6. Hofstadter: Self-ref sentences, jokes
Description
This article is from the Hofstadter and GEB FAQ, by TANAKA Tomoyuki tanaka@cs.indiana.edu with numerous contributions by others.
6. Hofstadter: Self-ref sentences, jokes
Hofstadter talks about self-referential sentences in GEB
and MT (Metamag. Themas). some examples:
This sentence contains five words.
This sentence no verb.
This sentence is false.
This sentence I am now writing is the sentence you are now reading.
This sentence sofa contains six words.
This sentence contains two erors.
If this sentence were in Chinese, it would say something else.
.siht ekil ti gnidaer eb d'uoy ,werbeH ni erew ecnetnes siht fI
I eee oai o ooa a e ooi eee o oe.
Ths sntnc cntns n vwls nd th prcdng sntnc n cnsnnts.
from the Unix "fortune" command:
>
> f u cn rd ths, u cn gt a gd jb n cmptr prgrmmng.
> F u cn rd ths u cnt spl wrth a dm!
> f u cn rd ths, itn tyg h myxbl cd.
http://mickey.cs.uah.edu/~criswell/self_ref_sentences.html
so people in <alt.fan.hofstadter> try to come up with new twists
on the theme.
Mike Geller <mgeller@avnet.co.uk> wrote:
>
> fi siht nes-ecnet erew ni beh-wer dna tes ot um-cis, ti
> dluow kool tsuj a til-elt ekil siht
Hauke Reddmann <fc3a501@AMRISC01.math.uni-hamburg.de> wrote:
>
> If this sentence were self-ref, I would post it to afh.
>
> I desperately sought a way for not mentioning pink
> elephants in this sentence, but to no avail.
>
comment: did you really try?
>
> Yeah, and I was finally successful in this sentence ;-)
from http://www.netfunny.com/rhf/jokes/88old/bulb.html
>
> Q: How many light bulbs does it take to change a light bulb?
> A: One, if it knows its own Goedel number.
>
(contributed by Alan Hoyle <alanh@nelson.oit.unc.edu>)
TT's most favorite sig of all time:
===== M(tm) mtm@walsh.dme.battelle.org ====
"I turned to look, but it was gone. I cannot put my finger on it now."
"The ground is rich from tender care, repaid do not forget."
My mailer limits my sig to 4 lines. But ingeniously I bypassed this problem by
Question: What is the most commonly asked question on <a.f.h>?
Answer: It's "What is the most commonly asked question on <a.f.h>?"
(adapted from a post by Alan Hoyle <alanh@unc.edu>, who
suggested, "What is the most commonly asked question on
<a.f.h.> and what is the answer?")
do you know of great GEB-ish / self-ref jokes?
http://beast.cc.emory.edu/Jargon30/JARGON_R/RECURSIO.HTML
http://www.fwi.uva.nl/~mes/jargon/r/recursion.html
(btw, i just heard of a great way to keep a dummy in suspense.
i'll describe the method here in the next version of this FAQ.)
i'm looking for something more elaborate than the following.
Chris Cole <chris@questrel.com> wrote:
|
| from the rec.puzzles archive:
|
| ==> trivia/jokes.self-referential.p <==
| What are some self-referential jokes?
|
| ==> trivia/jokes.self-referential.s <==
| Q: What is alive, green, lives all over the world, and has
| seventeen legs?
| A: Grass. I lied about the legs.
|
| The two rules for success are:
| 1. Never tell them everything you know.
|
| There are three kinds of people in the world: those who can
| count, and those who cannot.
|
| Q: Why did Douglas Hofstadter cross the road?
| A: To make this riddle possible.
|
| Song from the Sheri Lewis Lambchop hour:
| This is the song that doesn't end
| Yes it goes on and on my friend
| Some people starting singing it not knowing what it was
| Now they'll continue singing it forever just because
| (repeat)
|
| How long is the answer to this question?
| Ten letters.
| (There are endless variations on this theme)
|
| What is the only word in the English language that is
| an anagram of itself?
| Answer: STIFLE (also FISTLE, FLITES, FILETS)
|
ftp://rtfm.mit.edu/pub/usenet/news.answers/puzzles/
ftp://ftp.uu.net/usenet/news.answers/puzzles/archive
ftp://mirrors.aol.com/pub/rtfm/usenet/news.answers/puzzles/
ftp://ftp.cs.ruu.nl/pub/NEWS.ANSWERS/puzzles/
ftp://src.doc.ic.ac.uk/usenet/news-faqs/news.answers/puzzles/archive
ftp://ftp.uni-paderborn.de/doc/FAQ/rec/puzzles
ftp://ftp.hk.super.net/mirror/faqs/puzzles/
http://einstein.et.tudelft.nl/~arlet/puzzles/index.html
http://www.nova.edu/Inter-Links/puzzles.html
http://xraysgi.ims.uconn.edu/searchform.html
http://xraysgi.ims.uconn.edu/others.html
GEPs -- Generico-Eponymic Paradoxes
http://www.cs.indiana.edu/hyplan/tanaka/GEB/GEPs.html
"Homer's epics weren't written by him, but by someone
else of the same name."
"Shakespeare's plays weren't written by him, but by
someone else of the same name."
American TV commercial for Smucker's (maker of jelly) ---
"With a name like Smucker's, it's got to be good".
at a fast-food restaurant:
"You want the Coke or some other Coke?"
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