24: Godel, Escher, Kurt Halsey - Revision history

2A02:A420:27D9:F83C:ED87:D5E0:8D12:7D1F: /* Explanation */

2026-04-11T06:53:13Z

‎Explanation

FaviFake at 09:07, 3 September 2025

2025-09-03T09:07:09Z

FaviFake: New template!!! Take a look, it has a new bottom navigation bar to browse the early xkcd comics in the original order, and a new style for the original title!

2025-04-25T19:04:19Z

New template!!! Take a look, it has a new bottom navigation bar to browse the early xkcd comics in the original order, and a new style for the original title!

FaviFake: New template!!! Take a look, it has a new bottom navigation bar to browse the early xkcd comics in the original order, and a new style for the original title!

2025-04-25T19:02:12Z

New template!!! Take a look, it has a new bottom navigation bar to browse the early xkcd comics in the original order, and a new style for the original title!

FaviFake at 21:24, 24 April 2025

2025-04-24T21:24:52Z

FaviFake: fixed, my bad the OGTITLE doesn't show up

2025-04-24T21:24:12Z

fixed, my bad the OGTITLE doesn't show up

DollarStoreBa'al at 21:13, 24 April 2025

2025-04-24T21:13:34Z

FaviFake at 16:02, 26 March 2025

2025-03-26T16:02:29Z

FaviFake: /* Trivia */

2025-03-04T17:11:02Z

‎Trivia

FaviFake at 09:29, 23 February 2025

2025-02-23T09:29:17Z

@@ Line 21: / Line 21: @@
 * ''{{w|Gödel, Escher, Bach}}'' is a book by {{w|Douglas Hofstadter}}. He is an American author who has written several books about philosophy, mathematics, and science. This particular book is his most famous one, about "strange loops", self-reference, and recurring patterns, partially shown through the works of the three people in its title:
 ** {{w|Kurt Gödel}} was a 20th-century mathematician most famous for proving that in our commonly used axiomatic systems, there are true propositions that cannot be proved from the axioms. His proof used a self-referential paradox.
-** {{w|M. C. Escher}} was a 20th-century artist most famous for mathematically inspired engravings of tessellated animals, impossible scenes, [https://philosopherdeveloper.files.wordpress.com/2011/01/devilsangels.jpg hyperbolic geometry], and so on. The form of this strip resembles one of his [https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/2/2c/Escher,_Metamorphosis_II.jpg Metamorphosis etchings].
+** {{w|M. C. Escher}} was a 20th-century Dutch artist most famous for mathematically inspired engravings of tessellated animals, impossible scenes, [https://philosopherdeveloper.files.wordpress.com/2011/01/devilsangels.jpg hyperbolic geometry], and so on. The form of this strip resembles one of his [https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/2/2c/Escher,_Metamorphosis_II.jpg Metamorphosis etchings].
-** {{w|Johann Sebastian Bach}} was a German composer and musician from the {{w|Baroque Period}}, famous for numerous works such as the ''{{w|Brandenburg Concertos}}'' and his extensive use of the fugue form of composition, which involves the expression of a theme, its development, and finally a recapitulation or return to the original expression.
+** {{w|Johann Sebastian Bach}} was an 18th-century German composer and musician from the {{w|Baroque Period}}, famous for numerous works such as the ''{{w|Brandenburg Concertos}}'' and his extensive use of the fugue form of composition, which involves the expression of a theme, its development, and finally a recapitulation or return to the original expression.
 * Kurt Halsey is a comic artist from {{w|Oregon}}. His work often contains introspective philosophical musings. At least one phrase in the letter is attributed to Halsey, "The past is just practice".

