Editing 917: Hofstadter

{{comic
| number    = 917
| date      = June 27, 2011
| title     = Hofstadter
| image     = hofstadter.png
| titletext = "This is the reference implementation of the self-referential joke."
}}

==Explanation==
{{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]].

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'''".

This comic may additionally be a reference to the meme "explain <whatever> in six words", which was making the rounds at the time.

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.

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==
:[Cueball sits at a desk, working on a laptop. Megan approaches the desk and picks up a tiny book.]
:Megan: What's this?
:Cueball: Douglas Hofstadter's six-word autobiography. After all those 700-page tomes, I guess he wanted to try for brevity.
:Megan: Huh. Let's see...

:[Close up of Megan, reading the tiny book.]
:Book: I'm So Meta, Even This ''Acronym''

:[Full shot of Cueball and Megan again. Megan looks down at the tiny book in her hand.]
:Megan: ...whoa.
:Cueball: I think he nailed it.

{{comic discussion}}
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Megan]]
[[Category:Language]]
[[Category:Self-reference]]