I Am a Strange LoopOne of our greatest philosophers and scientists of the mind asks, where does the self come from -- and how our selves can exist in the minds of others. Can thought arise out of matter? Can self, soul, consciousness, "I" arise out of mere matter? If it cannot, then how can you or I be here? I Am a Strange Loop argues that the key to understanding selves and consciousness is the "strange loop"-a special kind of abstract feedback loop inhabiting our brains. The most central and complex symbol in your brain is the one called "I." The "I" is the nexus in our brain, one of many symbols seeming to have free will and to have gained the paradoxical ability to push particles around, rather than the reverse. How can a mysterious abstraction be real-or is our "I" merely a convenient fiction? Does an "I" exert genuine power over the particles in our brain, or is it helplessly pushed around by the laws of physics? These are the mysteries tackled in I Am a Strange Loop, Douglas Hofstadter's first book-length journey into philosophy since Gödel, Escher, Bach. Compulsively readable and endlessly thought-provoking, this is a moving and profound inquiry into the nature of mind. |
Contents
The Causal Potency of Patterns | |
Loops Goals and Loopholes | |
On Video Feedback | |
Of Selves and Symbols | |
Strangeness in the I of the Beholder | |
Entwinement | |
Grappling with the Deepest Mystery | |
How We Live in Each Other | |
The Blurry Glow of Human Identity | |
Consciousness Thinking | |
A Courteous Crossing of Words | |
A Brief Brush with Cartesian Egos | |
The Epi Phenomenon | |
Embarking on a StrangeLoop Safari | |
Pattern and Provability | |
Gödels Quintessential Strange Loop | |
How Analogy Makes Meaning | |
On Downward Causality | |
The Elusive Apple of My I | |
A Tango with Zombies and Dualism | |
Killing a Couple of Sacred Cows | |
On Magnanimity and Friendship | |
EPILOGUE | |
NOTES | |
BIBLIOGRAPHY | |
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abstract analogy audio feedback Bach believe Bertrand Russell blurry called camera careenium Carol causality Chapter complex concepts consciousness creatures Dan Dennett Dennett Derek Parfit domino Douglas Hofstadter entities episodic episodic memory essence experience fact feedback loop feel formula friends Gödel number Göru happens highlevel Hofstadter Hopalong Cassidy human brain I”ness idea identity imagine infinite inner inside integers inverted spectrum kind Klüdgerot Kurt Gödel language living machine marble mathematics matter meaning memories metaphor microscopic mind molecules mosquito never notion one’s pairson paradoxical Parfit patterns perceive perception person philosophers phrase physical prim numbers prime Principia Mathematica pronoun provable qualia question Quine’s readers robot Roger Sperry rules of inference Russell screen selfreference selfreferential sense sentence simmballs someone soul strange loop structure symbols talking theorems there’s things thought triggering Twinwirld universe video feedback whole numbers words