mu
mu: /moo/ The correct answer to the classic trick question
"Have you stopped beating your wife yet?". Assuming that you have
no wife or you have never beaten your wife, the answer "yes" is
wrong because it implies that you used to beat your wife and then
stopped, but "no" is worse because it suggests that you have one and
are still beating her. According to various Discordians and Douglas
Hofstadter the correct answer is usually "mu", a Japanese word
alleged to mean "Your question cannot be answered because it depends
on incorrect assumptions". Hackers tend to be sensitive to logical
inadequacies in language, and many have adopted this suggestion with
enthusiasm. The word `mu' is actually from Chinese, meaning
`nothing'; it is used in mainstream Japanese in that sense, but
native speakers do not recognize the Discordian question-denying
use. It almost certainly derives from overgeneralization of the
answer in the following well-known Rinzei Zen koan:
A monk asked Joshu, "Does a dog have the Buddha nature?" Joshu
retorted, "Mu!"
See also has the X nature, Some AI Koans, and Douglas
Hofstadter's "Go"del, Escher, Bach: An Eternal Golden Braid"
(pointer in the Bibliography in Appendix C.
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