I Am A Strange Loop by Douglas R. Hofstadter

I am A Strange Loop by Douglas R. Hofstadter was written in 2008 and is the author’s follow up to Gödel, Escher, Bach, also known as GEB. My commentary on that book is here.

In this book, Hofstadter observes that due to the attention that other aspects of GEB garnered, the main point, that of strange loops being the origin of the human concept of self, got lost. He wrote this book to specifically hone onto those ideas. The author writes,

“And yet, despite the book’s popularity, it always troubled me that the fundamental message of GEB (as I always call it, and as it is generally called) seemed to go largely unnoticed. People liked the book for all sorts of reasons, but seldom if ever for its most central raison d’être! Years went by, and I came out with other books that alluded to and added to that core message, but still there didn’t seem to be much understanding out there of what I had really been trying to say in GEB.”

This book is much more comprehensible than Gödel, Escher, Bach. It is still technical in parts, but the author delves less deeply into hard to understand intricacies. He also hits upon fewer issues and goes off on fewer tangents, which allows him to stay on point. This work is a much more conventional book. It is less whimsical as it lacks the parable-like introduction to chapters that GEB offered. It is also less adventurous. 

What exactly is a strange loop? Roughly, it is a situation in which a loop is created, and the loop seems to jump between different levels. However, as a loop must do, it ends back in the same place that it started. The author goes on to explore strange loops that occur naturally, in mathematics, in art and in technology. The most easily visualized example of a strange loop is M. C. Escher’s Waterfall, which can be found here.

Hofstadter delves into how he believes that strange loops relate to human consciousness. He argues that animals, including humans, are equipped with both senses and brains that evolved to observe and analyze the world around us. When we turn these senses and cognitive mechanisms back upon ourselves to look and analyze ourselves, a strange loop is created. Hofstadter contends that this is the origin of our sense of self and our sense of “I.” He writes,

“I begin with the simple fact that living beings, having been shaped by evolution, have survival as their most fundamental, automatic, and built-in goal. To enhance the chances of its survival, any living being must be able to react flexibly to events that take place in its environment. This means it must develop the ability to sense and to categorize, however rudimentarily, the goings-on in its immediate environment (most earthbound beings can pretty safely ignore comets crashing on Jupiter). Once the ability to sense external goings-on has developed, however, there ensues a curious side effect that will have vital and radical consequences. This is the fact that the living being’s ability to sense certain aspects of its environment flips around and endows the being with the ability to sense certain aspects of itself. “

The book goes on to explore many of the debates and issues that scientists and philosophers who are exploring consciousness grapple with. As Hofstadter believes that the human mind is entirely the product of biological and physical processes, he argues against the opposite view, which is known as “Dualism.” 

This work is very personal. The author describes how after the death of his wife, he continued to develop ideas about how memories of other people, particularly of loved ones, are indeed aspects of those other people residing in the minds of others. These sections of the book are very emotional.

This book tries to make some of the same points as GEB. However, Hofstadter uses new examples and explores similar concepts in new ways. He also reaches a lot of new conclusions. Though less inventive, this book is a lot more coherent and understandable than GEB was. It can be read on its own as it provides a good overview of strange loops as well as Hofstadter’s views on the human mind. In fact, a reader may want to give this one a try first. As I wrote in my commentary on GEB, I actually put that work down in the middle and read this one. I found this unusual reading pattern to be helpful as this book helped me better understand what the author was trying to get in GEB.

My take on Hofstadter’s ideas here is similar to my take on GEB. That is, strange loops do occur both in the natural and human made world. They are interesting phenomena worth studying and thinking about. They do come into play within the human mind. I am not certain, however, that they play the primary role in the human sense of self that Hofstadter contends. 

This book is a neat and somewhat detailed look into strange loops. It covers a wide variety of subjects. It is coherent and interesting. It can be read as a follow up to Gödel, Escher, Bach or as a standalone. I recommend it to anyone curious about big, scientific and universal concepts and of human consciousness. 

Gödel, Escher, Bach by Douglas R. Hofstadter

Gödel, Escher, Bach: An Eternal Golden Braid, also known as GEB, by Douglas R. Hofstadter was the most challenging nonfiction book that I have ever read. Not including notes, my version of the book contained 737 very dense pages. The book was not only difficult, but its structure and content, though based on real science and technology, was very unusual. This work has something of a cult status with people who are interested in human consciousness, mathematics, computers, general science and popular philosophy. It also won the Pulitzer Prize for General Literature in 1979. 

