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 (see the Bibliography), 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 teaching riddle:
A monk asked Joshu, "Does a dog have the Buddha nature?"
Joshu retorted, "Mu!"
See also has the X nature, AI Koans, and Douglas
Hofstadter's 'Gödel, Escher, Bach' (pointer in the
Bibliography).
