I Am a Strange LoopWhat do we mean when we say "I"? Can thought arise out of matter? Can a self, a soul, a consciousness, an "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. Deep down, a human brain is a chaotic seething soup of particles, on a higher level it is a jungle of neurons, and on a yet higher level it is a network of abstractions that we call "symbols." The most central and complex symbol in your brain or mine is the one we both call "I." The "I" is the nexus in our brain where the levels feed back into each other and flip causality upside down, with symbols seeming to have free will and to have gained the paradoxical ability to push particles around, rather than the reverse. For each human being, this "I" seems to be the realest thing in the world. But how can such 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 all-powerful laws of physics? These are the mysteries tackled in I Am a Strange Loop, Douglas R. Hofstadter's first book-length journey into philosophy since Godel, Escher, Bach. Compulsively readable and endlessly thought-provoking, this is the book Hofstadter's many readers have long been waiting for. |
Contents
PROLOGUE | |
On Souls and Their Sizes | |
This Teetering Bulb of Dread and Dream | |
The Causal Potency of Patterns | |
Loops Goals and Loopholes | |
On Video Feedback | |
The Elusive Apple of My I | |
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 | |
Of Selves and Symbols | |
The EpiPhenomenon | |
Embarking on a StrangeLoop Safari | |
Pattern and Provability | |
CHAPTER 10Gödels Quintessential Strange Loop | |
How Analogy Makes Meaning | |
On Downward Causality | |
A Brief Brush with Cartesian Egos | |
A Tango with Zombies and Dualism | |
Killing a Couple of Sacred Cows | |
On Magnanimity and Friendship | |
EPILOGUE | |
BIBLIOGRAPHY | |
Other editions - View all
Common terms and phrases
abstract analogy animals answer become believe body brain called camera Carol causality Chapter claim close comes complex concepts consciousness course entities exactly example exist experience fact feel formula friends give Gödel grow hand happens head Hofstadter hope human idea identity imagine infinite inner inside integers involves it’s kind language least light living look machines Mathematica mathematics matter meaning memories merely metaphor mind mosquito nature never notion numbers objects once Page patterns perceive perception perhaps person physical play prime question readers reason rules screen seems sense sentence simply someone sort soul sound strange loop structure sure symbols talking theorems things thought true turn Twinwirld understand universe whole York