Think about the answering machine “paradox” which concerns the outgoing message “I am not here right now”.

The system we have in place says that “I” with respect to c,i denotes the speaker of c (Sc), that “here” denotes the location of Sc at the time of the utterance (tc), that “now” denotes the time of the utterance (tc). Show that we straightforwardly predict that “I am not here now” cannot be uttered truthfully.

Given this system, what could be said to explain why the outgoing message is not in fact useless?

Or, would you argue that the system needs to be changed? If so, how?

Write up to two pages on this topic. Due next Friday 10/8 in class, email submission prior to class ok and even preferred.

Listeners/visitors are welcome to hand in their thoughts as well.