Ola Bini: "maybe if there was a well defined way that Ruby translates into something that resembles S-expressions..." Right on! And not just so we can have hygienic macros. The closer code is to data, the easier it is to write automated tests, aspects, and all manner of other "meta" levels of reuse.

Ruby is not a good enough Lisp, and Lisp isn't either. :-) But we're getting closer.