Is I Am a Strange Loop (2007) CHUD or WOKE?
chudrank score: 47 / 100 (roughly neutral). 0 is CHUD (right-wing), 100 is WOKE (left-wing).
Book by Douglas R. Hofstadter, 2007.
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Why: Philosophy of mind; no clear politics
Hofstadter's long-awaited return to the themes of Gödel, Escher, Bach--an original and controversial view of the nature of consciousness and identity. What do we mean when we say "I"? 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? This book argues that the key to understanding selves and consciousness is a special kind of abstract feedback loop inhabiting our brains. Deep down, a human brain is a chaotic 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 c…