International Journal of Nana Studies 1(3)

Background and Objective

Nana employs routine conversational skills and auto-recursive reasoning techniques to tease out and share new facts about the world around her. The objective of this report is to investigate one recent example of the subject methodology and form a hypothesis concerning it.

Field Investigation

This form of nanoconversation begins with a question about a self-evident aspect of the surroundings. The example documented here occurred in a car driving south on Mattis Avenue, Champaign, Ill., after consuming half of a "Farmer's Scramble."

Nana: Is that a bookstore?
StuporMundi: Is what a bookstore?
Nana: That sign...
StuporMundi: What did the sign say?
Nana: "Books."
StuporMundi: [Laughter.]
Nana: [Nonverbal question mark, blending delight and confusion about the laughter.]
StuporMundi: No, Mom, it was a hardware store.
Nana: [Giggling.] Well, the sign wasn't attached to a building. It was just there.
StuporMundi: So you're asking if the sign was a bookstore?
Nana: No. I was wondering if the sign meant that they sell books in one of those buildings.

Discussion and Analysis

This form of nanoconversation [see erratum to Int'l Journ. Nan. Studies 1(1)] begins with a preliminary request for self-evident information. Typically, a non-obvious premise or motivation for the question is withheld from the initial query. Such unknown antecedents are sometimes drawn out by answering Nana's initial question in a hyper-literal or ironic manner; sometimes both approaches are required. Then, through little-understood cognitive processes, Nana re-synthesizes her original question to sound less ambiguous, but no less unnecessary. This form of nanoconversation can become highly iterative.

Conclusion

This method of nanoconversation, Way 3, shares certain characteristics with Pretzel Logic. However, instead of being a deliberately recursive method of logical fallacy invoked to emulate the exercise of reason, Way 3 is a self-perpetuating method through which Nana investigates the world around her but learns little from it. This method superficially resembles deductive logic, but continually returns to a refined restatement of the original query. The technique is referred to as Circular Interrogation. It borrows its name from the wind musician's technique of circular breathing.