2

OH NO!

A new virus has beset the world, and is threatening to become the most infectuous disease the world has ever seen.
Notable symptoms?

None Whatsoever!

This makes it extremely difficult to diagnose.

It does not cause hair loss, tooth decay, or headache.
It is not extremely dangerous for pregnant mothers or in vitro embryos.
It is not exacerbated by excessive use of alcohol, opiates or other drugs.
People who operate heavy machinery are asked to continue doing their jobs!
It does not cause excessive phlegm, involuntary bowel movements or fly-away hair.

There has been one remedy proposed by an eager Puzzling Stack Exchange student (whom nobody trusts) which offers a beacon of light in this dark, tumultuous time in medical history.

Can you guess what they suggested as a cure?

Hint:

The respondent is from Australia

Also:

As everyone knows, "Australia is entirely peopled with criminals, and criminals are used to having people not trust them."

Addendum:

Let's not be negative, gamers! This is fodder from a classic movie, not a witch hunt!

Chowzen
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  • I meant no disparagement to Aussies... it's just a clue to the answer. – Chowzen Jun 06 '16 at 11:26
  • Considering removing my question as... um... Racist? Offensive? HateMongery? Considered and decided against. It's just a thing. – Chowzen Jun 06 '16 at 12:47
  • For those who might not have figured it out, the quotation in the hint is from The Princess Bride. – GentlePurpleRain Jun 06 '16 at 15:26
  • I'm sure this has nothing at all to do with the puzzle as intended, but it reminds me strongly of this http://lesswrong.com/lw/pn/zombies_the_movie/ in order to appreciate which you need to know about "philosophical zombies": https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Philosophical_zombie . – Gareth McCaughan Jun 06 '16 at 15:52
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    -1 based on the accepted answer. The only way you could possibly infer the answer is based on the "Also" section of the hint. Even then, why would anyone consider a SPOILER (hover to reveal) as a cure for any kind of illness? – GentlePurpleRain Jun 06 '16 at 20:10
  • @GentlePurpleRain I spent half an hour trying to make sure that the answer wouldn't be something else related since I haven't seen the movie. Does something in the movie relate to the non-spoilered part of the question description that makes this make more sense? – pydsigner Jun 06 '16 at 20:27
  • @pydsigner That's what I'm saying. The solution is something that was made up for the movie/book -- it doesn't exist anywhere else. As far as I can tell, nothing else in the question relates to the solution or to the movie. – GentlePurpleRain Jun 06 '16 at 20:31
  • The answer is an undetectable poison, one that has no smell, no taste, no colouring, there is nothing evidential to qualify it as the culprit. That is the joke; that is the reason that the scene in the movie is funny. – Chowzen Jun 06 '16 at 20:38
  • Isn't everything we say made up? clip – Chowzen Jun 06 '16 at 20:43
  • @pydsigner Watch the movie. If you don't know the movie then you don't get the answer to this or this. – Chowzen Jun 06 '16 at 21:00
  • @Chowzen not sure why you linked puzzles which reference different movies? I didn't downvote, but I thought puzzles were meant to be solvable without hints - even with them, I've seen that movie many times but I still don't "get" this answer.. – user812786 Jun 06 '16 at 21:08
  • @whrrgarbl I genuinely thought that the movie was well enough known that my puzzle was solvable on its own recognizance. I added the hints to lure people into finding the answer in any event. – Chowzen Jun 06 '16 at 21:16
  • Chowzen throws himself upon his sword and welcomes an execution by his peers. (Martyrdom rules!) – Chowzen Jun 06 '16 at 21:18
  • "Truly you have a dizzying intellect!" – Chowzen Jun 06 '16 at 21:36

5 Answers5

5

Australians are quite lazy as well...

So I propose

Nothing!

If there are no symptoms, everyone seems to have it, so we don't need a cure.

Inazuma
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4

I think he suggested

Iocaine

Because

Vizzini: [...] Iocane comes from Australia, as everyone knows, and Australia is entirely peopled with criminals, and criminals are used to having people not trust them.

pydsigner
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2

I think the Australian suggested that they:

PANIC!!!

Knowing that there was no need to do anything, he reverse psychologised them into calming down and getting on with whatever they were doing.

Brent Hackers
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  • Sorry... trying to assess the new config of "reverse psychologized"... is it really a word? I'm going to try to use it in a sentence once a day for the next 426 days. – Chowzen Jun 06 '16 at 11:09
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    Reverse is a word. Psychologised is a word. You should at least get away with hyphenating! :) – Brent Hackers Jun 06 '16 at 11:11
1

The remedy could be:

Water the plants with water (yes! the same from the toilet)

Seems you listed the properties of:

Brawndo the drink from "Idiocracy". So far it has no bad effects on humans, but it is still a blight (because used to water the plants, causing all vegetables to die because of electrolites) at all effects and you mentioned a classic movie so..

Still in doubt where Australia comes into play in this riddle..

CoffeDeveloper
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0

Maybe he told them all to

engage in as much bad hygiene and physical contact as possible? So that they would all start minimising human contact and keeping everything disinfected and hygienic? (a good strategy for any infectious disease if you can convince people to get on board)

Brent Hackers
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