Currently, Hex is activated by "initializing the GBL," which Ponder Stibbons reluctantly admits means "pulling the Great Big Lever" (similar to the Internet slang "BRS", or "big red switch"). This is also a reference to the IBM Mainframe terminology for booting, known as IPL. This action releases millions of ants into a much more complex network of glass tubes that makes up the bulk of Hex, hence the sticker on Hex that reads "Anthill inside": a pun on Intel's ad slogan "Intel Inside". Hex "thinks" by controlling which tubes the ants can crawl through, thus allowing it to perform increasingly complex computations if enough ants are provided (that is, if there are enough bugs in the system). This is a reference to Douglas Hofstadter's "Gödel, Escher, Bach" in which there exists a sentient ant colony, with the ants acting as neurons. Hex can now be given input through a huge wooden keyboard, in analogue writing by means of a complicated mechanical eye designed by Hex itself, or vocally through an old hearing trumpet, and gives output by means of a series of wooden blocks and later a quill on a hinged lever (echoing the real-world evolution of computer output from paper tape to video monitor).