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To: tortoise
Aha! Gödel, Escher, Bach: An Eternal Golden Braid!!!

Is that by any chance why your Freeper handle is "tortoise?"

200 posted on 10/27/2002 9:53:56 PM PST by Alamo-Girl
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To: Alamo-Girl
Aha! Gödel, Escher, Bach: An Eternal Golden Braid!!!
Is that by any chance why your Freeper handle is "tortoise?"

You are a very smart girl! :-)

In truth, when I was writing that post (and disparaging books in general ;-) I started to consider what books related to the subject that I actually owned on my bookshelf. It turns out that I only have two books on my bookshelf even vaguely related to AI: The GEB book and the Li/Vitanyi book on Kolmogorov Complexity. Everything else I have amounts to a handful of obscure papers. Since the Li/Vitanyi book is esoteric and not directly related to AI (though the mathematics is extremely important), I opted for the Hofstadter book which I haven't read in years. I have an excellent memory and often work beyond the published edges of the fields I dabble in, so I find that a large library does not get used very often and opt to only keep a few texts that still have value to me.

My handle actually comes from a number of sources, and has been in use here and other places for a very long time. I used to have a carved stone tortoise in my office (since shattered in an accident) which I adopted as a handle. The tortoise is also a powerful metaphor in many cultures around the world, and has good symbolism. Lastly, it was indeed a subtle nod to Hofstadter for writing a book that inspired me many, many years ago. As an added bonus, it is a handle that apparently is not generally used by other people, so it is almost always available when I create accounts at various sites.

Regards!

222 posted on 10/28/2002 10:16:58 AM PST by tortoise
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