Logic Bomb: Difference between revisions

 

{{examples}}

* ''[[Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex]]'': The Tachikomas (AIs themselves) temporarily confuse a lesser AI with the [[wikipedia:Epimenides paradox|Epimenides paradox]], and comment on how they are advanced enough to know there is no answer. [[Asymmetric Dilemma|And also it isn't a paradox]], so they rephrase it.

* Quasi-example in ''[[Code Geass]]'': Rolo the [[Tyke Bomb]], who might as well be nonhuman, suffers one of these when Lelouch's manipulations clash with nabbing his mission objective, C.C., who is right in front of him. Non fatal example, but the mental standstill is fun to watch.

* A painting by the Belgian René Magritte [[w:The Treachery of Images|"La trahison des images"]], which says "This is not a pipe" underneath in French. It's a ''picture'' of a pipe. Actually, it's just paint on canvas that we recognise as a pipe. Well, usually it's ink on paper arranged to resemble the paint on a canvas that we recognize as a pipe. Unless you're looking at it now, in which case it's RGB pixels on a screen that look like the ink etc. etc.

 

* In ''[[Runaways]]'' v2 #23, Chase casually asks the cyborg Victor whether God could make a sandwich so big He couldn't finish it, causing Victor to stammer, emit a series of ones and zeroes, go [[Explosive Instrumentation]], and pass out. Chase explains that Victor was programmed to be both super-logical and super-spiritual; there are three questions that will cause him to short out, but each will only work once. Each question also has a counter-answer, in case he needs to be revived. The answer to this question is, "Yes, and then He'd finish it anyway."

* ''[[Marvel Adventures]] [[Fantastic Four]]'', basically Fantastic Four stories for younger readers, has Mr. Fantastic do this when challenged to defeat the "ultimate alien supercomputer". When the computer, which supposedly is nigh-omniscient, says there is nothing it can't do, Mr. Fantastic tells it to create a rock so big it can't pick it up. The computer is sparking metal in ten seconds.

'''Power Girl''': Aw, nuts. Worth a try, anyway. }}

* 1980's British science fiction comic ''Starblazer'', issue 153 "The Star Destroyers". The Vonan [[AI]] known as the Magister believes itself to be all-powerful. It is defeated by Galactic Patrol agent Al Tafer when he tells it it isn't all powerful because it can't destroy itself. This drives the Magister crazy and causes it to blow up the Vonan system's sun, destroying itself and the Vonans as well.

 

== Computing ==

* The race condition can be seen as a logic bomb ranging from something minor to something very drastic. It involves one piece of data that two components can either read or write to. A minor case of a race condition is your display. Say the graphics card starts to render frames at a rate faster than what the display can put out. While the display is reading the frame buffer, the graphics card suddenly copies a new frame into the buffer. The result is the display for a one frame of its time showing two images at once (this phenomena is also known as tearing). A more serious instance when this occurred were two incidents involving [[wikipedia:Therac-25|Therac-25]], a radiation therapy machine.

 

* A silly one occurred in ''[[Yu-Gi-Oh!: The Abridged Series]]'': Duke managed to get Nesbitt to self-destruct by showing him a picture of [[Yu-Gi-Oh ZEXAL|Yuuma]], which was too illogical for Nesbitt's robotic brain to handle. This was after Serenity tried "Which came first, the chicken or the egg?" and he [[Take a Third Option|chose]] "[[Rocket Punch|The rocket-powered fist!]]"

{{quote|"But that wasn't one of the options - GAAAH! I stand corrected."}}

 

* In ''[[WarGames]]'', a logic bomb-like device was used to teach the NORAD computer Joshua the futility of nuclear war: play tic-tac-toe with yourself until you win. After exhausting all possible move combinations it makes the logical leap and begins plotting out every conceivable nuclear strategy, ending in some [[Explosive Instrumentation]], after which the computer concludes "The only winning move is not to play."

** SMBC Theater had a different [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TFCOapq3uYY&feature=player_embedded winning move].

