Re: invitation to yahoo ai.phil

N wrote:
On 27 Apr, 21:04, feedbackdroid <feedbackdr...@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
On Apr 27, 1:26 pm, N <n.m.ke...@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

On 27 Apr, 18:42, feedbackdroid <feedbackdr...@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:

Of course, as you might expect, Marvin's various ideas factor into
many discussions on ai.phil.

what are you saying here, uhum?

tell you what, take a kinda oblique step away from symbolic
representation, processing, thats essentially easy if all you're
doing is putting an abstract in the place of a proscribed area
of 'reasoning' , and have a go at 3D processing, the history
of that and its representation is very interesting, how DO you
generate a 2D into a 3D,

n.



I was just reading the new book by Hofstadter and it made me
think of your post. He says, and it sounded right to me, that
consciousness is a pattern or collection of patterns. I think
this would mean that medium (virtual?) of consciousness has
patterns etched on it, creating it, by living thru experiences.

He has an idea called a Strange Loop, which is somewhat like
a feedback loop which juxtaposes ... well I'll quote him,

"What I mean by "strange loop" is not a physical circuit but
an abstract loop in which, in the series of stages that
constitute the cycling-around, there is a shift from one
level of abstraction (or structure) to another, which feels
like an upwards movement in a hierarchy, and yet somehow the
successive "upward" shifts turns out to give rise to a closed
cycle."

His best example is "Drawing Hands" by M.C. Escher which
reminds me of the illusion of shifting from the 2D into
the 3D that you mentioned. Just in case you haven't seen it.
http://britton.disted.camosun.bc.ca/escher/drawing_hands.jpg

Perhaps consciousness has a similar strange loop, maybe from
3D to 4D! I've seen artists try to draw hypercubes which are
cubes with one more dimension. So how many dimensions do you
think it would take to capture the pattern(s) of consciousness?
This question is loosely based on this self-referential joke,

How many librarians does it take to change a lightbulb?

- I don't know, but I could look it up for You.
.

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: 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)
  • 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)
  • Re: Pattern Possibilities
    ... Patterns of patterns. ... That Hofstadter sure can come up with some neat stuff. ... I wan to to read his new book, I am a strange loop. ...
    (sci.math)