The Grey Labyrinth is a collection of puzzles, riddles, mind games, paradoxes and other intellectually challenging diversions. Related topics: puzzle games, logic puzzles, lateral thinking puzzles, philosophy, mind benders, brain teasers, word problems, conundrums, 3d puzzles, spatial reasoning, intelligence tests, mathematical diversions, paradoxes, physics problems, reasoning, math, science.

Chaz · Vote: Zag

Rules are simple.

Post a clue/question that can be solved, but cannot be Googled.

1. How did Big Jeans die? (90's movie trivia.)
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The enemy's base is down.

Chaz · Vote: Zag

Oh. You can take a turn if you either know the answer, or can Google it.
Either way, you defeat the question and get to pose your own.
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The enemy's base is down.

Jack_Ian · Big Endian

Nice Idea! Took me about 7 minutes.

Zag · Tired of his old title

Too easy! You should have downloaded the image and re-hosted it somewhere. Took me under a minute. Google of "56366 site:vam.ac.uk" gets it in one try.

[Don McCullin] http://www.vam.ac.uk/images/image/56366-popup.html

What is this?

jbvntx · Daedalian Member

Is it mathgrant waiting for a newbie to post a perfectly reasonable puzzle on grey labyrinth?
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jbv

Antrax · ESL Student

I have the picture in a book I read as a kid so I know what it is, but I think jbvntx' is better than the actual answer.
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After years of disappointment with get rich quick schemes, I know I'm gonna get rich with this scheme. And quick!

sixleggedspider · Icarian Member

Chaz · Vote: Zag

Hmmmm... I specifically said you couldn't Google it, but I never really defined what that meant.

Images defeated: http://www.gazopa.com/

Using that, I can answer the question, but does it count? I couldn't have possibly Googled that, but I did use Google to find the app that could defeat the question.

Ultimately, I wanted a puzzle thread that required posters to *know* the answer, without any possibility that they cheated and searched for it, so I'm deciding that it counts.

Zag can veto, but I think the spirit of the thread is maintained. =D

Next question:
Who knows [...]? (Hint: Not Bo Jackson.)
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The enemy's base is down.

Zag · Tired of his old title

Oh. I thought it was supposed to be a Google challenge, rather than truly un-Google-able. i.e. "I bet you can't Google this" as opposed to "You're not allowed to."

Of course, if someone simply knows the answer, they should be welcome to answer it. And joke answers like jbv's don't count (though it was a good joke).

Chaz · Vote: Zag

I realized that as I was about to post the answer to your question (not allowed to vs not able to.)

My original intent of this thread was to find challenges that could not be simply defeated via web resources. Something that you could post anywhere, and it would be a challenge to decipher.

I probably should have made that clear in the first post huh? Embarrassed

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The enemy's base is down.

*duh* · Guest

Zag · Tired of his old title

Chaz · Vote: Zag

I don't disagree at all.

I just like the idea that someone can't cheat (though they're welcome to try.)

It makes every challenge twice as challenging. One challenge to make a puzzle that can't be solved by cheating, and one challenge to solve the puzzle even when you don't know the answer. =D
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The enemy's base is down.

ralphmerridew · Daedalian Member

Female anglerfish?

Chaz · Vote: Zag

My clue clearly needs a hint.

Who Knows ...
Hint: Detective.
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The enemy's base is down.

Zag · Tired of his old title

LordKinbote · Daedalian Member

LordKinbote · Daedalian Member

Anyway, here's my attempt at a (real-life!) question that is probably semi-Googlable, but probably does require some insight.

My wife today was getting me caught up on her life (she's been out of town for a few weeks doing a family practice medical rotation).

"My cousin who lives in Ohio really wants me to apply to the residency program in Toledo. Oh, and your mother has inspired me to try and make a guacamole dip."

"Are you deliberately trying to tie your separate conversation strands together with a theme?" I asked.

Because she is my wife, and knows how I think, she knew exactly what I meant. Do you?

Chaz · Vote: Zag

Chaz · Vote: Zag

LordKinbote · Daedalian Member

LordKinbote · Daedalian Member

Jack_Ian · Big Endian

There was a whole thread dedicated to a particular form of such puzzles not too long ago.
It was quite popular and there are still a few unsolved.

Here's one that you would probably just have to know.
What game is this from?
I donated a lot of my pocket-money to it. Felicitous

Chaz · Vote: Zag

Chaz · Vote: Zag

Really, I want to find puzzles which cannot be googled, but can be solved. (which really puts my first two puzzles as terrible examples, since neither could be solved without some pretty exclusive info.)

Could such a puzzle ever exist?

