I Am a Strange Loop

I Am a Strange Loop

Infobox Book
name = I Am A Strange Loop


image_caption =
author = Douglas Hofstadter
illustrator =
cover_artist =
country = USA
language = English
series =
subject = Consciousness, strange loops, intelligence
publisher = Basic Books
release_date = March 26th, 2007
media_type = Hardback
pages = 412 pages
isbn = 978-0465030781
preceded_by = Gödel, Escher, Bach

"I Am a Strange Loop" is a 2007 book by Douglas Hofstadter, examining in depth the concept of a "strange loop" originally developed in his 1979 book "Gödel, Escher, Bach".

Hofstadter had previously expressed disappointment with how "Gödel, Escher, Bach" was received. In the preface to the twentieth-anniversary edition, Hofstadter laments that his book has been misperceived as a hodge-podge of neat things with no central theme. He states: "GEB is a very personal attempt to say how it is that animate beings can come out of inanimate matter. What is a self, and how can a self come out of stuff that is as selfless as a stone or a puddle?" [cite book
last = Hofstadter
first = Douglas R.
authorlink = Douglas R. Hofstadter
title = Gödel, Escher, Bach
publisher = Basic Books
date = 1999
pages = P-2 (Twentieth-anniversary preface)
isbn = 0465026567
]

He sought to remedy this problem in "I Am a Strange Loop", by focusing on and expounding upon the central message of "Gödel, Escher, Bach". He seeks to demonstrate how the properties of self-referential systems, demonstrated most famously in Gödel's Incompleteness Theorem, can be used to describe the unique properties of minds. [ [http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1599720,00.html The Year of Mathemagical Thinking] March 15, 2007] [ [http://www.megite.com/discover/hofstadter Hofstadter pages] at Megite/Discover]

As an exploration of the concept of "self", Hofstadter explores his own life, and those he has been close to. [ [http://www.sciam.com/article.cfm?articleID=C7265AEC-E7F2-99DF-3B3A60DE6200D457&chanID=sa006&colID=12 A New Journey into Hofstadter's Mind] - book review by George Johnson in "Scientific American", March 2007] cite web
url = http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/15.03/play.html?pg=3
title = Me, My Soul, and I
accessdate = 2007-12-10
month = March
year = 2007
work = Wired
] [ [http://www.americanscientist.org/template/InterviewTypeDetail/assetid/54803 Author Interview] by Greg Ross, "American Scientist Online", March 22, 2007] [ [http://olimu.com/Journalism/2007/Texts/StrangeLoop.htm The I's Have It] - book review by John Derbyshire, The Wall Street Journal, March 23, 2007] [http://www.nytimes.com/2007/04/01/magazine/01wwlnQ4.t.html?_r=1&ref=magazine&oref=slogin The Mind Reader] New York Times Magazine, April 1, 2007] [cite journal
url = http://www.ams.org/notices/200707/tx070700852p.pdf
format = pdf
accessdate = 2007-12-10
journal = Notices of the American Mathematical Society
issue = 7
pages = 853
last = Gardner
first = Martin
authorlink = Martin Gardner
month = august
year = 2007
title = Do Loops Explain Consciousness? Review of "I Am a Strange Loop"
volume = 54
]

External links

* [http://tal.forum2.org/hofstadter_interview An interview with Douglas R. Hofstadter about "I am a Strange Loop".]

See also

* Autopoiesis
* Droste effect
* Euthyphro dilemma
* Feedback loop
* "Gödel, Escher, Bach"
* Identity, in particular, the Ship of Theseus paradox
* Klein bottle
* Möbius strip
* Optical feedback
* Paradox
* Shepard tone
* Strange loop

References


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