A riddle is not a physical thing but okay, let's say you want to destroy an instance of a riddle that is in a book: how do you know it's in that book without looking, and therefore copying the riddle into your own mind? This is known as the Pink Streisand Paradox.
Your comment said puzzle. I usually think of those things as made of cardboard or wood (really fancy ones), i.e. jigsaw puzzles. Since they're made of cellulose, you can turn them into nitrocellulose and then burn them very quickly!
I do love the Pink Streisand Paradox though. I think the solution involves technology: you build a riddle-recognizer that scans the book for you and tells you whether or not the riddle is present, without telling you the words of the riddle.
But that further raises the question: how do you know it's the riddle you're looking for? How do you know what riddle you're looking for if you don't know the riddle itself?
If you know the solution, it's no longer a puzzle.
Soak it in nitric and sulfuric acid, let it dry, then light it on fire?
A riddle is not a physical thing but okay, let's say you want to destroy an instance of a riddle that is in a book: how do you know it's in that book without looking, and therefore copying the riddle into your own mind? This is known as the Pink Streisand Paradox.
Your comment said puzzle. I usually think of those things as made of cardboard or wood (really fancy ones), i.e. jigsaw puzzles. Since they're made of cellulose, you can turn them into nitrocellulose and then burn them very quickly!
I do love the Pink Streisand Paradox though. I think the solution involves technology: you build a riddle-recognizer that scans the book for you and tells you whether or not the riddle is present, without telling you the words of the riddle.
But that further raises the question: how do you know it's the riddle you're looking for? How do you know what riddle you're looking for if you don't know the riddle itself?
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comprehensive.