The Invisible Hypercomputer

A long long time ago, on a planet far far away, there were a group of wise elders who invented a hypercomputer.

The Hypercomputer was twelve stories high and made of wood. It could answer any request posed by any person. To consult the Hypercomputer, all you need is to pay the elders a voluntary donation.

It gives only three answers - Yes, No or Wait.

But because it did not have a display screen or motors of any type, you cannot determine what its response is when you first ask. You can only tell after the actual event has occurred.

For example, if a person requests for good health from the Hypercomputer and he recovers, then he knows the answer is Yes.

If his health worsens, he knows the answer is No. If his health doesn't change, then the answer is Wait.

For thousands of years the Hypercomputer served the planet well. The people believed that whether war or peace, whether poverty or riches, for better or worse the Hypercomputer has predicted them all. If you have a request, no matter how big or how small you can approach the elders to access the Hypercomputer.

Then one day a young man who specializes in making microcomputers was tasked with cleaning the exterior of the Hypercomputer. Curious, he sneaked into the Hypercomputer interior and realized that there is nothing inside the Hypercomputer at all.

It was an empty statue made of wood.

He went on the streets screaming, "we've all been fooled! The Hypercomputer is only an empty statue! It can't reply to anything that we can't reply ourselves!"

The elders were not amused. They clarified that the mechanism of the Hypercomputer is invisible, because it extends into another dimension. The young man was brutally punished in the public square for his transgression. People hurled abuses and objects at the accused.

As he laid dying, he kept repeating these words, "Yes, No or Wait...Yes, No or Wait..."