Re: Hofstadter's "I am a strange loop"

feedbackdroid wrote:
On Apr 6, 8:02 pm, Stephen Harris <cyberguard-1...@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
feedbackdroid wrote:


I pulled out my copy of G-E-B, and notice H had introduced the idea of
the "Strange Loop" - of which said latest book is named - back then.


Yes, as the review and my closing, *"Hope some of the old GEB fans appreciate this, indicated,

Book review:
"Hence, "I Am a Strange Loop." (Hofstadter muses in the introduction,
"I should probably have called it ' "I" Is a Strange Loop' — but can
you imagine a clunkier title?")

His new book is an amplification and extension of the central thesis of "Godel, Escher, Bach," which he felt compelled to revisit:

"People liked [it] for all sorts of reasons, but seldom if ever for its most central raison d'–tre." That is, they grooved on his rich tapestry of fugues and formulas, hypotheticals and counterfactuals, Zen and Zeno, DNA and AI, but may well have missed his point about what consciousness is."

A sciam reviewer (an old GEB fan) wrote:

"I still remember standing in the aisle of a bookstore in Washington, D.C., where I had just finished graduate school, devouring the pages. GEB, as the author calls it, is not so much a "read" as an experience,
a total immersion into Hofstadter's mind. It is a great place to be,
and for those without time for the scenic route, I Am a Strange Loop pulls out the big themes and develops them into a more focused picture of consciousness."


.

Relevant Pages

  • Douglas Hofstadter: Going loopy over consciousness
    ... Reading I Am a Strange Loop inclines one to see whimsical ... Hofstadter invades one's brain and starts thinking there in its own ... true nature of consciousness, or "I"-ness. ... One of his metaphors is that of a soul (but devoid of religious ...
    (sci.physics)
  • Strange loops
    ... The eternal golden braid emerges as a strange loop ... In I Am a Strange Loop, Hofstadter, a cognitive and computer scientist ... conviction that all of this had something to do with consciousness. ... when another soul becomes entwined with your own. ...
    (uk.philosophy.humanism)
  • Re: invitation to yahoo ai.phil
    ... representation, processing, thats essentially easy if all you're ... consciousness is a pattern or collection of patterns. ... patterns etched on it, creating it, by living thru experiences. ... He has an idea called a Strange Loop, ...
    (comp.ai.philosophy)
  • Re: Hofstadters "I am a strange loop"
    ... Yes, as the review and my closing, *"Hope some of the old GEB fans ... but may well have missed his point about what consciousness is." ... and for those without time for the scenic route, I Am a Strange Loop ...
    (comp.ai.philosophy)