@@ Line 24: / Line 24: @@
 ** {{w|Johann Sebastian Bach}} was a German composer and musician from the {{w|Baroque Period}}, famous for numerous works such as the ''{{w|Brandenburg Concertos}}'' and his extensive use of the fugue form of composition, which involves the expression of a theme, its development, and finally a recapitulation or return to the original expression.
 * Kurt Halsey is a comic artist from {{w|Oregon}}. His work often contains introspective philosophical musings. At least one phrase in the letter is attributed to Halsey, "The past is just practice".
 ===Interpretations===
@@ Line 122: / Line 120: @@
 ==Trivia==
 This is the first xkcd comic featuring [[stick figure]]s, [[Cueball]], [[Megan]], and [[:Category:Multiple Cueballs|multiple Cueballs]].
 {{comic discussion}}

@@ Line 10: / Line 10: @@
 | ognext    = 13
 | image     = godel_escher_kurthalsey.jpg
-| titletext = I love the idea here, though of course it's not a great-quality drawing or scan.<br><br>''<span class="plainlinks">[https://web.archive.org/web/20070927001941/http://xkcd-drawings.livejournal.com/?skip=40#:~:text=8%3A40%20pm-,Strip%20series,-One%20of%20a Original caption]:'' One of a series of strips I drew during a long and boring NASA lecture. It careers wildly from intellectual to chaotic to Godel, Escher, Bach to Kurt Halsey to chaotic and sappy.<br>The whole series is [http://www.xkcd.com/comic/comic.html here].</span>
+| titletext = I love the idea here, though of course it's not a great-quality drawing or scan.<br><br>''<div class="plainlinks">[https://web.archive.org/web/20070927001941/http://xkcd-drawings.livejournal.com/?skip=40#:~:text=8%3A40%20pm-,Strip%20series,-One%20of%20a Original caption]:'' One of a series of strips I drew during a long and boring NASA lecture. It careers wildly from intellectual to chaotic to Godel, Escher, Bach to Kurt Halsey to chaotic and sappy.<br>The whole series is [http://www.xkcd.com/comic/comic.html here].</div>
 }}

@@ Line 13: / Line 13: @@
 }}
-This was the sixth comic originally posted to [[LiveJournal]]. The previous one was [[1: Barrel - Part 1]], and the next one was [[13: Canyon]]. It was among the [[:Category:First day on LiveJournal|first thirteen comics]] posted to LiveJournal within 12 minutes on September 30, 2005, on the first day of the xkcd LiveJournal account.
+This was the sixth comic [[LiveJournal|originally posted to LiveJournal]]. The previous one was [[1: Barrel - Part 1]], and the next one was [[13: Canyon]]. It was among the [[:Category:First day on LiveJournal|first thirteen comics]] posted to LiveJournal within 12 minutes on September 30, 2005, on the first day of the xkcd LiveJournal account.
 ==Explanation==

@@ Line 5: / Line 5: @@
 | before    = [[#Explanation|↓ Skip to explanation ↓]]
 | ognumber  = 6
-| ogtitle   = Godel, Escher, Kurt Halsey
+| ogtitle   = Strip series
-| oglink    = Strip series
+| oglink    = https://web.archive.org/web/20070927001941/http://xkcd-drawings.livejournal.com/?skip=40#:~:text=8%3A40%20pm-,Strip%20series,-One%20of%20a
 | ogprev    = 1
 | ognext    = 13