"Paladin Is Messing With My Mind" comes very close to this, but it would fail if it were to ever become popular.

I want to see a puzzle which has the following three criteria:
1. Can be "told."
2. Cannot be answered without the person answering having to solve the puzzle or have been given the answer by someone else.
3. Can be solved without requiring uncommon information (like mine did).

Actually... I want to see lots of puzzles that fit this criteria, but I'll settle for one for now.
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The enemy's base is down.

L'lanmal · Daedalian Member

Chaz · Vote: Zag

Zag · Tired of his old title

The question depends somewhat on your definition of puzzle. For instance, a flash program that generates a maze, and the solution is the path through it. That certainly can't be googled -- it's a new maze every time. Similarly, the solution to Sudoku games, etc. can not be googled (though you could, of course, google a Sudoku solver).

LordKinbote · Daedalian Member

Chaz · Vote: Zag

Chaz · Vote: Zag

Persona · Daedalian Member

You can also pose a puzzle where every important word is a stop word.

Chaz · Vote: Zag

What is this? Or... Where can I buy one of these?

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The enemy's base is down.

Jack_Ian · Big Endian

Chaz · Vote: Zag

Sorry. =D

I don't know the answer to my question. I really want to know where I can get one (for a wedding present.)

As for you question... :.
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The enemy's base is down.

L'lanmal · Daedalian Member

You seem to be taking a rather strict view of "can be told". I would hold that sudokus or chess positions are quite describable in words. Some time ago (before they were all catalogued), Freecell games would be similar in that you could supply the seed verbally and anyone could load that game on a windows PC.

On the other hand, even if you use all terms that Google typically excludes from their search, wouldn't you still be able to search for those by treating the entire sentence as a single string? Perhaps not on Google, but another engine?

Here are some puzzles that I would argue fail the "can be told" condition, but it sounds like they would meet your thoughts on it.

1) This one is probably easily Googlable once indexed:

Xx xxx xxx xxxx xx xxxxx, xx xxx xxx xxxxx xx xxxxx, xx xxx xxx xxx xx xxxxxx, xx xxx xxx xxx xx xxxxxxxxxxx, xx xx xxx xxxxx xx xxxxxx, xx xxx xxx xxxxx xx xxxxxxxxxxx, xx xxx xxx xxxxxx xx Xxxxx, xx xxx xxx xxxxxx xx Xxxxxxxx, xx xxx xxx xxxxxx xx xxxx, xx xxx xxx xxxxxx xx xxxxxxx, xx xxx xxxxxxxxxx xxxxxx xx, xx xxx xxxxxxx xxxxx xx, xx xxxx xxx xxxxx xxxxxx xx Xxxxxx, xx xxxx xxx xxxxx xxxxxx xxx xxxxx xxx--xx xxxxx, xxx xxxxxx xxx xx xxx xxxx xxx xxxxxxx xxxxxx, xxxx xxxx xx xxx xxxxxxxx xxxxxxxxxxx xxxxxxxx xx xxx xxxxx xxxxxxx, xxx xxxx xx xxx xxxx, xx xxx xxxxxxxxxxx xxxxxx xx xxxxxxxxxx xxxx.

2) I would no longer know how to Google this one... Google does not seem to be taking kindly to symbol searches these days:

What does the blank represent?:
*^&_%#)(

And here are some other types of puzzles which are somewhat Google Resistant.

3)
Today's word is "Take".

(Comment: This is a "Word of the day" puzzle, based on the word of the day puzzle sig someone had from long ago. In this style puzzle, the answer remains the same, but the clues change as time goes by, which makes it difficult to Google without knowing the answer already. On Friday, I could supply a second word, but I would not know what that word is until Friday.)

4) Any puzzle where the solver / process of solving plays a role in determining what the answer is. The variants on the presumably easily Googlable "crossed/uncrossed" puzzle would fit in this catagory. As would the "Cauldron" style of puzzle (where the solvers determine the clues).

Hitchhiker · Finally got a ride.

Original situation puzzles (sometimes called lateral thinking puzzles) are basically ungooglable. (Like LordKinbote's story about his wife). ones that you heard somewhere are almost certainly googlable with some effort.

Here's one: why did somebody steal a beach chair in the middle of winter? (true story)

Sound clips that have been re-hosted to disguise their origin work as well as picture puzzles. Using them creatively; that's the fun part.

LordKinbote · Daedalian Member

Got L'lanmal's first two, no Googling necessary.

L'lanmal · Daedalian Member

For the record, today's word is "Restart".

Jack_Ian · Big Endian

I was trying to remember another word for a card-dealer. It sounded French.
In the end I just remembered before I could find the word I was looking for.