Re: Bus boys: two nations divided by a common language

[Nick Nicholas <nsn@MULLIAN.EE.MU.OZ.AU>]

To Logical Language Group respond I thus:

#ObLojban:
#        "valporsi gi'e ganai se lidne le xe fanva be fi le drata bangu
#        pe le gi'uste gi'e se sruri lo sitna lerfu gi jitfa"
#        is a phrase and, if preceded by its translation into the other language
#        of the gismu list and surrounded by quotation marks, is false.
#(after Douglas Hofstadter)

You fiend! You fiend! I was reading Metamagical Themas last night for the first
time in ages. I was still non-excited by it, but was a bit surprised to find
Dougie has actually made some substantial contributions to the AI debate after
all (which should come in handy for my Philosophy essay --- when I write it.)
I was also surpised to find Dougie is more or less responsible for the craze
of .sig viruses that has swept the net.

In any case, there is a gargantuan self-referential story in there by David
Moser, which I think would translate well into Lojban, and indeed would deserve
publication as the kind of thing Lojbanists like (I doubt getting copyright
release would be a problem). Here's the start of it:


dei tcita ledei lisri gi'e so'iroi refpagbu le se tcita lisri

ni'o dei pamoi le'i jufra pe ledei lisri .i dei remoi le'i jufra .i dei
tcita ledei lisri gi'e so'iroi refpagbu le se tcita lisri .i dei jaisepi'o
senpi lenu le re lidne jufra cu jinzi vamji .i dei jaisepi'o jungau do
fau leda'inu do puzi na'e sanji kei lenu ledei lisri cu sevzi pilno gi'e
va'i se pagbu loi jufra noi xusra tu'a leke'a stura je terpli .i dei fanmo
le pamoi jufrygri

This Is The Title of This Story, Which Is Also Found Several Times in the
Story Itself

This is the first sentence of this story. This is the second sentence. This
is the title of this story, which is also found several times in the story
itself. This sentence is questioning the intrinsic value of the first two
sentences. This sentence is to inform you, in case you haven't already
realised it, that this is a self-referential story, that is, a story
containing sentences that refer to their own structure and function. This is
a sentence that provides an ending to the first paragraph.

 %%%   %%%   %%%   %%%   %%%   %%%   %%%   %%%   %%%   %%%   %%%   %%%   %%%
non me tenent vincula, non me tenet clavis, %   (nsn@mullian.ee.mu.oz.au)
quaero mei similes et adjungor pravis.      % Nick Nicholas, CogSci victim,
      --- Archipoeta, _Confessio_.          % Univ. of Melbourne, Australia