By uriah kriegel the times literary supplement, april 25, 2007. A tangled hierarchy is a hierarchical consciousness system in which a strange loop appears. These are the mysteries tackled in i am a strange loop, douglas hofstadters first booklength journey into philosophy since godel, escher, bach. Hofstadter was shopping with his family for a video camera. These are the mysteries tackled in i am a strange loop, douglas hofstadters first booklength journey into philosophy since godel, escher. Intelligent machines, if we ever build them, and aliens, if we ever encounter them, must have loopy minds, as we do. The i in the title refers to the concept of the i in all of us.
Yes, its about goedel, and recursion, and strange loops, and linguistics bach and ants and all that but only trivially. A more accurate, if admittedly less wieldy title for douglas hofstadter s book about the phenomenon of consciousness would be ones i is a strange loop. That book tackles what it means to be conscious and how consciousness or meaning could arise out of unconsious and meaningless elements i. Strange loops serve, for hofstadter, as a general principle of cognition, whatever form it takes. Buy a cheap copy of i am a strange loop book by douglas r.
I am a strange loop, douglas r hofstadter shop online for. I am a strange loop by douglas hofstadter abebooks. Intelligence, art, music, and life are a strange loop. Pulitzerprize winner douglas hofstadter takes on some weighty and wonderful questions in i am a strange loopamong. Douglas hofstadter is a distinguished professor of cognitive science and comparative literature at indiana university. These are the mysteries tackled in i am a strange loop, douglas hofstadter s first booklength journey into philosophy since goedel, escher, bach. Compulsively readable and endlessly thoughtprovoking, this is the book hofstadter s many readers have long been waiting for.
Posted on october 24, 2008 by strange loops godel, escher, bach by douglas hofstadter has long been one of my favorite books. I am a strange loop, douglas r hofstadter shop online. As in his other books, hofstadter has written a deeply. Douglas hofstadter born february 15, 1945 is a mathematician, cognitive scientist, and pulitzer prize winning author. While there are lots of examples in visual art eschers waterfall and drawing hands and in. Escher or more precisely, his art is prominent in the golden braid. Hofstadter, a professor of cognitive science at indiana university, is best known for his pulitzer prize winning godel, escher, bach, or geb as he likes to call it. I am a strange loop should not be taken to mean douglas hofstadter is a strange loop. I am a strange loop, by douglas hofstadter the independent. And the book does an excellent job of presenting his views on just how the i forms in a brain, what kind of hardware may be necessary for an i, what kinds of i am out there, and on. In the big strangeloops book hofstadter 2007 they referred in passing to translating in a broad sense, especially between godels theorem and english 145 and as an analogue of the replicability of patterns 224, 257 a theme that had helped organize the cognitive science of their big translation book hofstadter 1997 but never as. The purpose of douglas hofstadter s new book is to make inroads into the nexus of self, selfawareness and consciousness by examining selfreferential structures in areas as. Borrowing a page from lewis carroll who might well have been a fan of this book, each chapter presents dialogue between the tortoise and achilles, as well. Hofstadter felt a need to write a new book because so many people misperceived geb as a.
Hofstadter always has an intriguing and playful way to present his thinking. Mar 27, 2007 these are the mysteries tackled in i am a strange loop, douglas r. Douglas hofstadter is college of arts and sciences professor of cognitive science and computer science at indiana university, bloomington. You would not find the boundaries of the soul no matter how many paths you traveled, so deep is its measure. I thought, im looking out the plane at a plain, which is also a plane. Scott oreilly loops the loop with douglas hofstadter. Tries to argue that people find infiniterecursive loops intimidating. I am a strange loop is a 2007 book by douglas hofstadter, examining in depth the concept of a strange loop to explain the sense of i. For hofstadter, consciousness emerge as what he calls a strange loop. Godel, escher, bach by douglas hofstadter has long been one of my favorite books. The concept of a strange loop was originally developed in his 1979 book godel, escher, bach.
Oct 24, 2008 posted on october 24, 2008 by strange loops godel, escher, bach by douglas hofstadter has long been one of my favorite books. Godel, escher, bach by douglas hofstadter the strange loop phenomenon occurs whenever by moving upwards or downwards through the levels of some hierarchical system, we unexpectedly find ourselves right back where we started. I am a strange loop free summary by douglas hofstadter. Hofstadter s first booklength journey into philosophy since godel, escher, bach. After pointing the camera at his parents and himself, he was tempted to point it at the tv screen that displayed the cameras video. Dec 02, 2017 strange loops a guided tour through douglas hofstadter s paradoxical concept of strange loops, and what they reveal about the ultimate nature of existence and consciousness. The most recent, published this year by basic, is douglas. Douglas hofstadter born february 15, 1945 is a mathematician, cognitive scientist, and pulitzer prize winning author quotes. In this book, hofstadter observes that due to the attention that other aspects of geb garnered, the main point, that of strange loops being the origin of the human. Through many types of abstraction and analogymaking and inductive reasoning, and through many long and tortuous chains of citations of all sorts of authorities which constitute an indispensable pillar supporting every adults belief system, despite the insistence of highschool teachers who year after year teach that arguments by authority are spurious and are convinced that they. His previous books are the pulitzer prizewinning godel, escher, bach. Pulitzerprize winner douglas hofstadter takes on some weighty and wonderful questions in i am a strange loopamong them, the size of a soul and the vagaries of thoughtand proposes persuasive answers that surprised me both with their simplicity and their sense of optimism. Mar 26, 2007 i am a strange loop should not be taken to mean douglas hofstadter is a strange loop.
