To Mock a Mocking Bird: Including an Amazing Adventure in Combinatory Logic

by Raymond M. Smullyan

In this entertaining and challenging new collection of logic puzzles, Raymond Smullyan—author of What Is the Name of This Book? And The Lady or the Tiger?—continues to delight and astonish us with his gift for making available, in the thoroughly pleasurable form of puzzles, some of the most important mathematical thinking of our time.

In the first part of the book, he transports us once again to that wonderful realm where knights, knaves, twin sisters, quadruplet brothers, gods, demons, and mortals either always tell the truth or always lie, and where truth-seekers are set a variety of fascinating problems. The section culminates in an enchanting and profound metapuzzle (a puzzle about a puzzle), in which Inspector Craig of Scotland Yard gets involved in a search of the Fountain of Youth on the Island of Knights and Knaves.

In the second and larger section, we accompany the Inspector on a summer-long adventure into the field of combinatory logic (a branch of logic that plays an important role in computer science and artificial intelligence). His adventure, which includes enchanted forests, talking birds, bird sociologists, and a classic quest, provides for us along the way the pleasure of solving puzzles of increasing complexity until we reach the Master Forest and—thanks to Gödel’s famous theorem—the final revelation.
                 
To Mock a Mockingbird will delight all puzzle lovers—the curious neophytes as well as the serious students of logic, mathematics, or computer science.

Genres: Mathematics, Nonfiction, Logic, Puzzles, Science, Computer Science, Programming

257 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 1985

About the author

Raymond M. Smullyan was a logician, musician, Zen master, puzzle master, and writer.

Reviews

[Quinton Baran · Rating 3 out of 5]

I got through the first portion of this book in a rather laborious manner. I spent quite a bit of time trying to grock each puzzle, which is quite time consuming. When I got to the mockingbird puzzles, I was stumped. I attempted to follow it a couple of times, and I have given up for now. I do enjoy Smullyan's style, but sometimes (often?) he is over my head - I suppose that is the point.

[Ramakalyan Ayyagari · Rating 4 out of 5]

A very good introduction to mathematical logic via puzzles. I would recommend this to everyone interested in mathematics, computer science, and even electrical engineering.

[Leonard · Rating 5 out of 5]

Smullyan makes logic and combinatorics fun and easier to understand. I highly recommend this book as an introduction to combinatorics.

[Illiterate · Rating 1 out of 5]

An awkward blend of logic puzzles, which I usually like, and lessons in combinatorics, for which I’d much rather use a textbook.

[Serdar · Rating 3 out of 5]

Another of Smullyan's logic puzzle collections, this one using a set of metaphors involving birds to analogize the workings of combinatory logic. There's far less narrative here than in some of his other books, but it's enjoyable.

[Alex · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great introduction to combinatorial logic.

[Swarner · Rating 5 out of 5]

Raymond Smullyan is my Logician Dumbledore. I own and read every book of his I can get my hands on. Which is well over a dozen.

[Leo W. · Rating 5 out of 5]

Magnificient! Could there be a more fun way to learn combinatorial logic?

[Douglas Sellers · Rating 4 out of 5]

Every developer should go this book

[Joe · Rating 4 out of 5]

Bought it for the combinator birds in the last section but I enjoyed the logic puzzles in the rest of the book

[Julia · Rating 2 out of 5]

I am giving up for now. My talents in regards to logic are, well, average I'd say. Not great, yet not completely awful either. Thus, I picked up this book wanting to develop my skills in this area. It turns out, I'll have to put in way more effort to solve the puzzles in this book than I anticipated -especially as the puzzles get harder. "Laborious" as one of the other commenters described it, seems to be the perfect word for my reading experience with this book, too.

The fiction that envelops the riddles was, as far as I read, extremely unintriguing and flat. If there had been an interesting story behind it, maybe I'd have been more motivated to work through the riddles. As it is, in case I'll take another try to develop my logical thinking, I'd rather choose a different book or a different method overall. This one was just not for me.

[Tanner Duve · Rating 5 out of 5]

Legit intro to combinatory logic and the lambda calculus disguised as a story about talking birds in a magical forest. Had fun reading the prose and doing the puzzles. Will have this around for my future children.

ps. I decided to formalize the combinatory logic sections in Lean, still a WIP but there’s enough to keep you busy if you know how to work a proof assistant and want to have your solutions to the puzzles computationally verified:
https://github.com/tannerduve/mock_a_...

[Michael · Rating 3 out of 5]

The internet says this is the best textbook on combinatory logic. I agree, but that says more about the state of combinatory logic than about the book. It isn't a textbook it's a series of puzzles and the first third isn't about combinatory logic.

[edmondegreen · Rating 5 out of 5]

Totally fucked. I love it.

[My Full]

Completely derailed my campaign. Recommend if you're short on dungeon content.

[James Rayman · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is like a textbook for a college-level logic class with the most of the fat trimmed and a (frankly, shallow) story added in. The bird analogy was amusing at first, but towards the end it felt like doing geometry with tables, chairs, and beer mugs. As for the puzzles themselves, most of them were either variations on a theme which were easy but require paper to solve, or standard exercises (e.g. prove Gödel's first incompleteness theorem). There were a few puzzles which were not standard and require ingenuity, along with some interesting passages about logic and logic puzzles, both of which make the book worth reading.

[OJ · Rating 5 out of 5]

Mind bending. Great way to get yourself thinking. A real must for all logic lovers.