1 00:00:03,360 --> 00:00:07,600 Speaker 1: Welcome to Stuff to Blow Your Mind, a production of iHeartRadio. 2 00:00:09,320 --> 00:00:12,240 Speaker 2: Hi, my name is Robert Lambin. This is the Monster Fact, 3 00:00:12,680 --> 00:00:14,960 Speaker 2: a short form series from Stuff to Blow Your Mind, 4 00:00:14,960 --> 00:00:19,479 Speaker 2: focusing on non mythical creatures, ideas, and monsters in time. 5 00:00:24,840 --> 00:00:27,440 Speaker 2: One of my favorite films of all time is easily 6 00:00:27,480 --> 00:00:31,120 Speaker 2: the nineteen eighty six fantasy musical Labyrinth, a movie that 7 00:00:31,240 --> 00:00:35,360 Speaker 2: summons the combined creative talents of Jim Henson, Brian Frowd, 8 00:00:35,840 --> 00:00:41,000 Speaker 2: Carrie Jones, David Bowie, Sarah Connolly, and composer Trefor Jones, 9 00:00:41,440 --> 00:00:45,000 Speaker 2: just to name a few. While its predecessor, the nineteen 10 00:00:45,000 --> 00:00:47,720 Speaker 2: eighty two film The Dark Crystal, took its fantasy world 11 00:00:47,800 --> 00:00:53,400 Speaker 2: creation incredibly seriously, Labyrinth leans more into pure musical fun 12 00:00:53,840 --> 00:00:58,160 Speaker 2: and python esque absurdity. Now there's a lot of this 13 00:00:58,280 --> 00:01:00,880 Speaker 2: flavor to discuss in Labyrinth, but I wanted to talk 14 00:01:00,920 --> 00:01:04,760 Speaker 2: specifically about the four guards that Sarah encounters as she 15 00:01:04,840 --> 00:01:09,280 Speaker 2: makes her way across the Goblin King's labyrinth. They are 16 00:01:09,520 --> 00:01:13,920 Speaker 2: doglike humanoid creatures that guard a pair of doors. They 17 00:01:13,920 --> 00:01:17,759 Speaker 2: are either conjoined beings and therefore two guards, or they 18 00:01:17,760 --> 00:01:20,240 Speaker 2: are affixed behind their signature shields in a way that 19 00:01:20,319 --> 00:01:24,800 Speaker 2: allow for two beings per shield. Their absurd appearance is 20 00:01:24,840 --> 00:01:28,160 Speaker 2: of course linked to their visual resemblance to double headed 21 00:01:28,200 --> 00:01:31,480 Speaker 2: European playing cards, in which a king, queen, jack or 22 00:01:31,600 --> 00:01:35,240 Speaker 2: joker is double bodied and double headed in such a 23 00:01:35,240 --> 00:01:38,399 Speaker 2: way that the card can be discernible from either side 24 00:01:38,400 --> 00:01:43,080 Speaker 2: of the table. According to St. Bindet and the Excellent 25 00:01:43,319 --> 00:01:47,000 Speaker 2: Labyrinth Bestiary, the heads of the left door guardian are 26 00:01:47,120 --> 00:01:49,760 Speaker 2: Alf and Jim, while the heads of the right door 27 00:01:49,840 --> 00:01:53,840 Speaker 2: are Ralph and Tim. When Sarah encounters the guardians, she 28 00:01:54,000 --> 00:01:59,680 Speaker 2: quickly learns the rules concerning their doors. One door leads 29 00:01:59,680 --> 00:02:01,840 Speaker 2: to the car at the center of the labyrinth, where, 30 00:02:01,840 --> 00:02:04,040 Speaker 2: of course, Sarah is trying to go in order to 31 00:02:04,120 --> 00:02:09,480 Speaker 2: rescue her step brother Toby, while the other door leads 32 00:02:09,520 --> 00:02:15,720 Speaker 2: to Bubbabubum, certain death. The lower heads have no idea 33 00:02:15,760 --> 00:02:19,720 Speaker 2: which doors which, but the upper heads do, but Sarah 34 00:02:19,760 --> 00:02:23,760 Speaker 2: is only permitted to ask one of them. Furthermore, one 35 00:02:23,800 --> 00:02:26,320 Speaker 2: of the two guards always tells the truth, while the 36 00:02:26,400 --> 00:02:30,320 Speaker 2: other one always lies, So Sarah faces a conundrum. How 37 00:02:30,360 --> 00:02:32,720 Speaker 2: can she find out which door is which. How can 38 00:02:32,760 --> 00:02:36,240 Speaker 2: she risk asking the wrong guard and being lied to. 39 00:02:40,400 --> 00:02:44,160 Speaker 2: The scenario instantly invokes what is known as the liar's paradox. 