PLAYING CHESS WITH THE DEVIL

Two of Raymond Smullyan's Many Aspects, by Vierrae

Raymond Merrill Smullyan - polymath, philosopher and jester - began his brilliant career as “Five Ace Merrill,” a highbrow magician with a wonderfully funny act. In the 1940s, he played Chicago and Greenwich Village cabarets, amusing his magic audiences with lines like: “The reason I don’t believe in astrology is because I’m a Gemini.”

When fans asked him whether he had ever sawed a lady in half, he replied that he had sawed dozens of ladies in half - and he’s learning the second half of the trick now.

In a book of his brilliantly original puzzles, Smullyan introduced himself:

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Smullyan first learned foolery on an April Fool’s Day 92 years ago, when he was six. As he tells it: “On 1 April 1925, I was sick in bed ... In the morning my brother Emile (ten years my senior) came into my bedroom and said: ‘Well, Raymond, today is April Fool's Day, and I will fool you as you have never been fooled before!’ I waited all day for him to fool me, but he didn’t.”

Also a world-class musician, Smullyan once got into an argument with a philosopher who challenged him: “Do you have any rational evidence that you are now awake? Isn’t it logically possible that you are now asleep and dreaming all this?” 

The philosopher tried to convince him that he could not rationally justify believing that he was awake. Smullyan insisted that he was perfectly justified in being certain he was awake. They argued long and tenaciously and Raymond finally won. The philosopher conceded that his opponent indeed had rational evidence. At that point, Smullyan woke up.

Alas, after nearly 98 years of this oscillating life, the man called "Merlin in Disguise" is finally having that very same argument with God and the Devil. To settle it, they’re playing a simultaneous chess tournament to decide who gets to spend the rest of eternity with whom. Smullyan is allowed to use computers, since he is credited with much of the theoretical brainpower that has enabled creation of a new species - a Cerberus, half man, half computer - which can easily beat even Deep Blue at chess.

Don’t worry - he’s a really good player. He wrote this book, which the Devil keeps on his nightstand:

And anyway, as he liked to say: “Why should I worry about dying? It’s not going to happen in my lifetime!”

R.I.P Professor! You made our lifetimes better!

[Read more about it here.]

[Some of his charming puzzles can be found here.]

[Portrait by Vierrae at http://vierrae.deviantart.com/art/Raymond-Smullyan-549870372]