@@ Line 3: / Line 3: @@
 | date      = September 30, 2005
 | title     = Godel, Escher, Kurt Halsey
-|ognumber =3
+| before    = [[#Explanation|↓ Skip to explanation ↓]]
-|ogtitle =Godel, Escher, Kurt Halsey
+| ognumber  = 6
-|oglink =[https://web.archive.org/web/20070927001941/http://xkcd-drawings.livejournal.com/?skip=40#:~:text=8%3A40%20pm-,Strip%20series,-One%20of%20a Original title</span>]: '''Strip series'''</big></big><br><br>[[#Explanation|↓ Skip to explanation ↓]]
+| ogtitle   = Godel, Escher, Kurt Halsey
-|ogprev =1
+| oglink    = Strip series
-|ognext =13
+| ogprev    = 1
 | image     = godel_escher_kurthalsey.jpg
-| titletext = I love the idea here, though of course it's not a great-quality drawing or scan.<br><br>''<span class="plainlinks">[https://web.archive.org/web/20070927001941/http://xkcd-drawings.livejournal.com/?skip=40#:~:text=8%3A40%20pm-,Strip%20series,-One%20of%20a Original caption]: One of a series of strips I drew during a long and boring NASA lecture. It careers wildly from intellectual to chaotic to Godel, Escher, Bach to Kurt Halsey to chaotic and sappy.<br>The whole series is [http://www.xkcd.com/comic/comic.html here].</span>''
+| titletext = I love the idea here, though of course it's not a great-quality drawing or scan.<br><br>''<span class="plainlinks">[https://web.archive.org/web/20070927001941/http://xkcd-drawings.livejournal.com/?skip=40#:~:text=8%3A40%20pm-,Strip%20series,-One%20of%20a Original caption]:'' One of a series of strips I drew during a long and boring NASA lecture. It careers wildly from intellectual to chaotic to Godel, Escher, Bach to Kurt Halsey to chaotic and sappy.<br>The whole series is [http://www.xkcd.com/comic/comic.html here].</span>
 }}

@@ Line 8: / Line 8: @@
 }}
 This was the sixth comic originally posted to [[LiveJournal]]. The previous one was [[1: Barrel - Part 1]], and the next one was [[13: Canyon]]. It was among the [[:Category:First day on LiveJournal|first thirteen comics]] posted to LiveJournal within 12 minutes on September 30, 2005, on the first day of the xkcd LiveJournal account.
 At the time [[xkcd]] was created, [[Randall]] was working on robotics at {{w|NASA}}'s Langley Center. This comic was drawn during that period, while attending a talk that he didn't seem to like. The comic is drawn in the form of a {{w|storyboard}} and is intended to be visualized as an animated sequence. In the first part of the comic, two people discuss the difficulty of comparing past and present generations, since the person making the comparison invariably belongs to one of the two groups. The character with a hat is not [[Black Hat]], as Randall hadn't standardized his character designs yet. The assembly of text panels found in the middle of the strip is similar to [[124: Blogofractal]]. The philosophy of Kurt Gödel is also a theme in [[468: Fetishes]].

@@ Line 5: / Line 5: @@
 | before    = <big><big><span class="plainlinks">[https://web.archive.org/web/20070927001941/http://xkcd-drawings.livejournal.com/?skip=40#:~:text=8%3A40%20pm-,Strip%20series,-One%20of%20a Original title</span>]: '''Strip series'''</big></big><br><br>[[#Explanation|↓ Skip to explanation ↓]]
 | image     = godel_escher_kurthalsey.jpg
-| titletext = I love the idea here, though of course it's not a great-quality drawing or scan.<br><br><span class="plainlinks">[https://web.archive.org/web/20070927001941/http://xkcd-drawings.livejournal.com/?skip=40#:~:text=8%3A40%20pm-,Strip%20series,-One%20of%20a Original caption]: One of a series of strips I drew during a long and boring NASA lecture. It careers wildly from intellectual to chaotic to Godel, Escher, Bach to Kurt Halsey to chaotic and sappy.<br>The whole series is [http://www.xkcd.com/comic/comic.html here</span>].
+| titletext = I love the idea here, though of course it's not a great-quality drawing or scan.<br><br><span class="plainlinks">[https://web.archive.org/web/20070927001941/http://xkcd-drawings.livejournal.com/?skip=40#:~:text=8%3A40%20pm-,Strip%20series,-One%20of%20a Original caption]: One of a series of strips I drew during a long and boring NASA lecture. It careers wildly from intellectual to chaotic to Godel, Escher, Bach to Kurt Halsey to chaotic and sappy.<br>The whole series is [http://www.xkcd.com/comic/comic.html here].</span>
 }}