An English Quine
A quine is a computer program which takes no input and produces a copy of its own source code as its only output.
Puzzle. Assuming English is a computer language, write a quine in English.
My students had many solutions on how to solve this puzzle. They were all variations on “Write this sentence.” This is a self-referential sentence which doesn’t quite work. I even tried it on ChatGPT with the following result, “Of course, I’d be happy to help! Please provide the sentence you’d like me to write, and I’ll assist you with it.”
However, the solution I originally had in mind worked. ChatGPT repeated my input. So, ChatGPT provides a simple way for you to check your answer to this puzzle.
My students had more ideas. One of them suggested screaming at a friend, forcing the friend person to scream back. In a similar vein, one might say hello to a person in order to hear hello back. I tried this with ChatGPT, but it didn’t work. The bot replied, “Hello! How can I assist you today?”
Another trivial idea is to write nothing. This certainly works perfectly with ChatGPT.
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Leo B.:
Something along the lines of
Please write, followed by its quotation, then a period “Please write, followed by its quotation, then a period”.
7 November 2023, 10:02 pm