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| title    = Hofstadter
 
| title    = Hofstadter
 
| image    = hofstadter.png
 
| image    = hofstadter.png
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| imagesize =
 
| titletext = "This is the reference implementation of the self-referential joke."
 
| titletext = "This is the reference implementation of the self-referential joke."
 
}}
 
}}
  
 
==Explanation==
 
==Explanation==
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{{w|Douglas Hofstadter}} is an American author who has written several books about philosophy, mathematics, and science. He is perhaps most famous for his book ''{{w|Gödel, Escher, Bach}}'' which explores "strange loops," or {{w|self-reference|self-referential systems}}. "Meta-" is a Greek prefix meaning "outside" or "beyond." As an adjective, "meta" informally refers to anything self-referential, like the last phrase of this sentence. An example of the use of such a term can be found in [[1313: Regex Golf]].
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{{w|Douglas Hofstadter}} is an American and to quote Wikipedia: "...an American academic whose research focuses on consciousness, analogy-making, artistic creation, literary translation, and discovery in mathematics and physics." In 2007, he wrote a book called {{w|I Am a Strange Loop}} in which he studied the properties of {{w|self-reference|self-referential systems}}. In popular culture, self reference is referred to as being {{w|meta}}.
  
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At first reading, the six word autobiography in the second panel, "I'm So Meta, Even This ''Acronym''", may seem unfinished, however the clue is in the final word. An acronym is an abbreviation formed by the initial letters of a series of words, and reading the first letter of each of the six words in order yields "ISMETA", completing the sentence and setting up the self-reference where it reads "I'm so meta, even this acronym IS META". Hofstadter himself did something similar in ''Gödel, Escher, Bach'' in the chapter "Contracrostipunctus", where the first letter of each line spells out the phrase "'''H'''ofstadter's '''C'''ontracrostipunctus '''A'''crostically '''B'''ackwards '''S'''pells '''J'''.S.Bach" - and taking the first letters of each word in ''that'' sentence backwards does indeed spell "'''J.S. BACH'''".
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So, the one line autobiography is meta because it is also an acronym which reads "IS META", thus finishing its own sentence.
  
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This comic is probably a reference to ''{{w|Six-Word Memoirs}}'', a project launched in 2006 in which people "tell their life story in just six-words".
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In the title text, reference implementation is a reference to the standard implementation during a software development process.
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This comic may additionally be a reference to the meme "explain <whatever> in six words", which was making the rounds at the time.
 
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In the title text, a ''reference implementation'' is, broadly, an example of how to implement some feature during the software development process. In this case the feature is a self-referential joke, and the sentence itself is, correctly, self-referential.
 
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Hofstadter has been referenced before, in the title text of [[555: Two Mirrors]] and [[608: Form]]. Furthermore, his famous book has been directly spoofed in the title of [[24: Godel, Escher, Kurt Halsey]]. Finally, the self-reference reference ("IS META") is also a typical concept used most famously in [[688: Self-Description]] but also in [[:Category:Self-reference|several other comics]].
 
  
 
==Transcript==
 
==Transcript==
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:[Cueball sits at a desk, working on a laptop. Megan approaches the desk and picks up a tiny book.]
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:[A man sits at a desk, working on a laptop. A woman approaches the desk and picks up a tiny book.]
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:Megan: What's this?
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:Woman: What's this?  
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:Cueball: Douglas Hofstadter's six-word autobiography. After all those 700-page tomes, I guess he wanted to try for brevity.
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:Man: Douglas Hofstadter's six-word autobiography. After all those 700-page tomes, I guess he wanted to try for brevity.
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:Megan: Huh. Let's see...
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:Woman: Huh. Let's see...
  
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:[Close up of Megan, reading the tiny book.]
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:[Close up of woman, reading the tiny book.]
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:Book: I'm So Meta, Even This ''Acronym''
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:Book: I'm So Meta, Even This Acronym
  
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:[Full shot of Cueball and Megan again. Megan looks down at the tiny book in her hand.]
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:[Full shot of man and woman again. The woman looks down at the tiny book in her hand.]
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:Megan: ...whoa.
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:Woman: ...whoa.
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:Cueball: I think he nailed it.
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:Man: I think he nailed it.
  
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{{comic discussion}}
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{{comic discussion}}  
 
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
 
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
 
[[Category:Comics featuring Megan]]
 
[[Category:Comics featuring Megan]]
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[[Category:Language]]
 
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[[Category:Self-reference]]
 

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