"Yeah, they've been that way all down through the ages." }}

 

* Going by [[Isaac Asimov]]'s famous "Three Laws of Robotics", if a robot ever broke the First Law of Robotics, it would shut down. Actually, one short story claims that the damage threshold for breaking the First Law is far ''greater'' than that required to shut down the robot, completely and irreparably. Being caught between harming humans through saying something and harming them through remaining silent killed the robot Herbie in ''Liar!''

** A possible loophole occurs if the robot is intelligent enough to decide that the action in question is in humanity's best interest anyways. This principle was canonically named "The Zeroth Law of Robotics" by Asimov in one of the last books he wrote before he died.

*** The Auditors also managed to Logic Bomb ''themselves'' a couple of times, as when they got sidetracked into trying to properly name all the (infinite) colors.

*** Indeed, a common cause of death among (disembodied) Auditors is when they stray into speaking of themselves in the first person. This makes them into individuals, which are finite by definition. Anything finite is ''so'' temporary, compared to the vastness of infinite time, that it's effectively in existence for no time at all. Therefore, any Auditor which becomes an individual is annihilated by its own logic.

* In Christopher Stasheff's ''[[Warlock of Gramaraye]]'' series, the hero's [[Mechanical Horse|robot horse]], Fess, is prone to doing this when something particularly illogical happens. Fortunately there's a reset button to fix the problem; unfortunately, the series is set on a planet filled with psychics, time travelers, ghosts, and fairies, so... the reset button sees a lot of use.

* In ''[[The Space Odyssey Series|3001: The Final Odyssey]]'', the protagonists use rather more sophisticated logic bombs against the monoliths that trick them into carrying out an infinite set of instructions. The book notes that none but the most primitive computers would fall for something as simple as calculating the exact value of pi.

* In [[Robert Westall]]'s dystopian novel ''[[Futuretrack Five]]'', Chief System Analyst Idris Jones keeps one of these to hand as a sort of job and life insurance. He built the supercomputer, Laura who runs all of the computer systems that keep the setting functioning, in secret and no one else knows exactly how she works. But, just in case they decide that someone else can operate her or they know ''enough'' to get rid of him, he keeps a datatape of works of fiction, philosophy and religion to feed to Laura. The inconsistencies and contradictions are intended to make her burn out.

 

* ''[[Star Trek: The Original Series]]'': This is how Kirk dealt with [[A.I. Is a Crapshoot|rogue computers and robots]] ''all the time'' (when he didn't just rewrite their programs like in the ''Kobayashi Maru'' test), often by [[Talking the Monster to Death|convincing them]] to [[Deconstruction|apply their prime directives to themselves]]:

** In "The Return of the Archons", he convinced Landru (prime directive: "destroy evil") that it was killing the "body" (the civilians kept under its thrall) by halting their progress through [[Mind Control]].

** In "The Changeling", he convinced Nomad ("find and exterminate imperfection") that it was imperfect (it had mistaken Kirk for its similarly-named creator).

{{quote|'''Nomad:''' Error... error...}}

* ''[[Star Trek: The Next Generation]]'': A proposed weapon against the Borg was to send them a geometric figure, the analysis of which could never be completed, and which would, therefore, eat more and more processing power until the entire Borg hive mind crashed. Obviously the Borg don't use floating point numbers.

* On ''[[Star Trek: Deep Space Nine]]'', Rom accidentally Logic Bombs himself while over thinking the [[Mirror Universe]] concept.

*** Panderbot [[Loophole Abuse|then decided to get rid of the source of ALL paradoxes by]] [[Kill All Humans|killing all humans]], making Colbert's segment more deadly.

 

* The Carly Simon song, "You're So Vain" is a logic bomb just waiting to happen. "You're so vain/You probably think this song is about you..." But it ''is'' about him! Augh! My head...

