key.
After completing the quiz I patiently waited for the answer key to arrive; and then it did (very anticlimactic).
While making my way through the answers (I couldn’t remember what I’d actually popped in for the answers on the quiz by the time the answer key showed up and they didn’t actually grade me, so I’m a little unsure as to how I actually did on it) I came across #13. For the sake of not boring you to death I’m not going to recreate the question. The crux of this lies in the last two possible answers and the actual answer.
1) Here is where the question was.
a) Here is where the first answer was
b) Here is where the second answer was
c) Here is where the third answer was
d) Here is where the fourth answer was
e) None of the above
f) All of the above.
And the answer, was f) - all of the above. And that’s when my mental trouble started.
If all of the above is all of the above, all of the above includes none of the above. If all of the above is inclusive of none of the above then we’ve got ourselves a feedback loop. If they’d put none of the above below all of the above, there wouldn’t a problem – or if the first option was “none of the above” then there wouldn’t be anything above none of the above so all of the above would still be alright. Above all, none of the above should not be above all of the above because the presence of none of the above negates all of the above; when you select all of the above you are also selecting none of the above; one of the de facto rules of things are that they cannot be something and nothing at the same time.
They have essentially created an unsolvable riddle – and if anyone ever comes up with a logical solution one of the following will happen:
a) the world will end,
b) there will be plagues
c) Pets will talk
d) Blueberries will no longer be called blueberries but Rise and Shiners
e) All of the above.
f) None of the Above
3 comments:
I vote for D because flowers are pretty.
Reminds me of the unsolvable riddle that Bilbo had to give to Gollum to steal the ring... or maybe you could have just said 42... otherwise, I am with you...a paradox has been attained and possibly a parallel world created.... wonder what the Doctor would say about this...
What has he got in his pocketses.... filthy hobbitses.
Speaking of hobbits - congrats on wee Paige!
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