As someone pointed out (obliquely) on JOHO, a slew of IBMers solved the 23 prisoner problem last summer. The IBM solution is essentially the same as the one I found, but I arranged the protocol differently.

So here’s my ultra-compact, postmodern solution to the 23 prisoner problem:

The prisoners should go to their in-cell Web browser and type “hungarian mathematicians’ parties” into Google. Do whatever it says.

Sometimes, when I contemplate Google, I feel like Picard looking at the big Borg cube for the first time.