'I Am a Strange Loop'


	'I Am a Strange Loop'

wildcat

3-30-2007 9:47 AM

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tags:

mind, brain, self, loop, book review, d.hofstadter, science, philosophy

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<div style="margin: 12px 0px; font-family: arial; color: #333333; background: #ffffff; border: solid 4px #e5e5e5; width: 100%; clear: left;"><div class="CM_CTB_Content_Wrap" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;background-color: #ffffff;"><div style="border-bottom: solid 1px #dcdcdc; white-space: nowrap; margin-bottom: 8px; background-color: #eeeeee ;background-image: url(http://www.clipmarks.com/images/source-bg.gif); background-repeat: repeat-x; height: 24px; line-height: 24px; vertical-align: middle; padding-bottom: 4px; color: #666666; font-size: 10px;" ><a href="http://clipmarks.com/clip-to-blog/" title="see clips that are hot right now"><img src="http://content.clipmarks.com/blog_embed/09c2ac34-41f1-471c-8272-ba0933bb02ce/FDC64B1D-D584-4B79-A85B-7A1497985907/" alt="" width="19" height="19" border="0" style="vertical-align: middle; margin: 0px 4px; display: inline; border: none; float:none;" /></a>clipped from <a title="http://www.calendarlive.com/books/bookreview/cl-bk-cohen18mar18,0,1621272.htmlstory?coll=cl-bookreview" href="http://www.calendarlive.com/books/bookreview/cl-bk-cohen18mar18,0,1621272.htmlstory?coll=cl-bookreview" style="font-size: 11px;">www.calendarlive.com</a></div><blockquote style="text-align: left; padding: 0px 8px; margin: 4px 0px 8px 0px; background: transparent; border: none;" cite="http://www.calendarlive.com/books/bookreview/cl-bk-cohen18mar18,0,1621272.htmlstory?coll=cl-bookreview"><H1>'I Am a Strange Loop' by Douglas Hofstadter</H1></blockquote><div style="height: 2px; font-size: 2px; background: #dcdcdc; border-bottom: solid 1px #f5f5f5; margin: 2px 4px;"></div><blockquote style="text-align: left; padding: 0px 8px; margin: 4px 0px 8px 0px; background: transparent; border: none;" cite="http://www.calendarlive.com/books/bookreview/cl-bk-cohen18mar18,0,1621272.htmlstory?coll=cl-bookreview"><DIV class="content">On the nature of human consciousness and its relation to empathy.</DIV></blockquote><div style="height: 2px; font-size: 2px; background: #dcdcdc; border-bottom: solid 1px #f5f5f5; margin: 2px 4px;"></div><blockquote style="text-align: left; padding: 0px 8px; margin: 4px 0px 8px 0px; background: transparent; border: none;" cite="http://www.calendarlive.com/books/bookreview/cl-bk-cohen18mar18,0,1621272.htmlstory?coll=cl-bookreview"><DIV>
Hofstadter's explanation of how brain becomes mind dispenses with immaterial qualities and other kinds of philosophical hocus-pocus that bedevil efforts to solve the "mind-body problem." Trained as a physicist and a computer scientist but endowed with the soul of a philosopher, he posits that as our neurons fire in complex patterns that represent our perceptions, and as these representations (or symbols) swirl and dance in ever more complex ways, their interplay is strong enough and rich enough to produce awareness — that is, to become self-referential.</DIV></blockquote><div style="height: 2px; font-size: 2px; background: #dcdcdc; border-bottom: solid 1px #f5f5f5; margin: 2px 4px;"></div><blockquote style="text-align: left; padding: 0px 8px; margin: 4px 0px 8px 0px; background: transparent; border: none;" cite="http://www.calendarlive.com/books/bookreview/cl-bk-cohen18mar18,0,1621272.htmlstory?coll=cl-bookreview"><DIV>
"Soul" is certainly not a term one expects from a materialist like Hofstadter. But in his lexicon, "soul" is interchangeable with "I," "self" or "consciousness" — just another name for the mind's strange loop. And because a strange loop is an aspect of a physical process, it — like anything physical — can be measured.</DIV></blockquote></div><div style="margin: 0px 6px 6px 4px;"><table style="font-size: 11px;border-spacing: 0px;padding: 0px;" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" width="100%"><tr><td style="background:transparent;border-width:0px;padding:0px;">&nbsp;</td><td align="right" style="background:transparent;border-width:0px;padding:0px;width:107px" width="107"><a href="http://clipmarks.com/share/FDC64B1D-D584-4B79-A85B-7A1497985907/blog/" title="blog or email this clip"><img src="http://content8.clipmarks.com/images/c2b-foot.png" border="0" alt="blog it" width="107" height="17" style="border-width:0px;padding:0px;margin:0px;" /></a></td></tr></table></div></div>