false 123471 8 Douglas Hofstadter's long-awaited return to the themes of <i>Gödel, Escher, Bach</i>--an original and controversial view of the nature of consciousness and identity. <P> Can thought arise out of matter? Can self, a soul, a consciousness, an "I" arise out of mere matter? If it cannot, then how can you or I be here? <P> <i>I Am a Strange Loop</i> 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 or mine 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. <P> 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? <P> These are the mysteries tackled in <i>I Am a Strange Loop</i>, Douglas R. Hofstadter's first book-length journey into philosophy since <i>Gödel, Escher, Bach</i>. Compulsively readable and endlessly thought-provoking, this is the book Hofstadter's many readers have been waiting for. 2691404 26 3 2007 I Am a Strange Loop total:526|5:128|4:192|3:140|2:46|1:20| 526 1940 1270 144 3 6 false false Sun Oct 19 00:00:00 -0700 2008 Mon Sep 22 21:37:32 -0700 2008 Sun Oct 19 13:32:17 -0700 2008 The New Earth by Eckhart Tolle, a book grounded in Zen Buddhist philosophy. Tolle declares that the Ego (or thinking mind) is the cause of all the poisons of our civilization and the only hope for us as a spec...more...]]> 3 4 false false Mon Jan 01 00:00:00 -0800 2007 Sat Dec 22 15:11:02 -0800 2007 Sat Dec 22 16:43:47 -0800 2007 more...]]> 5 2 false false Sat Jul 19 00:00:00 -0700 2008 Thu Jul 10 07:24:48 -0700 2008 Sat Jul 19 08:12:45 -0700 2008 more...]]> 2 2 false false Sun Mar 01 00:00:00 -0800 2009 Mon Feb 23 08:43:33 -0800 2009 Thu Mar 26 09:48:32 -0700 2009
When I saw a copy of “I Am a Strange Loop” in a used-book store, ...more...]]> 1 2 false false Tue May 13 22:03:29 -0700 2008 Tue May 13 22:03:29 -0700 2008 more...]]> 2 2 false false Sat Jan 10 18:52:58 -0800 2009 Thu Mar 13 19:47:24 -0700 2008 Sat Jan 10 18:52:58 -0800 2009
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Hofstadter is a profound thinker. Some of his explorations such as designing fonts seem just silly at first until you understand that he's exploring micro-puzzle...more...]]> 2 2 false false Fri Feb 22 00:00:00 -0800 2008 Fri Feb 22 08:51:34 -0800 2008 Fri Feb 22 08:59:39 -0800 2008
I read Hofstadter's "Metamagical Themas" many years ago and was fascinated by the author's vast area of expertise.

I read Ho...more...]]> 4 1 false false Sat Sep 01 00:00:00 -0700 2007 Sat Sep 15 09:14:49 -0700 2007 Mon Oct 01 18:18:10 -0700 2007 more...]]> 3 0 true false Sat Sep 05 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Sat Sep 05 12:05:50 -0700 2009 Sat Sep 05 12:26:43 -0700 2009 more...]]> 3 0 false false Thu Jul 02 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Wed Jul 01 22:42:53 -0700 2009 Wed Jul 01 23:01:07 -0700 2009 more...]]> 3 0 false false Thu Jan 01 00:00:00 -0800 2009 Thu Apr 30 08:23:11 -0700 2009 Thu Apr 30 08:39:15 -0700 2009 more...]]> 0 0 false false Thu Feb 05 09:44:36 -0800 2009 Thu Feb 05 09:44:36 -0800 2009 Though elegantly written, it is not surprising that Douglas Hofstadter's I Am a Strange Loop suffers a bit by comparison to his acclaimed G��del, Escher, Bach: they both cover the same ground, with the more recent book elaborating on the ideas of the first one. However, I Am a Strange Loop is a much...

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Hofstadter is at his best in the first half of the book, when he's outlining his idea of the "strange loop" and discussing how it connects to his other id...more...]]> 1 1 false false Wed Jul 29 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Wed Jul 29 12:03:11 -0700 2009 Wed Jul 29 12:42:21 -0700 2009 more...]]> 0 1 false false Sat Mar 21 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Sat Mar 21 16:19:18 -0700 2009 Mon May 25 11:55:27 -0700 2009 more...]]> 3 0 false false Tue Dec 23 00:00:00 -0800 2008 Tue Dec 16 10:53:06 -0800 2008 Tue Dec 23 07:45:03 -0800 2008 more...]]> 4 0 false false Mon Aug 10 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Wed Jul 22 10:54:41 -0700 2009 Sat Aug 29 13:02:54 -0700 2009
While those who struggle with mathematics will have a hard time reading anything Hofstadter writes, he does a great job in I Am a St...more...]]>