Post by gareth evansIn my older computing books, as I remember, the word
THUNK is used as an interface between two otherwise
incompatible programs (Definitely programs because
software was unheard of in them thar days!)
I wonder where the word THUNK originated? Is it
possibly a fun way to express the past tense of THINK,
as in, "I thunk of the solution"?
Cira 1948:
"Who'da thunk it?" (My mother, possibly quoting some radio
personality or possibly recalling something heard in her very rural
Texas childhood, circa 1910.)
1958:
"I Have Thunk, So I Cannot Am!", Frederick Winsor in The Space Child's
Mother Goose.
Also from that source:
This is the Theory Jack built.
This is the Flaw
That lay in the Theory Jack built.
This is the Mummery
Hiding the Flaw
That lay in the Theory that Jack built.
This is the Summary
Based on the Mummery
Hiding the Flaw
That lay in the Theory that Jack built.
This is the Constant K
That saved the Summary
Based on the Mummery
Hiding the Flaw
That lay in the Theory that Jack built.
This is the Erudite Verbal Haze
Cloaking Constant K
That saved the Summary
Based on the Mummery
Hiding the Flaw
That lay in the Theory that Jack built.
This is the Turn of a Plausible Phrase
That thickened the Erudite Verbal Haze
Cloaking Constant K
That saved the Summary
Based on the Mummery
Hiding the Flaw
That lay in the Theory that Jack built.
This is the Chaotic Confusion and Bluff
That hung on the Turn of a Plausible Phrase
That thickened the Erudite Verbal Haze
Cloaking Constant K
That saved the Summary
Based on the Mummery
Hiding the Flaw
That lay in the Theory that Jack built.
This is the Cybernetics and Stuff
That covered Chaotic Confusion and Bluff
That hung on the Turn of a Plausible Phrase
That thickened the Erudite Verbal Haze
Cloaking Constant K
That saved the Summary
Based on the Mummery
Hiding the Flaw
That lay in the Theory that Jack built.
This is the button to Start the Machine
To make with the Cybernetics and Stuff
To cover Chaotic Confusion and Bluff
That hung on the Turn of a Plausible Phrase
That thickened the Erudite Verbal Haze
Cloaking Constant K
That saved the Summary
Based on the Mummery
Hiding the Flaw
That lay in the Theory that Jack built.
This is the Space Child with Brow Serene
Who Pushed the Button to Start the Machine
That made with the Cybernetics and Stuff
Without Confusion, exposing the Bluff
That hung on the Turn of a Plausible Phrase
And, shredding the Erudite Verbal Haze
Cloaking Constant K
Wrecked the Summary
Based on Mummery
Hiding the Flaw
And Demolished the Theory that Jack built.
(Parenthetically, the PoMo establishment in academe has gotten as far
as line 55. We'uns in a.f.c. with chops in "Cybernetics and Stuff"
should have a go at pushing the button. The world has changed since
Alan Sokal and "Transgressing...", even more since C.P. Snow's Two
Cultures but PoMo has shingled too far off onto the fog. I won't even
start on US politics.)
--
Mike Spencer Nova Scotia, Canada