** Here the bomb is in the implications. It is ''implied'' his vanity would lead him to assume the song is about him, but if it actually is about him he isn't necessarily vain to think so. But since the song is about someone vain enough to assume the song is about them based on vanity alone, it cannot be based off him, making his assumption the song is about him one of vanity, as he would be vain enough to think everything is about him. It would be a twist on the 'this is a lie' statement using personality characteristics.

** Or that she wasn't thinking about the vain person, but about how much contempt ''she, herself'' feels towards them.

** Nothing in the song says that the person in question is ''incorrect'' for thinking the song is about him.

* [[Jonathan Coulton]]'s "Not About You" is a closer example, but you can write it off by saying the protagonist is just being petty:

{{quote|''Every time I ride past your house I forget it's you who's living there

* [[Meat Loaf]] had a 1993 song entitled "Ev'rything Louder Than Ev'rything Else." Think about that one for a second.

 

{{quote|I'd make a deal with [[Genie in a Bottle|Norm]] that I'd wish him free with my last wish if he didn't corrupt my first 2 wishes. I'd use the first to wish for rule-free fairy godparents and the second to trap Norm in the lamp forever.}}

* "The Sleepy Clank," a podcast "radio play" set in the ''[[Girl Genius]]'' universe has a classic example: a cranky and sleep-deprived Agatha builds a warrior robot to attack anyone who tries to disturb her while she sleeps. Guess what happens when she tries to defuse the robot's subsequent rampage by telling it that she woke ''herself'' up?

 

* ''[[FoxTrot]]'': Jason once asked his mother if Marcus could sleep-over. She said that it was all right with her, if it was all right with his father. Asking his father, he's told that it's fine with him, if it was all right with his mother. After the [[Beat Panel]], he's shown consulting several logic books.

** The following day's strip featured Paige entering the same situation and just telling her friend "yeah, it's all right."

* In ''[[Peanuts]]'', Linus subjects himself to a self-inflicted Logic Bomb with his belief that the Great Pumpkin always rises from the most sincere pumpkin patch on Halloween night. The moment he thinks to question whether his patch is sincere ''enough'', he's blown it: if he tries to change anything to make it more sincere, he'll only be expressing his own doubts and reducing the sincerity of his faith in the Great Pumpkin.

 

* [[Jasper Carrott]] reacts this way to his grandmother's comment "Is the oldest man in the world still alive?"

 

* In ''[[SaGa Frontier]]'', there's an actual attack named "Logic Bomb" that damages and stuns mecs (ironically only usable by other robots). Its visual representation is a massive and confusing string of numbers that ends with the word "FATAL"—which is presumably where the machine crashes.

* In ''[[Tron 2.0]]'', the protagonist deals with a program blocking his way by exclaiming, "Quick! What's the seventh even prime number?" (There is only one prime number that is even: 2.) The program immediately has a seizure.

{{quote|'''Sam''': Why do birds suddenly appear every time you are near?

'''Maimtron''': Do they? Fascinating! Can there be a creature whose existence depends solely on its proximity to an observer? }}

* In ''[[BlazBlue: Calamity Trigger]]'', it is possible to interpret the end of Nu-13's Arcade Mode as Taokaka causing Nu to glitch out through her sheer [[The Ditz|ditzy-ness]] Before she even opens her mouth.

* ''[[Luminous Arc 2]]'': Though not a robot, Josie suffers something like this. When sent to assassinate a weakened Althea, he freaks out and leaves without doing anything when he sees {{spoiler|Roland has become as master. Sadie explains he's not [[The Dragon|Fatima's]] familiar, but a centuries-old one who serves the current Master. Being experienced but not very bright, he couldn't figure out what to do when faced with two masters with contradictory wishes.}}

* In ''[http://jayisgames.com/games/you-find-yourself-in-a-room/ You Find Yourself In A Room]'', your AI captor asks you to list some "useless" human feelings you'd be better without. {{spoiler|Typing "Hate" will make it shut down, while stating "Hate can't be an emotion, because I hate you, and machines do not have emotions!" Though this seems to prove machines do have emotions after all, but this one won't admit he's the slightiest bit like a human. "Anger" also works, for similar reasons - the computer doesn't want to admit that it's at all like a human, but it's enraged by humanity}}.

