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I Am a Strange Loop by Douglas R. Hofstadter
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Showing 1-5 of 27 (next | show all)
I am currently reading this book and I like his explanation on how he became a vegetarian. I must say here that I too am a vegetarian and for many of the same reasons. The book looks to be a fascinating read and I look forward to it. ( )
  liberality | Aug 6, 2009 |
I'd like to find the Albert Schweitzer recording of Bach's G minor fugue (BWV 542).
  simonaries | Aug 4, 2009 |
Hofstadter definitely needs professional help. ( )
  idiosyncratic | May 16, 2009 |
A very engaging, cleverly written book. It is rare that a book in Science is written in such a way as to pull you in. Can't say I thoroughly enjoyed it, but that's more my loop than anyone else's! ( )
  Cygnus555 | May 15, 2009 |
I started this, and then library school happened. I intend to finish it. I want to be best friends with Douglas Hofstadter--he is a super nice person, in addition to being very intelligent and witty.
  artificialinanity | Apr 30, 2009 |
Showing 1-5 of 27 (next | show all)
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To my sister Laura,
who can understand,
and to our sister Molly,
who cannot.
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Wikipedia in English (2)

Douglas Hofstadter

Gödel's incompleteness theorems

Book description

Amazon.com Product Description (ISBN 0465030785, Hardcover)

What 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.

(retrieved from Amazon Fri, 24 Apr 2009 07:57:53 -0400)

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