I Am a Strange Loop | Douglas R. Hofstadter

I Am a Strange Loop | Douglas R. Hofstadter | Let's just let the boy-in-the-man play

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I Am a Strange Loop

	I Am a Strange Loop Douglas R. Hofstadter Basic Books, 2007 - 436 pages average customer review:based on 75 reviews view larger image
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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.

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I Am A Strange Loop

How real is X to you...the moment you start taking X for granted, then it would seem you would consider X's reality highly dubious.

This, a book of analogies and metaphors, presents a plethora of academic notions in a down to earth way, spinning science subjects such as physics, mathematics at the logical level, chemistry, psychology, humanities, and a touch of theology, to describe the human experience, which Hofstadter calls a Strange loop. He brings in a lot of his humble personality and subtle sense of humor to help the reader feel like his best friend is telling you about a crazy dream he had the night before. In keeping with the spirit of the book I recognize that every reaction or review would carry the bias of the reviewer's life experience, whether that be one of science, business, art, sports, spiritual, or just a plain ordinary person...most of us. I am going with the human experience henceforth. With regard to the human experience Hofstadter suggests that in order to perceive our universe, you must have a soul, described in the book as that with the capability to interpret the symbols of the universe.

From small to large, while there is a DNA make up that begins things, Hofstadter puts forward the notion, backed with enough thought to be the foundation of a thesis, but not enough to make a boring academic read, that DNA must be capable eventually through development in chemical communication of powering enough energy to a.) Interpret symbols, b.) Share these symbols with other beings, and c.) Care about the other being. Please understand not I did not state the possibility of a soul to be strictly the domain human beings. Hofstadter, in no way suggests the human being as the center of thought but in many ways implies that souls are not dependent on the human form. This is clearly in sync with Emerson, and Jesus to name a couple souls, but is scientifically based in the 21st century.

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Let's just let the boy-in-the-man play

After skimming over some of the reviews, I realized a good read can be judged "good" by the fact that even readers who rate the work with 3 or fewer stars spend a lot of time proving at some level they were inspired by the book. I like reading DH just for the fact that when I am trudging through sections that seem irrelevant or too-too wordy I look forward to and I'm never disappointed in finding the "gem" of a thought inspiring approach to such philosophical questions. So I forgive him, his playing with Audio/Visual feedback systems, his stretch-an-analogy-into-almost-poinlessness. Let's let him play!! and watch what he comes up with. (That's the view I had to take with this book.)
Anyway, I was inspired in to a thought about schizophrenia by way of this book. It's incredible that for most brains there's only one focus of the internal loop. Imagine, similar to DH's reflections on his wife's "I-ness", that our hardware/software was evolutionarily programmed to accomodate multiple "I"s.
All-in-all, at some point between the first and last page of this book, you'll be affected at some (emotional, intellectual, psychological) level.

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chatty and personal, rather disappointing

Once again, Hofstadter brings his unusual and very personal style to a serious subject. As with the title, "I" is a major player here, with stories, ruminations and specifics on what he thinks as a conscious human and a researcher. In many cases, I felt like we were almost in a dialog together.

The book is too long and repetitious, with its essence only a few key points. There is a complex thread on KG, incompleteness, Russell and how all that applies to looks and being inside and outside the system. It's a tough subject and the author makes a solid shot.

The other main topic is the degree of consciousness from humans to insects, with the lowly mosquito making many appearances. Hofstadter believes that consciousness gradually appears as you go up the chain, with no concrete dividing line. Fair enough.

Given that premise, he doesn't get into how that applies to different abilities and perceptions within humans, either as fully grown adults or as developing humans in the womb. A serious assessment of when humans become conscious and how consciousness evolves as we age (to be fair, he does use Ronald Reagan as a proxy for late-state decline) would have been welcome. Perhaps his highly-visible liberal views would have made that too dangerous, with a simple example being his brief mention of "The Bell Curve" that could have been more seriously assessed.

The riff on consciousness at a distance and replication was one of the highlights. A segue into science fiction concepts could have been a treat in his hands, such as Star Trek's "Borg" and so many other ideas of collective intelligence. How much technology could I insert into the brain and still be a conscious human, especially one who is still "me"?

Finally, computer science and artificial intelligence, one of Hofstadter's own fields, has quite the history of debate on what is intelligence. He is quite clear that many systems are far from conscious, such as chess players and feedback systems, without pushing the envelope for future possibilities. Do some pushing.

The book has its moments, and what a fertile mind he has. On this subject, I prefer Steven Pinker and more traditional writers.

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