I Am a Strange Loop, Paperback

Descriere

Can thought arise out of matter? Can self, soul, consciousness, ""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. The most central and complex symbol in your brain is the one called ""I."" The ""I"" is the nexus in our brain, one of many symbols seeming to have free will and to have gained the paradoxical ability to push particles around, rather than the reverse. How can 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 laws of physics?These are the mysteries tackled in I Am a Strange Loop, Douglas Hofstadter's first book-length journey into philosophy since Godel, Escher, Bach. Compulsively readable and endlessly thought-provoking, this is a moving and profound inquiry into the nature of mind.

Despre autor

Douglas Hofstadter

fizician, informatician și profesor de științe cognitive american · n. 1945

Douglas Richard Hofstadter este un fizician și informatician american, profesor de științe cognitive la Indiana University. Cercetările sale au ca obiect relația individului cu lumea exterioară, conștiința, crearea analogiilor, creația artistică, traducerea literară, descoperirile în matematică și fizică. Cartea sa Gödel, Escher, Bach: an Eternal Golden Braid, publicată în 1979, a fost distinsă cu Premiul Pulitzer.