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Nope, although this reference might have its origin in the same story.
k
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I'll look for it, its a short Sci Fi story, now in the archive of a BB of a .alt newsgroup.. if you want to use google, do an advanced search and look for newsgroups. i stumpled across it years ago. (at least 4!) so its old!
i am sure my son knows exactly where its is.. but will he tell me in a timely manner?
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I've looked there (several times) and wasn't able to find it.
k
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self-reference in the bibliography of GEB
That would be "Copper, Silver, Gold: an Indescribable Metal Alloy, by Egbert B Gebstadter..."?
GEB is Godel, Escher, Bach: an Eternal Golden Braid, by Douglas R Hofstadter, originally published by Basic Books in 1979 and still in print in paperback. It's a sweeping tour-de-force, about self-reference in art, music, mathematics, biology, DNA, the mind, artificial intelligence, and many other things [highly oversimplified]. For those who haven't read it there is a highly laudatory review in Scientific American, July 1979, in Martin Gardiner's "Mathematical Games" column.
GEB won the ALPA award for nonfiction that year, then the Pulitzer prize, and has the dubious distinction of having been called "the most esoteric book ever to reach #1 on the New York Times Best-Seller list." It's full of puzzles, wordplay, ingenious twists. Many but not all of the posers have answers given, often hidden but detectable.
PS. The Cryptonomicon (Neal Stephenson) "GEB" character was named for three other characters - Gunther, Enoch, and Bobbie. (You may infer that both the Hofstadter and the Stephenson books are among my favorites!)
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That would be "Copper, Silver, Gold: an Indescribable Metal Alloy, by Egbert B Gebstadter..."?
That would be it!
PS. The Cryptonomicon (Neal Stephenson) "GEB" character was named for three other characters - Gunther, Enoch, and Bobbie. (You may infer that both the Hofstadter and the Stephenson books are among my favorites!)
Now THAT is intruiging. Was I right that NS was tweaking someone and wrong about whom it was he was tweaking?
Cryptonomicon is my very favorite book. GEB was very enjoyable, but there were a few things I didn't understand very well.
k
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... or about another Hofstaedter wonder: Le Ton Beau de Marot - what a delightful read about translation, artificial intelligence, love -- full of wordplay in several languages
the main text is in English, despite the title
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>The Cryptonomicon "GEB" character was named for three other characters - Gunther, Enoch, and Bobbie.
> Now THAT is intruiging. Was I right that NS was tweaking someone and wrong about whom it was he was tweaking?
It's too carefully crafted to have been inadvertent, but I've never seen it addressed. Not that I've looked too hard. There are Neal Stephenson websites but I have't searched them for this.
> GEB was very enjoyable, but there were a few things I didn't understand very well.
Only a few ? Count yourself highly perceptive. I can share a few of my prouder insights if you're interested - PM probably the more appropriate forum for this. (The dialogue with Cops Silva and Gould in particular is my favorite, speaking of Indescribable Metal Alloy...)
>Cryptonomicon is my very favorite book.
High on my list too. I understand there is a whole trilogy laid out, with the second part in the works at this very moment - though I can't for the life of me figure out what he might be planning by way of follow-up.
By the way, for a prequel to Cryptonomicon, I found Enigma by Robert Harris to be a captivating introduction to the subject of cryptography, WW2 vintage.
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> GEB was very enjoyable, but there were a few things I didn't understand very well.
Only a few ?
hehehe. I was understating the obvious. I doubt there were many people who weren't left scratching their heads over a great portion of that book. Although I was already writing recursive programs at the time and I *felt* comfortable with it. Of course, there's understanding and there's UNDERSTANDING. My biggest confusion was the music tie-in, maybe because I didn't already know something about it. It's been years since I read it, but the connection seemed pretty weak.
k
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FallibleFiend> I've looked there (several times) and wasn't able to find it.My sentiments exactly about those *&#@% stereograms.   
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ditto!
I've never had problems when they were on paper, but on the computer screen -- it just ain't happenin' for me!
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