I Am A Strange Loop

I mentioned, back in January, that Douglas Hofstadter had a new book coming out: I Am A Strange Loop. My copy arrived last month, and I immediately fell to reading it. It is, of course, a fascinating read, even though at times I felt I was only dimly understanding the points being made. Hofstadter has a knack, though, of being able to present some pretty abstruse material in an understandable way by means of analogies or thought experiments.

 

One thing that surprised me somewhat was that nowhere, in this whole book devoted to the nature of consciousness, was there any reference to the work being done by researchers such as V. S. Ramachandran (Phantoms In The Brain). Indeed, he seems to dismiss neuroscience as incapable of giving insight into the mechanisms of consciousness at all, instead preferring a more abstract, philosophical approach to the topic. That, I think, is a shame and a missed opportunity. I think that a conversation between Hofstadter and Ramachandran would be something that would create some sparks of illumination.

 

In the meantime, here’s a link to a recent interview with Hofstadter that is worth reading.