40 00:02:44,680 --> 00:02:47,640 Speaker 2: If a liar tells you they are lying, well, then 41 00:02:47,680 --> 00:02:50,880 Speaker 2: they are telling the truth. Consider the statement quote, this 42 00:02:51,000 --> 00:02:54,160 Speaker 2: sentence is a lie unquote. If that statement is true, 43 00:02:54,160 --> 00:02:58,640 Speaker 2: then it's false. If it's false, then it's true. Oh my. Sarah, 44 00:02:58,639 --> 00:03:01,359 Speaker 2: of course, is a bright young woman and makes the 45 00:03:01,400 --> 00:03:04,520 Speaker 2: short work of the guardians and their attempts to confuse her. 46 00:03:05,240 --> 00:03:09,080 Speaker 2: As John Turi points out in the paper Objective falsity 47 00:03:09,120 --> 00:03:12,560 Speaker 2: is essential to lying an argument from convergent evidence, published 48 00:03:12,600 --> 00:03:16,560 Speaker 2: in Philosophy Studies in twenty twenty one, she engages in 49 00:03:16,639 --> 00:03:21,440 Speaker 2: what is called answer laundering. If Sarah simply asked one 50 00:03:21,480 --> 00:03:24,000 Speaker 2: of the guards which doors which, then it might be 51 00:03:24,080 --> 00:03:26,760 Speaker 2: a true or untrue statement that she gets in return, 52 00:03:26,800 --> 00:03:29,560 Speaker 2: and her chances therefore are no better than simply picking 53 00:03:29,600 --> 00:03:34,880 Speaker 2: a door at random. Instead, she launders one answer through another. 54 00:03:35,960 --> 00:03:39,680 Speaker 2: Turi explains quote by asking one guard whether the other 55 00:03:39,720 --> 00:03:42,960 Speaker 2: guard would say that this door leads to success. Sarah 56 00:03:43,000 --> 00:03:46,160 Speaker 2: deduced the correct one either she gets the truth about 57 00:03:46,160 --> 00:03:49,720 Speaker 2: a lie or a lie about the truth. Whenever she 58 00:03:49,880 --> 00:03:53,160 Speaker 2: is told yes, the correct answer is no, and whenever 59 00:03:53,160 --> 00:03:57,120 Speaker 2: she is told no, the correct answer is yes. The 60 00:03:57,160 --> 00:03:59,840 Speaker 2: truth in the lie dependably canceled each other out in 61 00:03:59,840 --> 00:04:04,920 Speaker 2: the scenario provided to restresses that lies cannot be true. 62 00:04:05,120 --> 00:04:07,440 Speaker 2: Turry points out that the riddle of the Four Guards 63 00:04:07,520 --> 00:04:11,120 Speaker 2: is a variant of the Knights and Knaves logic puzzle 64 00:04:11,280 --> 00:04:15,520 Speaker 2: from Raymond Smollien's nineteen seventy eight publication What is the 65 00:04:15,600 --> 00:04:19,000 Speaker 2: Name of this Book? The scenario in the book that 66 00:04:19,040 --> 00:04:22,000 Speaker 2: closely resembles the scene from Labyrinth involves a knight and 67 00:04:22,040 --> 00:04:26,000 Speaker 2: a knave otherwise indistinguishable. Who guard a fork in the road? 68 00:04:26,720 --> 00:04:29,680 Speaker 2: Which road do you take? Dare you ask these two men, 69 00:04:29,760 --> 00:04:32,599 Speaker 2: given that one is secretly a noble knight and the 70 00:04:32,640 --> 00:04:35,680 Speaker 2: other secretly a vile nave, Only one of them is 71 00:04:35,720 --> 00:04:37,599 Speaker 2: going to give you a good answer. The other one 72 00:04:37,640 --> 00:04:40,359 Speaker 2: is going to lie to you. The solution again comes 73 00:04:40,440 --> 00:04:44,680 Speaker 2: via answer laundering ask which path the other individual would 74 00:04:44,720 --> 00:04:48,360 Speaker 2: say is the correct one. So this is how the 75 00:04:48,400 --> 00:04:52,680 Speaker 2: Four Guards of Labyrinth work, unless I am lying, which 76 00:04:52,720 --> 00:04:57,719 Speaker 2: I am not. Tune in for additional episodes of The 77 00:04:57,800 --> 00:05:01,000 Speaker 2: Monster Fact each week. As always, you can email us 78 00:05:01,040 --> 00:05:12,440 Speaker 2: at contact at stuff to Blow your Mind dot com. 79 00:05:12,560 --> 00:05:15,120 Speaker 1: Stuff to Blow Your Mind is a production of iHeartRadio. 80 00:05:15,440 --> 00:05:19,440 Speaker 1: For more podcasts from iHeartRadio, visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple podcasts, 81 00:05:19,520 --> 00:05:21,320 Speaker 1: or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.