Douglas Hofstadter - I Am a Strange Loop

Universal Machines

The Unexpectedness of Universality

Universal Beings

Being Visited

Chemistry and Its Lack

Copycat Planetoids Grow by Absorbing Melting Meteorites

How Much Can One Import of Another’s Interiority?

Double-clicking on the Icon for a Loved One’s Soul

Thinking with Another’s Brain

Mosaics of Different Grain Size

Transplantation of Patterns

CHAPTER 18 - The Blurry Glow of Human Identity

I Host and Am Hosted by Others

Feeling that One is Elsewhere

Telepresence versus “Real” Presence

Which Viewpoint is Really Mine?

Where Am I?

Varying Degrees of Being Another

The Naïve Viewpoint is Usually Good Enough

Where Does a Hammerhead Shark Think it is?

Sympathetic Vibrations

Am I No One Else or Am I Everyone Else?

Interpenetration of National Souls

Halos, Afterglows, Coronas

CHAPTER 19 - Consciousness = Thinking

So Where’s Consciousness in my Loopy Tale?

Enter the Skeptics

Symbols Trigger More Symbols

The Central Loop of Cognition

CHAPTER 20 - A Courteous Crossing of Words

CHAPTER 21 - A Brief Brush with Cartesian Egos

Well-told Stories Pluck Powerful Chords

What Pushovers We Are!

Teleportation of a Thought Experiment across the Atlantic

The Murky Whereabouts of Cartesian Egos

Am I on Venus, or Am I on Mars?

The Radical Nature of Parfit’s Views

Self-confidence, Humility, and Self-doubt

Morphing Parfit into Bonaparte

The Radical Redesign of Douglas R. Hofstadter

On “Who” and on “How”

Double or Nothing

Trains Who Roll

The Glow of the Soular Corona

CHAPTER 22 - A Tango with Zombies and Dualism

Pedantic Semantics?

Two Machines

Two Daves

The Nagging Worry that One Might Be a Zombie

Consciousness Is Not a Power Moonroof

Liphosophy

Consciousness: A Capitalized Essence

A Sliding Scale of Élan Mental

Semantic Quibbling in Universe Z

Quibbling in Universe Q

CHAPTER 23 - Killing a Couple of Sacred Cows

A Cerulean Sardine

Bleu Blanc Rouge = Red, White, and Blue

Inverting the Sonic Spectrum

Glebbing and Knurking

The Inverted Political Spectrum

Violets Are Red, Roses Are Blue

A Scarlet Sardine

Yes, People Want Things

The Hedge Maze of Life

There’s No Such Thing as a Free Will

CHAPTER 24 - On Magnanimity and Friendship

Are There Small and Large Souls?

From the Depths to the Heights

The Magnanimity of Albert Schweitzer

Does Conscience Constitute Consciousness?

Albert Schweitzer and Johann Sebastian Bach

Dig that Profundity!

Alle Grashüpfer Müssen Sterben

Friends

EPILOGUE

NOTES

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Acknowledgements

INDEX

Copyright Page

Praise for I Am A Strange Loop

“[F]ascinating . . . original and thought-provoking . . . [T]here are many pleasures in I Am a Strange Loop. ”

— Wall Street Journal

“ I Am a Strange Loop scales some lofty conceptual heights, but it remains very personal, and it’s deeply colored by the facts of Hofstadter’s later life. In 1993 Hofstadter’s wife Carol died suddenly of a brain tumor at only 42, leaving him with two young children to care for . . . I Am a Strange Loop is a work of rigorous thinking.”

— Time

“Almost thirty years after the publication of his well-loved Gödel, Escher, Bach , Hofstadter revisits some of the same themes. The purpose of the new book is to make inroads into the nexus of self, self-awareness and consciousness by examining self-referential structures in areas as diverse as art and mathematics. Hofstadter is the man for the job. His treatment of issues is approachable and personal, you might even say subj ective. His discussion is never overtechnical and his prose never over-bearing. He stays close to the surface of real life at all times, even as he discusses matters of the highest level of abstraction, and his book is full of fresh and rich real-life examples that give texture and authenticity to the discussion.”

— Times Literary Supplement , London

“[P]leasant and intriguing . . . Hofstadter is a supremely skillful master of an educational alchemy that can, at the turn of the page, transform the most abstract and complex of thoughts into a digestible idea that is both fun and interesting . . . Hofstadter’s good humor and easygoing style make it a real pleasure to read from start to finish.”

— Times Higher Education Supplement, London

“ I Am a Strange Loop contains many profound and unique insights on the question of who we are. In addition, it is a delightful read.”

— Physics Today

“ I Am a Strange Loop is vintage Hofstadter: earnest, deep, overflowing with ideas, building its argument into the experience of reading it — for if our souls can incorporate those of others, then I Am a Strange Loop can transmit Hofstadter’s into ours. And indeed, it is impossible to come away from this book without having introduced elements of his point of view into our own. It may not make us kinder or more compassionate, but we will never look at the world, inside or out, in the same way again.”

— Los Angeles Times Book Review

“Nearly thirty years after his best-selling book Gödel, Escher, Bach , cognitive scientist and polymath Douglas Hofstadter has returned to his extraordinary theory of self.”

— New Scientist

“ I Am a Strange Loop is thoughtful, amusing and infectiously enthusiastic.”

— Bloomberg News

“[P]rovocative and heroically humane . . . it’s impossible not to experience this book as a tender, remarkably personal and poignant effort to understand the death of his wife from cancer in 1993 — and to grasp how consciousness mediates our otherwise ineffable relationships. In the end, Hofstadter’s view is deeply philosophical rather than scientific. It’s hopeful and romantic as well, as his model allows one consciousness to create and maintain within itself true representations of the essence of another.”

— Publishers Weekly Starred Review

“[Hofstadter’s] new book, as brilliant and provocative as earlier ones, is a colorful mix of speculations with passages of autobiography.”

— Martin Gardner in Notices of the American Mathematical Society

“Why am I inside this body and not in a different one? This is among the most irresistible and fascinating questions humanity has ever asked, according to Douglas Hofstadter. His latest book I Am a Strange Loop asks many more challenging questions: Are our thoughts made of molecules? Could a machine be confused? Could a machine know it was confused? — until it ties you in loops. If you enjoy such brain-bending questions and are willing to struggle with some deep mathematical ideas along the way, then you’ll certainly enjoy this book . . . (I)f this book works its magic on you, you will no longer want to ask ‘why am I inside this body and not a different one?’ because you’ll know what it means to be just a strange loop.”

— BBC Focus

“Hofstadter introduces new ideas about the self-referential structure of consciousness and offers a multifaceted examination of what an ‘I’ is. He conveys abstract, complicated ideas in a relaxed, conversational manner and uses many first-person stories and personal examples as well as two Platonic dialogs. Though Hofstadter admits he writes for the general educated public, he also hopes to reach professional philosophers interested in the epistemological implications of selfhood.”