I Am a Strange Loop - Super Awesome Corp. BookWyrm

412 pages

English language

Published Aug. 1, 2007

ISBN:: 978-0-465-03078-1

(2 reviews)

What do we mean when we say "I"? Can thought arise out of matter? Can a self, a soul, a consciousness, an "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. Deep down, a human brain is a chaotic seething soup of particles, on a higher level it is a jungle of neurons, and on a yet higher level it is a network of abstractions that we call "symbols." The most central and complex symbol in your brain or mine is the one we both call "I." The "I" is the nexus in our brain where the levels feed back into each other and flip causality upside down, with symbols seeming to have free will …

What do we mean when we say "I"? Can thought arise out of matter? Can a self, a soul, a consciousness, an "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. Deep down, a human brain is a chaotic seething soup of particles, on a higher level it is a jungle of neurons, and on a yet higher level it is a network of abstractions that we call "symbols." The most central and complex symbol in your brain or mine is the one we both call "I." The "I" is the nexus in our brain where the levels feed back into each other and flip causality upside down, with symbols seeming to have free will and to have gained the paradoxical ability to push particles around, rather than the reverse. For each human being, this "I" seems to be the realest thing in the world. But how can such 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 all-powerful laws of physics? These are the mysteries tackled in I Am a Strange Loop, Douglas R. Hofstadter's first book-length journey into philosophy since Godel, Escher, Bach. Compulsively readable and endlessly thought-provoking, this is the book Hofstadter's many readers have long been waiting for.

4 editions

o_O@bookwyrm.social reviewed I Am a Strange Loop by Douglas R. Hofstadter

None

5 stars

I expected a very deep dive into what exactly a strange loop is and how it pertains to consciousness, that's not really what this book is. While it does somewhat deliver on the promise, it's also in a very autobiographic style. By the end of the book you will have a fairly clear image of what Hofstadter's upbringing was like, what his values are and how he thinks about a wide range of stuff that's not strictly relevant to the main theme of the book, but part of the style in which he explains things.

In my opinion, the style works and I find the ideas presented convincing and very interesting. My main qualms with the book is that I don't feel counter-arguments are represented in a fair way (I don't know enough about the dualistic views presented to say exactly what, but they were never presented as having a …

I expected a very deep dive into what exactly a strange loop is and how it pertains to consciousness, that's not really what this book is. While it does somewhat deliver on the promise, it's also in a very autobiographic style. By the end of the book you will have a fairly clear image of what Hofstadter's upbringing was like, what his values are and how he thinks about a wide range of stuff that's not strictly relevant to the main theme of the book, but part of the style in which he explains things.

In my opinion, the style works and I find the ideas presented convincing and very interesting. My main qualms with the book is that I don't feel counter-arguments are represented in a fair way (I don't know enough about the dualistic views presented to say exactly what, but they were never presented as having a serious critique of the main strange loop idea in my opinion). It can also be quite repetitive at times.

hsubu reviewed I Am a Strange Loop by Douglas R. Hofstadter

Review of 'I Am a Strange Loop' on 'Goodreads'

4 stars

The author's key strength is his ability to effectively explain complex topics in layman's terms using analogies. That helps a lot in this book, considering its complex topic - Consciousness. I found myself almost always agreeing with the author's idea about the existence/non-existence of the 'self'. Since I am not well-read on this topic, I will reserve from commenting too much on the topic of the 'self'. Instead, I will say that the author does a decent job of presenting the arguments objectively. And this is quite hard to achieve for a complex philosophical topic while keeping the text light and understandable.
The only minor complaint I have was that towards the end there are some sections - talking about musical tastes and their relation to the idea of self - that I found a bit out of place. I would not hold this against the author as the rest …

The author's key strength is his ability to effectively explain complex topics in layman's terms using analogies. That helps a lot in this book, considering its complex topic - Consciousness. I found myself almost always agreeing with the author's idea about the existence/non-existence of the 'self'. Since I am not well-read on this topic, I will reserve from commenting too much on the topic of the 'self'. Instead, I will say that the author does a decent job of presenting the arguments objectively. And this is quite hard to achieve for a complex philosophical topic while keeping the text light and understandable.
The only minor complaint I have was that towards the end there are some sections - talking about musical tastes and their relation to the idea of self - that I found a bit out of place. I would not hold this against the author as the rest of the book was impressive.
I am thinking now that even though I mostly agree with the ideas in the book, I wonder if I think through the implications of these ideas deeply, I might be blown over by their power. I hope that this book will inspire me to think more deeply.