This was one of my favorite
clues. It's a meta-clue, where the answer is the solution!
First, look at the drawing.
It's from the scene in "The Matrix" when Neo goes to the Oracle
to see whether he is "The One" and while he is waiting in the
waiting room, he encounters a Buddha-like child who attempts to educate
him. The child shows him a spoon and says "There is no spoon.:"

Next, the writing on the inside of the envelope
gives you a hint that this is a meta-clue, containing a quotation from
Goedel, Escher and Bach: "The poem contains its own commentary..."

Each of the seven pieces of paper contains a puzzle whose answer is "THERE
IS NO SPOON." There is no need to decipher each puzzle. The important
thing is how the puzzles were encoded. When you figure out the
encoding method on each puzzle, fill in the blanks at the top of the puzzle
with the name of the encoding method. Then take all of the letters that
have numbers beneath them, and sort those letters into numerical order.
That yields the next clue destination.
In the meantime, just for fun,
we'll "solve" each puzzle. But we already know all the answers
- THERE IS NO SPOON.
The first puzzle is an ASCII
code. In ASCII, the upper case letters of the alphabet are represented
by the numbers 65 (A) to 90 (Z). For each line, count the number of characters
it contains (including spaces) and then convert to the corresponding letter
in ASCII.
It
does matter |
#
chars |
ASCII |
A
S C I
I |
|
|
3
8 9 |
|
|
Happiness
is essential for both the individual and the group. The possibility
of ha- |
84
|
T
|
ving
available all the means to attain it creates a kind of electronic
" |
72
|
H
|
high",
a kind of happiness so evident that it ends up having no more- |
69
|
E
|
raison
d'etre. There, there is a general problem of critical mass of the
means wh- |
82
|
R
|
ich
puts an end to ends. What happens when everything has been reali- |
69
|
E
|
zed
in modernity, when everything is virtually given? The question is
cr- |
73
|
I
|
ucial:
where does one go from there? That is the problem: from the moment
the subj- |
83
|
S
|
ect
is perfectly realized, it automatically becomes the objecct, and there
is- |
78
|
N
|
panic.
I am not sure that with the virtual world we are moving closer still
to- |
79
|
O
|
happiness,
because vrituality only gives possibilities virtually, while taking
back |
83
|
S
|
the
reference and the density of things, their meaning. It gives you everything, |
80
|
P
|
and
subtly, surreptitiously it takes everything away at the same time.
It is a- |
79
|
O
|
game
of which one does not know the rule[s]. One loses what one wins and
vice - |
79
|
O
|
versa.
All that one can do is refuse to play, but it is not easy in our times. |
78
|
N
|
In the next puzzle, we are given fourteen
times of day to figure out. Each of these times of day can be represented
by the two hands on a clock which, when positioned properly, also correspond
to semaphore positions. In semaphore, the operator holds a flag in each
of his hands and then extends each arm in one of eight positions corresponding
to the directions N, NE, E, SE, S, SW, W, and NW. It doesn't matter which
hand is extended in which direction, so there are sixty-four semaphore
positions of which 26 code for letters of the alphabet. Note below
that 6:10 and 2:30 look like the same position in semaphore so they both
represent the letter 'E.'
Turing's
true demise |
Time
|
|
Dir1
|
Dir2
|
Letter
|
S
E M
A P H O R E |
|
|
|
|
|
7 10
18 2 23 |
|
|
|
|
|
One
day, Alan Turing woke up at 10am. He was late, and he had to |
10:00
|
|
NW |
N |
T
|
run
in a marathon after work. This meant he didn't get home for 9 |
7:45
|
|
SW |
W |
H
|
3/4
hours. He immediately settled in to read the newspaper he had |
|
|
|
|
|
bought
about 95 minutes before he got home. 90 minutes later, he |
6:10
9:15
|
|
S
W
|
NE
E
|
E
R
|
had
the idea that would change the world. Sitting at his writing desk |
|
|
|
|
|
for
only 5 hours and 15 minutes, he had penned the words that would |
2:30
|
|
NE |
S |
E
|
turn
out to be not famous, but prophetic of his own downfall. He |
|
|
|
|
|
then
slept easily, and awoke just over 2 hours before he had the |
7:55
|
|
SW |
N |
I
|
previous day, all excited to get to work. In just 90 minutes, he had
|
9:25
|
|
W |
SE |
S
|
completed
a coded letter that he would send to the masonry society of |
|
|
|
|
|
which
he was a member. It explained how to attain true worldly |
|
|
|
|
|
power,
by exploiting the power and reasoning abilities of machines. |
|
|
|
|
|
After
going on what would be his last bike ride and eating lunch he |
|
|
|
|
|
delivered
the letter into the mail a little more than 3 hours before he |
4:40
|
|
SE |
