This is not a title

 

Lots of references to self are contained in software names, and they are by and large innocuous, just intended as a pun. There's GNU, a free software project, which stands for "GNU's not Unix", or Pine, the successor of the "elm" software package ("Pine is not elm").

The basic self-reference isn't very exciting: "This is a sentence." Nothing to see here, move on.



Adding a judgment creates potential: "This sentence is true" shows promise, but still won't make anybody jump off their seats.



Unless it is negated: "This sentence is false." If it were true, it would be false, and if it were false it would be true. Boom!



Self-references have found multiple applications: playful extensions ("this centence contains three errars"), distruction of the foundation of mathematics and mind-boggling pictures, just to name a few.



It has also been a tremendous source of inspiration for bureaucracies. Take for example the fundamental paradox every immigrant is faced with: in order to get a work permit an employment contract is required, and to get an employment contract a work permit is necessary.



Italy's bureaucracy is very creative in putting self-references to use, as a couple of friends over at Vision Zero recently discovered: fighting for a good cause (reducing the number of deadly traffic incidents to zero) they set off to set up a non-profit organization. In an ideal world, this would involve two steps: 1) incorporate a non-profit organization and 2) register the non-profit organization, and thereby undergoing a check of "non-profitability".



The Italian process requires two steps as well, but this is where the similarity ends. The two steps are:

incorporate the non-profit organization. Requirement: being registered as a non-profit.

 

register the non-profit organization. Requirement: being incorporated as a non-profit.

It is at this point that I would suggest that Visionzero.org changes its slogan to "zero vision to accomplish vision zero": wear the self-reference as a badge of honour, and add a layer of it every time you manage to overcome yet another apparently impossible-to-solve instance of self-reference. Good luck, guys!



Add your self-referential stuff below, and let the Universe explode under its own weight.