News for hackers. Stuff that matters.
Re:The theory of relativity in words of four letters or less by breadbox on Friday May 17, 2013 @01:07PM (#5725512)
It was in fact the latter.

(I was inspired in part by Douglas Hofstadter, who did something similar on a smaller scale in "Le Ton Beau de Marot".)

Re:The theory of relativity in words of four letters or less by derekp7 on Friday May 17, 2013 @01:14PM (#5725550)
Sounds very similar to Guy Steel's "Growing a Language" talk. His constraint was to not use any word greater than one syllable unless it is defined by either one-syllable words, or other words that had been previously defined.
Re:The theory of relativity in words of four letters or less by dpritchett on Friday May 17, 2013 @01:29PM (#5725652)
That really is a great talk! It's on Youtube too: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_ahvzDzKdB0
Re:The theory of relativity in words of four letters or less by daviddaviddavid on Friday May 17, 2013 @01:25PM (#5725621)
Wow. I was sure this was inspired by George Boolos' great "Godel's Second Incompleteness Theorem Explained in Words of One Syllable".

http://www2.kenyon.edu/Depts/Math/Milnikel/boolos-godel.pdf

I wonder if Hofstadter was inspired by Boolos?

Re:The theory of relativity in words of four letters or less by breadbox on Friday May 17, 2013 @01:30PM (#5725660)
Actually, Hofstadter states that he was inspired by a magazine contest.