GreedyAlgorithm
2nd October 2007, 02:15 PM
I recently reread parts of GEB, and for anyone who hasn't read GEB, I give the following example to encourage you to go grab a copy and read it:
"yields falsehood when preceded by its quotation" yields falsehood when preceded by its quotation
What's going on here? We're conflating structural changes ("precede") with semantic changes (the thing before "yields" is probably the subject of the sentence). In GEB these are referred to as "strange loops". They're certainly strange and they're certainly loopy. If you've never seen this type of thing try looking up "quines".
"kittens any thread when twice a substring of the same sentence" kittens any thread when twice a substring of the same sentence.
Now I'm either wrong or violating the rules! No I will not stop being amused by these things. They are awesome.
"yields falsehood when preceded by its quotation" yields falsehood when preceded by its quotation
What's going on here? We're conflating structural changes ("precede") with semantic changes (the thing before "yields" is probably the subject of the sentence). In GEB these are referred to as "strange loops". They're certainly strange and they're certainly loopy. If you've never seen this type of thing try looking up "quines".
"kittens any thread when twice a substring of the same sentence" kittens any thread when twice a substring of the same sentence.
Now I'm either wrong or violating the rules! No I will not stop being amused by these things. They are awesome.