It’s was 3am and Vikid woke up with a jolt. “Not again!”, he thought. He got out of bed and started watching YouTube.
The world was a mess. People arguing about wars and fighting over race, markets falling and political dissidents being jailed on frivolous charges.
But that wasn’t what was on his mind. After slaying the monstrous Zeno. This super hero had his eyes on Liar, an ancient, fierce and slippery jester. He was going to put his pants fire!
Liar was plague to humankind. He could found terrorizing men in every age in every civilization in history . Some posit his birth to Epimenides of Crete in the 5th Century BC but Vikid thought he must be older. He probably hunted our cave dwelling ancestors also.
The solution had to be simple. It shouldn’t require pages of dense logic. Liar liked to hide within such complexities and philosophers liked to create them, to keep their jobs in Universities.
Liar then appeared in front of Vikid, with his beady, mischievous, charcoal for eyes. He let out a sneering laugh and said,
“Vikid, I have have been looking for you. You dare to challenge the Father of all Lies? I accept your challenge and if you fail, you will become insane like all who have pondered me! Ha ha ha ha ha!”
Incredulous Vikid, neither knowing if he was awake or asleep replied,
“Oh Father of Lies, oh Demon of the Untruths, you have found the Hero of Truth. Yin and Yang, Matter to Antimatter, I fear not, as insanity is my friend and refuge. Come and get me!”
So Liar began and said,
“Riddle me this…”
“This sentence is a Lie!”
“If I am lying then I am speaking the Truth but if I am speaking the Truth then I am lying. Ha ha ha ha ha!”
So Vikid began to unravel this puzzle. He said,
“Oh Great Creature of Confusion, is this sentence true or false?”
“Djdndb jeisisn shjsjs ondndn!!!!”
The liar looked puzzled.
“You talk nonsense!”, he said.
And Vikid replied,
“This much is true. A sentence can be True, False or Nonsense. Let us continue…”
“A light is flickering in a room due to a faulty electrical circuit. Is the light on or off?”
Liar, paused for thought and replied,
“It is on when it is on and off when it is off depending on when you choose to look”
“That’s right”, said Vikid,
“All Truths are about something. We need to check by looking at the world and the world is ever changing.”
“Furthermore, what am I thinking?”
“You’re thinking of devious things!”, said the Liar.
Vikid smiled and said,
“This is a matter of opinion. We can disagree you see. What is true for you is not for me. And to add to that, in order to lie you must know the Truth. And nobody knows everything, not even you! You can make false statements without lying simply because you know not better.”
He noticed that Liar was starting to melt.
“You can’t beat me with cheap tricks.”, he screamed,
“Which is it?
This sentence is false!
Which is it, True or False?”
Vikid smiled, a twinkle in his eye, and said,
“It’s true AND false if you ask a dialethesist.”
“As I said, it is a matter of opinion. And it can be on or off like a light depending on when you look at it.”
“If the sentence is false then it is true and if it is true then it is false”
“It is only you who claims that True and False are mutually exclusive”
“Like the square root of -1. It’s is impossible if you limit yourself to real numbers but has a natural solution if you include the imaginary dimension.”
“Your paradox only holds if you limit us to the mutual exclusivity of True and False and dismiss the nonsense that you are speaking”
“What nonsense? Let me enlighten you…”
“Sentences True and False, are about something in the world that need to be checked to find the solution. Otherwise, True and False lose all meaning. Yet you speak about a sentence that speaks about itself. This is impossible. It is you, devious Liar, who uttered the sentence. The sentence was a thought in your mind, sounds running in your mental circuitry. Your sentence, by itself, is inert and lifeless. It has no intelligence. Therefore, it has no right to speak about itself. You created an electric short circuit and blew your own fuse, fool!”
With that, the Liar started to dissolve and he screamed,
“Just you wait! I’ll get you next time Vikid, I’ll get you next time!”
He disappeared completely and Vikid looked up. It was bright outside. Night had turned into day and he was pleased.
The Liar would not be returning anytime soon.
And that was,
The Vikid Truth