SW |
N
|
had
gotten home the previous day, thus sealing his fate. Off to
work |
|
|
|
|
|
he
went, and stayed there for 365 minutes. His letter arrived at its
|
10:45
|
|
NW |
W |
O
|
destination
early the next morning, a quarter hour before five. It took |
4:45
|
|
SE |
W |
S
|
the
masons just 8 hours to decide Turing's fate. He had been outed, |
12:45
|
|
N |
W |
P
|
and
jailed, as the UK was not the place it would become. So, the |
|
|
|
|
|
public
might well believe Turing to be in a depressed state. They left |
|
|
|
|
|
word
for him to meet them at his house 10 hours later. Although he |
10:45
|
|
NW |
W |
O
|
was
suspicious, he had no choice but to comply. When they showed |
|
|
|
|
|
up,
they overpowered him, and kept him tied up for just over 11 |
9:50
|
|
W |
W |
O
|
hours
while they prepared his house. Finally, they killed him. He was |
|
|
|
|
|
found
just under 7 hours later, by his maid, who announced to the |
4:40
|
|
SE |
W |
N
|
world
that Alan Turing had committed suicide. |
|
|
|
|
|
This next puzzle is a Caesar shift cipher
("All Roads Lead to Rome" was a hint). This is a very simple
letter substitution cipher in which every plaintext letter is shifted
a certain number of letters to the right (or left, same thing if you consider
the alphabet a continuous loop) and is replaced by the resulting letter
to create the ciphertext. In this case, to make a nice 5 x 3 grid "THEREISNOSPOON"
becomes "THEREISNOSPOONX" and then the letters get shifted two
to the right to become "VJGTGKUPQURQQPZ." (The X
becomes a Z which is not really part of the solution.)
All
roads lead to Rome |
C
A E
S A R S H I F T |
7 26 17 25
22
|
VJGTJ |
KUPQU |
RQQPZ |
This next puzzle is an anagram - "HOT
ION RESPONSE" unscrambles into "THERE IS NO SPOON." In
cryptic crossword puzzles, almost anything can signal an anagram - such
as using the words "mixed up" or "scrambled" in the
clue. I have no idea what "From unconnected bitter ancient robot"
is supposed to mean other than that its acronym, FUBAR, could certainly
be used as an anagram indicator.
From
unconnected bitter ancient robot: |
A
N A
G R A M |
14 24 19
|
HOT ION RESPONSE |
This next puzzle is a reflection - you can
see "THERE IS NO SPOON" reflected backwards below.
It's
pretty clear. |
R
E F
L E C T I O N |
27 13
21 6 11
|
|
This next puzzle is in Morse Code - and again
the title is a clue. On each line are between one and four people, some
of whom are real (these would be dashes) and some of whom are fictional
(these would be dots). Each line therefore becomes a letter in Morse Code.
Am
I real, or am I Memorex?
|
Morse Code |
Letter
|
M
O R
S E C O D E
|
|
|
5 20,1
16
|
|
|
Thomas
Jefferson
|
-
|
T
|
Sam
Spade, Huckleberry Finn, Alex Delaware, James Bond
|
.
. . .
|
H
|
Hiro
Protagonist
|
.
|
E
|
Michael
Valentine Smith, Neal Stephenson, Don Quixote
|
.
- .
|
R
|
Philiip
Marlowe
|
.
|
E
|
Emma
Bovary, Chia Pao-yu
|
.
.
|
I
|
Victoria
Warshawski, Martin Quirk, Jubal Harshaw
|
.
. .
|
S
|
Charlie
Chaplin, Jean Valjean
|
-
.
|
N
|
Gauguin,
Malcolm X, Warhol
|
-
- -
|
O
|
Phoebe
Buffet, Colonel Aureliano Buendia, Holden Caulfield
|
.
. .
|
S
|
Willy
Loman, Ulysses S. Grant, Michael Jordan, Jane Eyre
|
.
- - .
|
P
|
Saul
Bellow, MC Escher, Walt Whitman
|
-
- -
|
O
|
Maxfield
Parrish, Harold Pinter, Edgar Rice Burroughs
|
-
- -
|
O
|
William
Gibson, Genji
|
-
.
|
N
|
The final puzzle is in binary code. Each
word can be converted to a 5 digit binary number (I added with leading
zeroes to make it look nicer but you don't have to) and then to a letter.
In each word, a capital letter becomes a 1 and a lower case letter becomes
a zero. ("Execution Matters" was a hint - Execution = CAPITAL
punishment.) The first digit is 2^4 = 16, the next one is 2^3 = 8, the
next one 2^2 = 4, the next 2^1 = 2 and the last one 2^0 = 1. The numbers
are converted to the corresponding letter of the alphabet.
Execution
matters |
Binary
Number |
Base
10
Number |
Letter
|
B
I N
A R Y |
|
|
|
4 15
|
|
|
|
GiVen |
10100 |
16
+ 4 = 20 |
T
|
This |
01000 |
8 |
H
|
ArT |
00101 |
4
+ 1 = 5 |
E
|
WhiCh |
10010 |
16
+ 2= 18 |
R
|
OnE |
00101 |
4
+ 1 = 5 |
E
|
WilL |
01001 |
8
+ 1 = 9 |
I
|
IdeAS |
10011 |
16
+ 2 + 1 = 19 |
S
|
WONt |
01110 |
8
+ 4 + 2= 14 |
N
|
KILL |
01111 |
8
+ 4 + 2 + 1 = 15 |
O
|
ImaGE |
10011 |
16
+ 2 + 1 = 19 |
S
|
Seems |
10000 |
16 |
P
|
LESS |
01111 |
8
+ 4 + 2 + 1 = 15 |
O
|
EVIL |
01111 |
8
+ 4 + 2 + 1 = 15 |
O
|
THEn |
01110 |
8
+ 4 + 2 = 14 |
N
|
Finally, to get the answer (our next clue
destination), from each of the seven puzzles take the letters that have
numbers beneath them, and arrange them in numerical order. And
the answer is:
CHABOT
SCIENCE AND SPACE CENTER

Clue
6
|