1. mu
The correct answer to the classic trick question “Have you
stopped beating your wife yet?”. Assuming that you have no wife or
you have never beaten your wife, the answer “yes” is wrong
because it implies that you used to beat your wife and then stopped, but
“no” is worse because it suggests that you have one and are
still beating her. According to various Discordians and Douglas Hofstadter
the correct answer is usually “mu”, a Japanese word alleged to
mean “Your question cannot be answered because it depends on
incorrect assumptions”. Hackers tend to be sensitive to logical
inadequacies in language, and many have adopted this suggestion with
enthusiasm. The word ‘mu’ is actually from Chinese, meaning
‘nothing’; it is used in mainstream Japanese in that sense. In
Chinese it can also mean “have not” (as in “I have not
done it”), or “lack of”, which may or may not be a
definite, complete 'nothing'). Native speakers of Japanese do not
recognize the Discordian question-denying use, which almost certainly
derives from overgeneralization of the answer in the following well-known
Rinzai Zen koan:
A monk asked Joshu, “Does a dog have the Buddha nature?” Joshu
retorted, “Mu!”
See also has the X nature,
Some AI Koans, and Douglas Hofstadter's Gödel, Escher,
Bach: An Eternal Golden Braid (pointer in the
Bibliography in Appendix C.
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Definitions of mu 
