[Spyman]

md65536, on 23 February 2012 - 11:29 PM, said:

I'll try to explain this one more time and then I'm giving up, because I'm obviously failing at communicating anything effectively here.

I am glad you didn't give up since you were right, sorry for being so thickheaded, +1 for you.

[md65536]

Spyman, on 28 February 2012 - 08:27 AM, said:

I am glad you didn't give up since you were right, sorry for being so thickheaded, +1 for you.

Thanks No apologies necessary. If the details were easy to get, I would be able to explain it more easily.

[John Cuthber]

Thanks folks.
You are all clearly brighter than me (at least at this sort of thing).
I'm still wondering how little information the traveller has to impart to cause an effect.
It seems that "I see blue eyes" has an effect, and as far as I can work out "I see brown eyes" has a comparable effect.

What happens if he turns up and says "I see eyes which have a defined colour but I am not stating what that colour is"?
In particular, what happens in the case where the islanders know (as part of their creed), that all eyes are either blue or brown?
Similarly (I think) what if he says "I see a pair of eyes and their colour is ..." and then dies of a heart attack?
As far as I can tell the islanders think "he was going to say blue or he was going to say brown" and they consider each possibility.

[Spyman]

In the simplest case with only ONE islander, would any of the examples above provide enough clues for him to conclude his own eye colour?

Would it help that ONE if he was not alone and could see another islander with blue or brown eyes?

Would it help that ONE if he was not alone and could see several islanders with blue or browns eyes?