Bit"flip
bit·flip·ping, bit·flip·ped
Date: 2002(?), term first heard while listening to a lecture from Neil Girschenfeld
- (verb) to change one component of a definition or phrase to its opposite.
Sometimes a technique for testing the scale of a given truth, as evidenced by Niels Bohr when he wrote, "There are two kinds of truths: small truth and great truth. You can recognize a small truth because its opposite is a falsehood. The opposite of a great truth is another great truth."
Also, a technique to find new meanings.
- (noun) a thing so produced.
Quite often (though not always) bitflipped statements are the basis of formulaic wisdom, as mocked in the 1999 movie Mystery Men.
Unjudged, bitflipped examples follow.
- Digital logic was a bad idea. -Gerschenfeld
- Master your fear before your fear masters you. -The Sphinx, Mystery Men (The directionality of the relationship is bitflipped)
- All in the world recognize the beautiful as beautiful.
Herein lies ugliness. -Lao Tsu, Tao Te Ching