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

On Apr 7, 12:39 am, Stephen Harris <cyberguard-1...@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
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."




OK, I found something in G-E-B, which may or may not be "new" with H
in 1979, and which puts everything in the bok to its place, and
actually brings the Klein-bottle metaphysics back down to earth ......
pg 709, section called Strange Loops as the Crux of Consciousness ...

"... My belief is that the explanations of 'emergent' phenomena in our
brains - for instance, ideas, hopes, images, analogies, and finally
consciousness and free will - are based on a kind of Strange Loop, an
interaction between levels in which the top level reaches back down
towards the the bottom level and influences it, while at the same time
being itself determined by the bottom level. In other words, a self-
reinforcing 'resonance' between different levels ... The self comes
into being at the moment it has the power to reflect itself.".

So, forgetting about the latter comment about the Self, the former is
basically the current-day description of a self-organizing process, as
studied by complexity theorists. No multi-dimensional Klein bottles,
just interaction of myriad components via coupled positive and
negative feedback processes.

The references in G-E-B are kind of hit'n'miss, and it's not clear to
what extent ideas of mathematical chaos were extant in 1979, but of
course much of H's book is based upon Escher, and Escher wrote a book
called "Order and Chaos" in 1950. So, .... ?????






..





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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"
    ... Book review: ... "I Am a Strange Loop." ... 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: ...
    (comp.ai.philosophy)