Re: Three liars

[John Trammell <trammell@FN872.FNAL.GOV>]

Hello Kudwik & all:

Ludwik Kowalski wrote:

> I finally had time to examine your truth table.  I want
> to question your evaluations of sentences.

I'm glad you did, because I think I glossed over the truth
(to the point of damaging it!) on my first try.

In particular, I misinterpreted statement C

    "The second person is telling the truth."

as

    "The second person is a truthteller."

Which is an oversimplification to say the least.  Easy to make
that mistake, but it is definitely a mistake.  I'll post a fixed
program when I've digested this piece of crow.  :-)

{relevant details cut}

> I think I have an algorithm for a program which can handle
> many different sets of sentences, even those which I did not
> analyze with my own brain. But sentences must be inputted by
> selecting from 14 alternatives (checking in a form). The options
> are"
>
>   1 <-- we are all liars
>   2 <-- only A is honest
>   3 <-- only B is honest
>   4 <-- only C is honest"
>   5 <-- only A and B are honest
>   6 <-- only A and C are honest
>   7 <-- only B and C are honest
>   8 <-- we are all honest
>   9 <-- only one of us is honest
>  10 <-- only two of us are honest
>  11 <-- either A or B is honest
>  12 <-- either B or C is honest
>  13 <-- either A or C is honest
>
> Did I miss a possibility?  Let me know.

I think there are gaps -- how would you encode the statement
"A is a liar" in this scheme?

Regards,
John