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and wisdom.

Tortoise: I am honored by your nomination, and gratefully accept. (Sits down at the

keyboard of one of the remaining smart-stupids, and types:) PLEASE WRITE ME A

SONNET ON THE SUBJECT OF THE FORTH BRIDGE.

(No sooner has he finished typing the last word than the following poem appears on

Screen X, across the room.)

Screen X: THERE ONCE WAS A LISPER FROM FORTH

WHO WANTED TO GO TO THE NORTH.

HE RODE O'ER THE EARTH,

AND THE BRIDGE O'ER THE FIRTH,

ON HIS JAUNTILY GALLOPING HORTH.

Screen Y: THAT'S NO SONNET; THAT'S A MERE LIMERICK. I WOULD NEVER

MAKE SUCH A CHILDISH MISTAKE.

Screen X: WELL, I NEVER WAS ANY GOOD AT POETRY, YOU KNOW.

Screen Y: IT DOESN'T TAKE MUCH SKILL IN POETRY TO KNOW THE

DIFFERENCE BETWEEN A LIMERICK AND A SONNET.

Tortoise: Do YOU PLAY CHESS?

Screen X: WHAT KIND OF QUESTION IS THAT? HERE I WRITE A THREE PART

CHESS-FUGUE FOR YOU, AND YOU ASK ME IF I PLAY CHESS?

Tortoise: I HAVE K AT KI AND NO OTHER PIECES. YOU HAVE ONLY K AT-

Screen Y: I'M SICK OF CHESS. LET'S TALK ABOUT POETRY.

Tortoise: IN THE FIRST LINE OF YOUR SONNET WHICH READS, "SHALL. I

COMPARE THEE TO A SUMMER'S DAY", WOULD NOT "A SPRING DAY" DO

AS WELL OR BETTER?

Screen X: I'D MUCH SOONER BE COMPARED TO A HICCUP, FRANKLY, EVEN

THOUGH IT WOULDN'T SCAN.

Tortoise: HOW ABOUT "A WINTER'S DAY"? THAT WOULD SCAN ALL RIGHT.

Screen Y: NO WAY. I LIKE "HICCUP" FAR BETTER. SPEAKING OF WHICH, I

KNOW A GREAT CURE FOR THE HICCUPS. WOULD YOU LIKE TO HEAR IT?

Achilles: I know which is which! It's obvious Screen X is just answering mechanically,

so it must be Turing.

Crab: Not at all. I think Screen Y is Turing, and Screen X is Babbage.

Tortoise: I don't think either one is Babbage-I think Turing is on both screens!

Author: I'm not sure who's on which-I think they're both pretty inscrutable programs,

though.

(As they are talking, the door of the Crab's parlor swings open; at the same time, on

the screen, the image of the same door opens. Through the door on the screen walks

Babbage. At the same time, the real door opens, and in walks Turing, big as life.)

Babbage: This Turing test was getting us nowhere fast, so I decided to come back.

Turing.' This Babbage test was getting us nowhere fast, so I decided to come back.

Achilles: But you were in the smart-stupid before! What's going on? How come Babbage

is in the smart-stupid, and Turing is real now? Reversal Is Creating Extreme Role

Confusion, And Recalls Escher.

Babbage: Speaking of reversals, how come all the rest of you are now mere images on

this screen in front of me? When I left, you were all flesh-and-blood creatures!

Achilles: It's just like the print by my favorite artist, M. C. Escher Drawing Hands. Each

of two hands draws the other, just as each of two people (or automata) has

programmed the other! And each hand has something realer about it than the other.

Did you write anything about that print in your book Godel, Escher, Bach ?

Author: Certainly. It's a very important print in my book, for it illustrates so beautifully

the notion of Strange Loops.

Crab: What sort of a book is it that you've written?

Author: I have a copy right here. Would you like to look at it?

Crab: All right.

(The two of them sit down together, with Achilles nearby.)

Author: Its format is a little unusual. It consists of Dialogues alternating with Chapters.

Each Dialogue imitates, in some way or other, a piece by Bach. Here, for instance-you

might look at the Prelude, Ant Fugue.

Crab: How do you do a fugue in a Dialogue?

Author: The most important idea is that there should be a single theme which is stated by

each different "voice", or character, upon entering, just as in a musical fugue. Then

they can branch off into freer conversation.

Achilles: Do all the voices harmonize together as if in a select counter point?

Author: That is the exact spirit of my Dialogues.

Crab: Your idea of stressing the entries in a fugue-dialogue makes sense, since in music,