The missionaries and cannibals problem, and the closely related jealous husbands problem, are classic river-crossing problems. The missionaries and cannibals problem is a well-known toy problem in artificial intelligence, where it was used by Saul Amarel as an example of problem representation.
Read more about Missionaries And Cannibals Problem: The Problem, Solving, Solution, Variations, History
Famous quotes containing the words missionaries, cannibals and/or problem:
“It was very agreeable, as well as independent, thus lying in the open air, and the fire kept our uncovered extremities warm enough. The Jesuit missionaries used to say, that, in their journeys with the Indians in Canada, they lay on a bed which had never been shaken up since creation, unless by earthquakes.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“My travel’s history,
Wherein of antres vast and deserts idle,
Rough quarries, rocks, and hills whose heads touch heaven,
It was my hint to speak—such was my process—
And of the cannibals that each other eat,
The anthropophagi, and men whose heads
Do grow beneath their shoulders.”
—William Shakespeare (1564–1616)
“The thinking person has the strange characteristic to like to create a fantasy in the place of the unsolved problem, a fantasy that stays with the person even when the problem has been solved and truth made its appearance.”
—Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe (1749–1832)