I have never heard of it either, but I know some hoon and it makes intuitive sense to me.

If I tell you a linked list of atoms (@) is made from this tile (type):

[p=@ q=*]

it becomes obvious, right?

[p=1 q=[p=2 ..]]

[p=1 q=[p=2 q=[p=3 q=[p=4 q=~]]]]

This should look like building a list from 1-4. There are no cycles, ~ is a terminator.

Q is the reference to the next item in the list.

This would constitute a cycle:

z=[p=1 q=[p=2 q=z]]

My mistake, I think he meant to say "a cycle"

Oh, yeah. Sorry, typed that on phone. Just meant "a cycle".