I heart Hofstadter

In which I receive a package containing Douglas Hofstadter's new book _I am a Strange Loop_ and ramble on about a few of his other books.

I read _Gödel, Escher, Bach_ once when I was 16 and again a couple years ago in a reading group at HMC. Mmm, it's fantastic. Even holding the book in my hands gives me almost a visceral delight. Read it -- you'll see what I mean.

I made a concerted effort to do this in one take, but my camera will only stay on for about 4.5 minutes when it's hooked up to the computer. Boo.

P.S. They took away the Science & Technology category, didn't they? Le sigh. My videos don't fit your silly categories!

P.P.S. "Please check your video description." Um, check it for what? This brings back very very bad memories, YT.

Category:

People & Blogs

Tags:

• prepoceros
• douglas
• hofstadter
• strange
• loop
• gödel
• escher
• bach
• GEB
• math
• language
• metamagical
• themas
• le
• ton
• beau
• de
• marot

[gucker07]

You strongly remind me of my next door neighbour, you look very similar and your whole style, the way you speak/act, your voice etc. is also very, very similar. Not sure why I'm telling you this you but I think it's fascinating. You have a doppelganger.

[Prepoceros]

Whoa, that's cool. I only rarely meet people who remind me of myself.

[rezonatix3]

Funny how G.E.B. fans always encounter serious difficulties when attempting to explain what the book is about:

"Um, it's difficult to describe exactly what G.E.B. is about. I mean, from the title, 'Gödel, Escher, Bach', it's about math, art, and music, and the connections between them. ... It talks about ... okay, here's what it says about itself ... So that's a pretty good description of what it is. It's ... [sigh] ... it's about math ..."

Oh well, nice try. :) And a good book, by all means.

[Prepoceros]

How would you describe it? =)

[noahdassat]

dude, did you delete my comment?

[Prepoceros]

Dude, as far as I know, this is the first comment you've posted. Maybe YT deleted it?

[AWMorrow]

I pointed Prof. Hofstadter at this video. He was pleased and amused.

[fastfret1]

Awesome! I wish the world was full of intelligent girls like you. Intelligence is sexy

Oh, and GEB is an awesome book indeed.

[kazumawarren]

@Mentieth360 you only know this because you read I Am A Strange Loop

[synchronium24]

@Mentieth360 fosho!

[VVillowz]

Please be more descriptive! Just "ahmazing" is not enough!

[jbearden]

You are a seriously incredible girl.

[Mentieth360]

"Came up in GEB"?!

GEB was about consciousness! Through and through it was Hofstadter trying to build all but a mind: tying together what makes us human, the maths of our brain (1s and 0s), and our mind that can appreciate art and music, and can make sense of the nonsensical. Consciousness doesn't just "come up" it's the whole point!

[TuringTest1]

@polymath7 OK, I concede, you busted me on the Searl thing. I don't think Searl's argument is very comprehensive and do not consider it a "good" rebuttal to GEB. I was mainly addressing those who seem to have read the book without knowing what it's about; Penrose and Searl are just came to mind as memorable authors on the same topic.

As far as Chalmers I had never heard of him befor now and intend to familiarize myself with his work.

And thanks, I'm glad somebody gets my screen name.

[polymath7]

II. .

...more perceptive than Searle's Chinese room -and that's saying almost infinitessimally little.

For a *worthwhile* rebuttal of Hoftstadter's physicalist position, see David Chalmers' 'The Conscious Mind'.

I do like your screen name. What do you think of Shakespeare's eighteenth sonnet? Would you mind terribly being compared to a summer's day, or would spring perhaps do better?

[polymath7]

I.

@TuringTest1

Searle?

*guffaw*

No. Dead wrong.

Searle's Chinese room is one of the most egregiously obtuse, effortlessly refuted -and "refuted" most assuredly *is* the correct word- thought experiments in all of philosophy of mind.

Penrose, most unlike Searle, is a genuinely first-rate thinker, but his twaddle about microtubuli and supposed impossibility of of explaining the human brain's mathematical insights by any algorithmic process are only five or six orders of magnitude...

[janetzki1]

Crab canon ftw.