puzzle!

[nibot]

[Poll #1480868]
[from scientific american via cosmic variance]

Comments

[aepfelx.livejournal.com]

contingent on all three parties qualifying as "persons"...

[eigenvalue.livejournal.com]

I don't get the point of this.

[jcreed.livejournal.com]

So then a constructive logician is someone polite enough not to ask Anne whether she's married? :)

[roxymartini.livejournal.com]

why did most people answer 'yes'?
i don't get it either.

[shephi.livejournal.com]

J (married) -> A (married or not married) -> G (not married), where -> means "is looking at"

So there are two possibilities:
1. J (married) -> A (married) -> G (not married)
2. J (married) -> A (not married) -> G (not married)

Either way there is a married directly before a not married, meaning they are looking at an unmarried person.

[roxymartini.livejournal.com]

but what if Anne is a Newfoundland dog? surely she could still be looking and looked at. and some might argue she's a person, but whether or not that's true was not given.

[shephi.livejournal.com]

that's also a solution if you assume dogs aren't people too

I'm either the best lawyer, or the worst.

[caerglas.livejournal.com]

I've been following the legal LGBT marriage arguments for so long I automatically slipped into legalese. I figured that (1) since marriage is a legal status, (2) Anne could easily be a total lesbo and married to a lesbo, and (3) since the validity of marriages is up in the air at present (among the states/federal government), that without knowing the specifics of Anne's marriage I couldn't really answer the question.

Like for my chums C&H, we all think they're married, but the state & fed gov't won't recognize this unholy matrimony. Then there's T&K, who CA believes are married, but most of the other states won't recognize their marriage when they drive/fly through, nor will the federal gov't.

So I figured it cannot be determined without figuring out whether marriage was an "either/or" thing, rather than "it depends on where you are and who you ask" thing.

But yeah. I can totally see that the answer otherwise would be yes, if marriage was an 'either/or' thing.

Re: I'm either the best lawyer, or the worst.

[metamouse.livejournal.com]

Somebody needs to sell wedding rings with embedded GPS and LEDS which glow when you're standing in a state in which your marriage is recognized.