Since I'm not a full-fledged member, I was unable to comment upon Nathaniel.Dread's thread.

However, I read Gödel, Escher, Bach: An Eternal Golden Braid almost a decade ago and it still ranks within my top 5 list of most personally significant nonfiction books. Every philosophically-inclined person should read it at least once.

Hofstadter presents one of the most impressive approaches to understanding "consciousness" and selfhood from an entirely mechanistic philosophy.

Of course, if one wants to approach a more transcendental philosophy of mind, consider a thinker straight from the title: Kurt Gödel himself (for secondary sources: stick to Hao Wang, not Rebecca Goldstein). Gödel inherits Western philosophy (e.g., Plato, Leibniz, Husserl) and advances it.

I share your love for this book. Linked is me cradling my copy, a Twentieth Anniversary Edition. Very much loved.

http://imgur.com/SpzWmoC

I came across the book some time ago but it's just been sitting on my shelf. I plan to get around to it soon. It sounds like it has some really interesting perspectives in it.

Nice!

Fun fact: Amazon's first book sold was Douglas Hofstadter's Fluid Concepts and Creative Analogies: Computer Models of the Fundamental Mechanisms of Thought.

I'm halfway through it, and I have to confirm its literary glory

Decades later, Hofstadter followed GEB with I Am A Strange Loop, which touches on many of the same themes but is, in his own words, a more mature and consolidated vision of his theories. I loved the book, and found his writing style to be very personable.

My wife was very impressed with a podcast interview she heard with Doug, and ended up writing a piece of electronic music (which I made a video for): http://www.youtube.com/w...XS9XOPbJ6ww&index=10

I used this as an excuse to contact Hofstadter, and had a fun dialog going for a minute there. Ultimately I couldn't resist asking him the Standard Acidhead Question:

Dear Mr. Hofstadter,

Guy _ _ _ _ _ here (I contacted you a few weeks back about a song my wife is writing that uses an audio sample from one of your radio appearances). Now I'm writing for some clarification about your book, if you don't mind.

If I've read the whole thing essentially correctly, than these two assumptions are true:

1) "I" is an emergent phenomenon occurring in certain types of complex physical systems, according to well established principles, and acts as a tool of self-reflection

2) The boundaries between humans (and other conscious entities, and possibly non-conscious ones) are in fact quite permeable, almost to the extent of being arbitrarily defined- a construct established by the "I"

These things both being the case, then what would prevent you from making the following statement:

"I am the universe, and Doug is a small part of me."

...?

Thanks for your time- Guy


And his answer:

Dear Mr. Guy -- Thanks for your interest. The most I can do is give a hint. Basically, the answer to yours is simply that an "I" is essentially centered on and in a specific brain, and so to equate a structure located in one brain with the entire universe is not very sensible. Even equating a structure located in one brain with all of humanity is pretty silly. It starts to make a bit of sense to equate a structure located in one brain with structures located in brains that have lots of overlap with the first brain -- and that means very close friends and relatives. Anyway, that's all the help I can give you. I hope it is of some use. -- Best wishes, Douglas Hofstadter.


Anyway, there you go. I had to stop short of asking him if he had ever indulged in psychedelics.

Awesome that you contacted him Guyomech... (I like the video too!)

Happened upon a visualization of the 'Crab Canon' placed upon a möbius strip which is very relevant to the discussion of GEB and 'strange loops'.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xUHQ2ybTejU

That is breathtaking... Wow! Of course, today it would be pretty simple to rig an app that could audition musical themes in a Moebius playback. But to think of it back in the 1600s.... Holy cow.