The ZEN Puzzle

For some weird reason this guide contains some puzzles which can only be solved by cautious readers who have (1) a certain amount of a certain kind of humor, (2) a certain amount of patience and time, (3) a certain amount of experience in ZEN NAVIGATION, and (4) a certain amount of books of a certain author.

Usually, puzzles search either for certain answers (more often, ONE answer) to a question; or, for the real smartasses, sometimes an answer is presented, and a certain question is searched for. ZEN puzzles are even more challenging: you have to come up with an answer to a question, both of which are not explicitly, rather implicitly stated somewhere in this FAQ. Thus, you are expected to give an answer AND a question!

To give an impression what this is all about, consider the following, submitted by Craig W. Reynolds. The correct question is: "Why is Fisher's `improbability quote' (cf EPILOGUE ) included in this FAQ?", Craig's correct answer is: `This is a GREAT quotation, it sounds like something directly out of a turn of the century Douglas Adams: Natural Selection: the original "Infinite Improbability Drive"' Got the message? Well, this was easy and very obvious. The other puzzles are more challenging...

However, all this is just for fun (mine and hopefully yours), there is nothing like the $100 price, some big shots in computer science, e.g. Don Knuth usually offer; all there is but a honorable mentioning of the ZEN navigator, including the puzzle s/he solved. It's thus like in real life: don't expect to make money from your time being a scientist, it's all just for the fun of it...

Enjoy the trip!