| A remote island has exactly 100 inhabitants. Some have blue eyes, some do not. There are no reflective surfaces on the island, the water is too muddy to provide a decent reflection, and there is a strong tabboo on telling anyone else their own eye color. Therefore, everyone knows everyone else's eye color except their own. However, it is an inviolable tradition that if anyone should ever discover that they have blue eyes, they are to commit ritualistic suicide at 10:00 PM that night. One day, a prophet appears on the island and states in front of everyone that at least one person on the island (other than himself) has blue eyes, and promptly disappears. Given that everyone on the island is capable of any logical deduction, what happens as a result of this encounter and why? (This is not a trick question. Don't go looking for loopholes such as people not believing the prophet, deducing that the tradition is pointless, etcetera) |
