From: "David S." <dgjs@...>
Date: 2001-01-26T15:22:22+09:00
Subject: [ruby-talk:9911] Re: First quines in ruby?

> # 
> # The word "quine" comes from the mathematician Quine, by way of
> # Hofstadter's book _Goedel, Escher, Bach_.
> 
> I wonder if Quine might have thought that Gauss and Vermeer were more 
> fitting counterpoints of Bach (even though Goedel and Escher were both 
> pretty clever and creative). I know I do. 

I don't think that the author chose _Goedel, Escher, Bach_ as his title
because those three were his favorite mathematician, painter, and 
musician, respectively.  The book, after all, was a "fugue" on a theme
of paradoxes of self-reference - the basic idea in the proof of Goedel's
incompleteness results, and the only idea Escher ever had.

> 
> Conrad Schneiker
> (This note is unofficial and subject to improvement without notice.)

David S.