Compulsively readable and endlessly thoughtprovoking, this is a moving and profound inquiry into the nature of mind. The most recent, published this year by basic, is douglas hofstadters i am a strange loop. Strange loops takes its title from the concept developed by douglas hofstadter in his books godel, escher, bach and i am a strange loop. Strange loops may involve selfreference and paradox. Pulitzerprize winner douglas hofstadter takes on some weighty and wonderful questions in i am a strange.
Strange loops arise when one moves through a system in one direction, yet somehow ends up back at the beginning. By using the analogy of godels incompleteness theorem, a mathematical system that looks at itself, hofstadter shows how indirect mappings in the human mind can loop back on itself and. Feedback loops can result in adaptive behavior, and might give the impression that the system is trying to achieve a goal. Irrationality is the square root of all evil sep, 1983 scientific american 249 3 article reprinted in metamagical themas 1985 which statement seems more true. I am a strange loop douglas hofstadter books in brief. Hofstadter, one of whose specialties is the study of feedback loops in complex systems, coins sometimes unfortunate terms for our own loopy ways of thinking, among them thinkodynamics and statistical mentalics, but the governing idea is a fruitful one. Hofstadter explains, in painstaking detail, how purely physical processes generate minds and meaning. I am a strange loop by douglas hofstadter issue 78. To get into a properly loopy mindset for douglas r. He exemplifies this by providing examples of loops in backs music, eschers sketches, and godels theorems. In the end, we are selfperceiving, selfinventing, lockedin mirages that are little miracles of selfreference. Books i am a strange loop by douglas hofstadter scott oreilly loops the loop with douglas hofstadter.
The strange loop phenomenon occurs whenever, by moving upwards or downwards through levels of some hierarchial system, we unexpectedly find ourselves right back where we started. Hofstadter was written in 2008 and is the authors follow up to godel, escher, bach, also known as geb. Today, more than two thousand years after heraclitus wrote those words, science has shrunk the boundaries of the soul. Everyday low prices and free delivery on eligible orders. One of our greatest philosophers and scientists of the mind. This book contains a lot of different perspectives on the problem so if you are interested in a more concise reading for this philosophy, you may want to read i am. The typical reader seesm to think of geb as a jouyous romp through any number of fascinating bits of logic, math and science without any idea as to what hofstaders actually doing. A new journey into hofstadters mind scientific american. A brief statement of the essence of hofstadter s 2007 book, i am a strange loop and therefore of the essence of consciousness and inviduality. Like and that is also the way the human mind works by the compounding of old ideas into new structures that become new ideas that can themselves be used in compounds, and round and round endlessly, growing ever more remote from the basic earthbound imagery that. I am a strange loop by douglas hofstadter issue 78 philosophy. Strange loops of translation doug robinson many loops.
The purpose of douglas hofstadter s new book is to make inroads into the nexus of self, selfawareness and consciousness by examining selfreferential structures in areas as diverse as art and mathematics. Over the course of the first decade of the new millennium, douglas hofstadter worked on two topics that had long been close to their heart. It was an escher print, a recursive geometric puzzle. Strange loops a guided tour through douglas hofstadter s paradoxical concept of strange loops, and what they reveal about the ultimate nature of.
Mar 09, 2019 bach, escher and godels strange loops may have the answer in 1979, a cult book by douglas hofstadter explored consciousness via a mathematical idea found in art and music. The most recent, published this year by basic, is douglas hofstadter s i am a strange loop. This is a question that hofstadter, like searle, cannot bring himself to ask. Chapter two by the time i flew to indiana to meet douglas hofstadter, i was so steeped in his writings that i found myself thinking like him, or like i like to think he thinks. Hofstadters great achievement in godel, escher, bach was making abstruse mathematical topics like undecidability, recursion, and strange loops accessible and remarkably entertaining. Douglas hofstadter, justifiably famous for godel, escher, bach wrote about the much trickier subject of mind and personal identity in this 2004 book. The concept of a strange loop was proposed and extensively discussed by douglas hofstadter in godel, escher, bach, and is further elaborated in hofstadters book i am a strange loop, published in 2007. A brief statement of the essence of hofstadters 2007 book, i am a strange loop and therefore of the essence of consciousness and inviduality.