Even describing what the book is about is challenging. Hofstadter looks at multiple natural and human-made processes involving loops, self-reference and copying and then relates these concepts to the human brain, thinking, our sense of self and consciousness.  He ultimately contends that loops and self-reference are the keys to human consciousness. Along the way, he examines loops, copying and self-reference in terms of mathematics, art, music, physics, DNA, computers and more. He delves into each of these subjects in great, and sometimes bewildering, detail. The mathematical sections are the most intricate. There are many pages that are heavy with formulas and number theory. The author actually gives the reader problems and puzzles to work on to help him or her to better understand it all. There are also very complex sections on the other subjects mentioned. 

Hofstadter is particularly interested in Kurt Friedrich Gödel’s Mathematical theorems, the artwork of M.C.Escher and the music of Johann Sebastian Bach as they relate to the topics explored in this book. It turns out the works and discoveries of all three are heavy with loops and self-reference. There are also a lot of words devoted to other mathematicians, scientists, philosophers and classical composers. 

Each section of the book is prefaced within an allegorical story involving the characters Achilles and the tortoise.  Hofstadter explains in the text that these characters were first used by the Greek philosopher Zeno of Elea and later by Lewis Carroll in "What the Tortoise Said to Achilles". These segments become longer and more intricate as the book progresses. These stories seek to explain the concepts of each section in parable form. I found these sequences to be charming and whimsical, but they also became complicated at times. 

  

The book is not all technical. In addition to the above-mentioned parables, there is a lot of philosophizing. The author tends to throw out curious ideas and concepts and not actually take stands on them. He is also a good writer who is usually very lively despite the technical nature of much of it.  Here, he ponders what it is to be human and our sense of self. 

"What is an "I", and why are such things found (at least so far) only in association with, as poet Russell Edson once wonderfully phrased it, "teetering bulbs of dread and dream" -- that is, only in association with certain kinds of gooey lumps encased in hard protective shells mounted atop mobile pedestals that roam the world on pairs of slightly fuzzy, jointed stilts?"

Hofstadter is also an exuberant writer. His love of math, science, Classical Music, art and more exudes through the pages of this work. 

When I say that I have read a book, I usually mean that I read every page and every word. However, with this work, I skipped sections. In particular, I passed over much of the math. I tried to read the early and late paragraphs of these sections in order to get the point that the author was trying to make. I read most, but not all of, sections on physics, biology and music theory. I know a little bit about all these subjects as I have taken classes and/or read about all of them. With that, all of these sections were challenging, and there was a lot that I did not understand. I think that had I given it a more comprehensive read, I would have spent the better part of a year on this book. I would have done all of the author’s problems and perhaps gone beyond the book itself to understand all the music theory, technical issues and science. I still would not have understood it all. What is puzzling is that this work is not presented as something for only mathematicians or scientists or experts in music theory to read. Even if it was, I suspect that experts in one of these disciplines might get in over their heads in the areas in which they are not specialists. The depths that Hofstadter plumbs in regards to these subjects are astounding. On one hand, such detail seems unnecessary. On the other hand, the very deep dives into these subjects make the book strangely attractive. This level of complexity seems to be what drives some of the cult status of this book. I should mention that Hofstadter is no crackpot and my understanding is that experts in the respective fields generally respect the information in this work.

My take on Hofstadter’s ideas is that I think that he examines some real phenomenon involving loops and self-reference that cut across both nature and human endeavors. Some of this does relate to the human mind. I am not sure if I agree that these things are central to consciousness and the human sense of self or not. Reading what people have written about this book online, it seems that many take in the grand tour of all of the covered subjects with joy while almost ignoring the author’s take on consciousness. 

Hofstadter has written a follow up to this book called I Am a Strange Loop. Perhaps it goes with the odd character of this book in that I read it in an odd way.  After reading about one quarter of this work, I put it down and read I Am a Strange Loop as the latter book presented Hofstadter’s ideas in an easier to digest way. I then returned to this work and finished it. I will be posting commentary in that later book soon. I actually found this odd reading sequence to be beneficial. The concepts in I am a Strange Loop were much easier to grasp, and reading that work helped me a lot here. 

No matter what, this is a really unique book. In some ways it is a crazy, unpredictable trip through a hodgepodge of ideas. It seems to have influenced many of today’s thinkers. I would only recommend it to those who do not mind a challenging read full of technical material, some of which they may need to skip or skim over. I would recommend it for anyone who is curious about the list of subjects referenced. People who are very interested in mathematics might enjoy this a lot, but only if they have an interest in the other subjects. Though written at a later time, it might be a good idea to read I Am a Strange Loop. In the end, a difficult and strange, but in some ways, rewarding read.