A Reading in Progress: I Am a Strange Loop

I AM A STRANGE LOOP

No, it's not a confession (though I can see how you might be confused), it's a book by Douglas Hofstadter. In the forward, he mentions several other possible titles such as the accusatory, “You are a Strange Loop,” and the gawky, “'I' is a Strange Loop.”

Ok, I admit it, I really like the title... it's one of the main reasons I bought the book.... Oh right, and also because I enjoyed Hofstadter's other book, Godel, Escher, Bach, and I was in the mood for something thought-inducing (or thought-reducing, if you are into reductionism)...

I'm currently on page 110 out of 363. The subtitle “Idealistic Dreams about Metamathematics” leers at me from underneath my bookmark.

So, what is it about? It's about the self; self-reflection, self-perception, self-realization, and let's not forget, SELF-REFERENCE. It's about consciousness and the strange loopy-things that happen in your brain (or someone else's brain, if YOU are not self-aware..) Above all, it makes me think that creating a robot that has the same level of consciousness as an average adult human (instead of just acting like it does) will be (very)^infinity difficult.

That's what I'm getting out of it anyways.

Flipping ahead, an intriguing collection of subtitles await me:

“Where Does a Hammerhead Shark Think it is?”

“Double-clicking on the Icon for a Loved One's Soul”

“Children as Gluons”

“....But Am I Real?”

Personally, I've never been able to convince myself that I'm real...(and not just programmed to THINK I am) so that last sub-chapter should be eye-opening.

Eye as a Strange Loop

Extra Credit: How do YOU know YOU're real?