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crabcanon

Dataset card Data Studio Files
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Tortoise: Do you remember one day when you and I met in the park, seemingly at
random?
Achilles: The day we discussed crab canons by Escher and Bach? Tortoise: The very one!
Achilles: And Mr. Crab, as I recall, turned up somewhere towards the middle of our
conversation and babbled something funny and then left.
Crab: Not just "somewhere towards the middle", Achilles. EXACTLY in the middle.
Achilles: Oh, all right, then.
Tortoise: Do you realize that your lines were the same as my lines in that conversation-
except in reverse order? A few words were changed here and there, but in essence
there was a time symmetry to our encounter.
Achilles: Big Deal! It was just some sort of trickery. Probably all done with mirrors.
Tortoise: No trickery. Achilles, and no mirrors: just the work of an assiduous Author.
Achilles: Oh, well, it's all the same to me.
Tortoise: Fiddle' It makes a big difference, you know.
Achilles: Say, something about this conversation strikes me as familiar. Haven't I heard
some of those lines somewhere before= Tortoise: You said it, Achilles.
Crab: Perhaps those lines occurred at random in the park one day, Achilles. Do you recall
how your conversation with Mr. T ran that day?
Achilles: Vaguely. He said "Good day, Mr. A" at the beginning, and at the end, I said,
"Good day, Mr. T". Is that right
Crab: I just happen to have a transcript right here ...
(He fishes around in his music case, whips out a sheet, and hands it to Achilles. As
Achilles reads it, he begins to squirm and fidget noticeable.)
Achilles: This is very strange. Very, very strange ... All of a Sudden, I feel sort of-weird.
It's as if somebody had actually planned out that whole set of statements in advance,
worked them out on paper or something . As if some Author had had a whole agenda
and worked from it in detail in planning all those statements I made that day.
(At that moment, the door bursts open. Enter the Author, carrying a giant
manuscript.)
Author: I can get along very well without such a program. You see, once my characters
are formed, they seem to have lives of their own, and I need to exert very little effort
in planning their lines.
Crab: Oh, here you are!' I thought you'd never arrive!
Author: Sorry to be so late. I followed the wrong road and wound up very far away. But
somehow I made it back. Good to see you again, Mr. T and Mr. C. And Achilles, I'm
especially glad to see you.
Achilles: Who are you? I've never seen you before.
Author: I am Douglas Hofstadter-please call me Doug-and I'm presently finishing up a
book called Godel, Escher, Bach: an Eternal Golden Braid. It is the book in which
the three of you are characters.
Achilles: Pleased to meet you. My name is Achilles, and-
Author: No need to introduce yourself, Achilles, since I already know you quite well.
Achilles: Weird, weird.
Crab: He's the one I was saying might drop in and play continuo with us.
Author: I've been playing the Musical Offering a little bit on my piano at home, and I can
try to blunder my way through the Trio Sonata providing you'll overlook my many
wrong notes.
Tortoise: Oh, we're very tolerant around here, being only amateurs our selves.
Author: I hope you don't mind, Achilles, but I'm to blame for the tact that you and Mr.
Tortoise said the same things, but in reverse order, that day in the park.
Crab: Don't forget me' I was there, too right in the middle, putting in my two bits' worth!
Author: Of course! You were the Crab in the Crab Canon.
Achilles: So you are saying you control my utterances;, That my brain is a software
subsystem of yours?
Author: You can put it that way if you want, Achilles.
Achilles: Suppose I were to write dialogues. Who would the author of them beg You, or
me?
Author: You, of course. At least in the fictitious world which you inhabit, you'd get credit
for them.
Achilles: Fictitious? I don't see anything fictitious about it!
Author: Whereas in the world I inhabit, perhaps the credit would be given to me,
although I am not sure if it would be proper to do so. And then, whoever made me
make you write your dialogues would get credit in his world (seen from which, MY
world looks fictitious).