Interesting logical puzzle (see if you can solve it).

Sat. 12/05/26 18:13 EDT
.post #154

I’m not trying to give you a hard time, but I don’t know what this sentence means. What are “the dynamics of what each islander thinks the other islanders know”? What does this mean?

The way I see it, the (public) announcement either adds new information, or it doesn’t. In the case of one blue-eyed islander, it does. In the case of two or more, it doesn’t. In the case of two or more blue-eyed islanders, every islander knows:

  1. That there is at least one blue-eyed islander;
  2. That every islander knows this.

But, as I’ve pointed out, we shouldn’t make this assumption, because for any number of blue-eyed islanders greater than one, it is clearly false.

I repeat what I said in my previous post:

The assertion “it adds no new information” is correct (except in the case of only one blue-eyed person). The reasoning “if it adds no new information, then nothing will change” seems perfectly sound to me. If you disagree, please elaborate.

I can’t see any flaw in what I’ve said, yet I know what I’ve said disagrees with the officially correct answer. So, this is a bit weird. I think I’m right and the official answer is wrong, but I’d love to be proved wrong.