 

* ''[[Arthur, King of Time and Space]]'' uses this a few times in its future arc. One time exaggerated it by having the computer explode as soon Arthur used the old "everything I say is a lie" trick. The other time, the computer was too smart to fall for a simple paradox, so Arthur asked it why people always get a call while they're in the shower.

* Dave of ''[[Narbonic]]'' carries a logic paradox in his Palm Pilot for controlling the [[Mad Scientist]]-created machines in the lab, implying that he invokes this with some frequency.

* ''[[The Non-Adventures of Wonderella]]'' has Wonderella's old cellphone [http://nonadventures.com/2012/06/22/surly-personal-assistant/ destroyed by inanity]. And one of "future people" [[Too Dumb to Live|fails to learn anything from its fate]].

 

* The ''[[Hitherby Dragons]]'' story "[http://imago.hitherby.com/?p=397 Ink and Illogic]" consist of Ink giving an unconventional example to a computer based on the writing of [[H.P. Lovecraft]]. A computer that had itself wiped out a civilisation using an Illogic Bomb.

** Also, Forbidden A causes one in [http://imago.hitherby.com/?p=23 The Angels] just by existing.

* Most of [http://clientsfromhell.net/ these.]

 

* [[Defied Trope|Defied]] on ''[[Futurama]]'', "A Tale of Two Santas": Leela tries to stop the Santa Claus robot with a paradox, [[Out-Gambitted|only to discover]] that he is "built with paradox-absorbing crumple zones".

** Also parodied by countless robots who lack such crumple zones, whose heads explode at the slightest provocation. It doesn't even take a logical paradox: a simple "file not found" type error is often enough.

** And in one case, simply by being surprised or startled enough. Considering that all robots are based on designs created by [[Mad Scientist|Professor Farnsworth]], this should not be surprising.

** The computer can't comprehend the joke and explodes into the sky as a result. Becomes a [[Brick Joke]] as Greenback, freed from his renegade machinery, demands a bigger computer; cue falling computer.

 

* Some forms of autism apparently result in the absence of the human brain's natural [[Futurama|paradox-absorbing crumple zones]]. The mind races down one track until jolted out by outside stimuli. This helps focus, but hurts general functioning.

** Many forms of ADD do this also. Of course, the 'track' the mind races down looks like it belongs in a painting by MC Escher on acid much of the time, but it's still one track.

* Optical illusions that appear alternately as one thing, then another, such as the vase/faces image, work by setting off a minor Logic Bomb in the brain's visual association area. The visual cortex takes in data from a (temporal) series pairs of 2-dimensional retinal images and tries to construct from them a plausible interpretation of activity in the 3-dimensional world (sort of). When certain stimuli are ambiguous between two mutually exclusive interpretations it cannot represent the world as being both so (for some reason - possibly adaptation or perhaps simply as a result of neuronal fatigue) it alternates between them.

* The first flight of the [[wikipedia:Ariane 5|Ariane 5 Rocket]] failed due to a bad conversion of data, a 64-bit floating point number to a 16-bit integer. Since the guidance system basically crashed, the rocket self-destructed.

* An F-15 was landing in the Dead Sea (below sea level). During final approach, the navigational system crashed. The pilot landed manually. Since this was very close to hostile countries (within the Middle East), the contractor needed to fix the problem quickly. It turns out the navigational system divided by the altitude. When the altitude went to 0, it caused a divide by 0 crash in the navigational system.

* Arguably, infinite looping commands such as "add 2+2 until it equals 5" (which will never happen, hence the infinite loop), which result in a computer freezing as it attempts to solve the loop, are logic bombs - particularly on very old computers (and we're talking ancient here, before MS-DOS ancient).

 

{{reflist}}

[[Category:Logic Tropes]]

[[Category:Magical Computer]]