I Am a Strange Loop

412 pages

English language

Published April 29, 2007 by Basic Books.

ISBN:
978-0-465-03078-1
Copied ISBN!
OCLC Number:
64554976

View on OpenLibrary

3 stars (4 reviews)

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 call "I." But how can such a mysterious abstraction be real--or is our "I" merely a convenient fiction?--From publisher description.

3 editions

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 …

什么定义了“我”

5 stars

我曾反复讨论过这个问题,我记得我当时的描述是:我是一个时间函数,我是我经历的一切的总和。我记得我讨论过,“我”是时刻在变化的,但通常来说光滑;而一些重大的改变会导致“我”急剧变化(连续但不光滑)。

然而,这个答案是如此被动,仿佛人本身的意愿无关紧要,仿佛一切只是随机发生的事件。在被所谓马原思修熏陶了二十年的我眼中,讨论人的主观就有滑向唯心论的风险,而后者是违背了“科学”的。

这本书则清晰地讨论了,为什么抽象的概念也是“唯物”的,为什么我们应该讨论抽象的符号,而不是物理实体(一滩软滑的器官)。更进一步,在这些抽象符号的基础上,“我”的概念是如何不可避免地产生。

我提到过,这本书语气说是一本教程,不如说是作者分享他在这条路上的旅程。这条路由坚实的(起码在我看来自洽并且能够重现的)逻辑构成,沿途充斥着有趣的、精心设计的例子,基本没有废笔。

我曾经提到过,我觉得作者用笔不太经济,阅读时可以适当略读。我想这也许是所谓“文学性”的体现,这一点让这本书不那么“硬核”,让它的受众变得更大。这种文学性起初让我觉得烦躁,但这是因为我怀抱着想要学点什么的预期来读它。如果放平心态,只当是闲谈,有所收获只是意外,那么阅读体验立刻就好了很多。

总的来说,这本书提供了一定程度的思维刺激,但相当温和。它既能提供智力游戏的快感,又能提供文字上的美感,我觉得我在阅读它时得到的享受和收获是值得一个五星的(即使我现在还没看完)。

avatar for doesnotcompete

rated it

2 stars

Subjects

  • Kognitiver Prozess
  • Self (Philosophy)
  • Metamathematik
  • Symbolen
  • Consciousness
  • Bewustzijn
  • Selbsterkenntnis
  • Soul
  • Künstliche Intelligenz
  • Patronen (modellen)
  • Selbstbezüglichkeit
  • Intellect