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I Am a Strange Loop

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About this listen

 One of our greatest philosophers and scientists of the mind asks, where does the self come from -- and how our selves can exist in the minds of others. Can thought arise out of matter? Can self, soul, consciousness, "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. The most central and complex symbol in your brain is the one called "I." The "I" is the nexus in our brain, one of many symbols seeming to have free will and to have gained the paradoxical ability to push particles around, rather than the reverse. How can 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 laws of physics? These are the mysteries tackled in I Am a Strange Loop, Douglas Hofstadter's first book-length journey into philosophy since Gödel, Escher, Bach. Compulsively readable and endlessly thought-provoking, this is a moving and profound inquiry into the nature of mind. Computer Science Consciousness & Thought Epistemology History & Philosophy Machine Theory & Artificial Intelligence Philosophy Science Consciousness Human Brain Mathematics Fiction

Critic reviews

"[F]ascinating... original and thought-provoking.... [T]here are many pleasures in I Am a Strange Loop."--Wall Street Journal
"I Am a Strange Loop is thoughtful, amusing and infectiously enthusiastic."--Bloombergnews
"I Am a Strange Loop scales some lofty conceptual heights, but it remains very personal, and it's deeply colored by the facts of Hofstadter's later life. In 1993 Hofstadter's wife Carol died suddenly of a brain tumor at only 42, leaving him with two young children to care for.... I Am a Strange Loop is a work of rigorous thinking, but it's also an extraordinary tribute to the memory of romantic love: The Year of Magical Thinking for mathematicians."--Time
"I Am a Strange Loop is vintage Hofstadter: earnest, deep, overflowing with ideas, building its argument into the experience of reading it-for if our souls can incorporate those of others, then I Am a Strange Loopcan transmit Hofstadter's into ours. And indeed, it is impossible to come away from this book without having introduced elements of his point of view into our own. It may not make us kinder or more compassionate, but we will never look at the world, inside or out, in the same way again."--Los Angeles Times Book Review


"Nearly thirty years after his best-selling book Gödel, Escher, Bach, cognitive scientist and polymath Douglas Hofstadter has returned to his extraordinary theory of self."--New Scientist
"His new book, as brilliant and provocative as earlier ones, is a colorful mix of speculations with passages of autobiography."--Martin Gardiner
All stars
Most relevant
about a third of this book seems to be about principalia mathmatica which I found inpenetratable. however the last half of this book is solid insightful work which holds up next to anything Daniel dennet has written.

hard work, but worth it

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There is a fair bit of mathematics and logic which is hard to grasp when listened to, but the book is amusing in parts and I found the overall argument persuasive and insightful. The narrator is excellent.

Dense in parts but worth it for the key insights

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I picked up this book because Gödel, Escher, Bach required more focused attention than I could provide at this time.

It did not disappoint. As the book progressed, themes were built up from their fundamental building blocks and taken to a high level in a very palatable way that panders to a very wide audience.

Highly recommend for anyone interested in consciousness and artificial intelligence.

Gripping fugue of the mind

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This book covers some interesting ground but is worded so verbosely as to be tedious; the points could be much more succinct. Listening to the long-winded narration is grinding me down. I'm at chapter 6 but I don't think I can take it any more.

tedious

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A perfectly delivered argument approached from numerous perspectives. highly entertaining and now my favourite book.

spot on.

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