Metamagical themas : questing for the essence of mind and pattern. [On Self-Referential Sentences. The strangeness of language folding back on itself is explored here in dozens of different ways, many of them quite amusing; Self-Referential Sentences: A Follow-Up. A large collection of new material carries the idea of linguistic folding-back considerably furthe r, and goes more deeply into the mechanisms of linguistic self-reference and self-replication; On Viral Sentences and Self-Replicating Structures. In which the concept of "memes", or self-replicating ideas, is discussed, as well as the idea of indirect self-reference; Nomic: A Self-Modifying Game Based on Reflexivity in Law. A remarkable game is described]

xxviii, 852 p. : ill. ; 24 cm. ; BOMC ; ISBN: 0465045405 :; 9780465045402 ; LCCN: 83-46095 ; Includes articles, many of which originally appeared in Scientific American, on memes, innumeracy, William Safire, Frederic Chopin, Rubik's Cube, strange at tractors, Lisp, Heisenburg's uncertainty principle, quantum mechanics, Alan Turing, sphexishness, Prisoner's dilemma, and other topics. ; Contents : Section I: Snags and Snarls Chapter 1: On Self-Referential Sentences. The strangeness of language folding back on itself is explored here in dozens of different ways, many of them quite amusing. -- Chapter 2: Self-Referential Sentences: A Follow-Up. A large collection of new material carries the idea of linguistic folding-back considerably further, and goes more deeply into the mechanisms of linguistic self-reference and self-replication.-- Chapter 3: On Viral Sentences and Self-Replicating Structures. In which the concept of "memes", or self-replicating ideas, is discussed, as well as the idea of indirect self-reference. -- Chapter 4: Nomic: A Self-Modifying Game Based on Reflexivity in Law. A remarkable game is described, which resembles a government in that a large part of its activity is devoted to changing its laws lawfully. -- Section II: Sense and Society Chapter 5: World Views in Collision: The Skeptical Inquirer versus the National Enquirer. An inquiry into why so many people are taken in by publications that give much play to "paranormal" or "psi" phenomena, and a report on an unusual journal that combats the psi panderers. -- Chapter 6: On Number Numbness. A lamentation of the general low level of people's understanding of the vast numbers that describe our society's population, consumption, budgets, weaponry, and so on, including some suggestions for helping increase "numeracy". -- Chapter 7: Changes in Default Words and Images, Engendered by Rising Consciousness. On the deep, hidden, and oft-denied connections between subconscious imagery and discriminatory usage in everyday language. -- Chapter 8: A Person Paper on Purity in Language. Master William Satire vents his anger at those who, for cheap political reasons, would destroy the beauty of English by introducing ugly neologisms and changing the usage of venerated old terms. -- Section III: Sparking and Slipping -- Chapter 9: Pattern, Poetry, and Power in the Music of Frédéric Chopin. How did this great composer manage to encode extremely powerful and extremely delicate feelings into mere patterns of notes? -- Chapter 10. Parquet Deformations: A Subtle, Intricate Art Form -- Chapter 11. Stuff and Nonsense -- Chapter 12. Variations on a Theme as the Crux of Creativity -- Chapter 13. Metafont, Metamathematics, and Metaphysics -- Section IV: Structure and Strangeness Chapter 14. Magic Cubology -- Chapter 15. On Crossing the Rubicon ; blue cloth with gold lettering in color pictorial dustjacket ; highly entertaining reading ; thick volume ; tiny mark on front cover, else FINE/FINE.…