An Interview with Douglas R. Hofstadter, following ''I am a Strange Loop''

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30 pointsrms5 comments

http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=216358 is the last submission of this.

It's not spelled out in the guidelines, but if I see something is a dupe I'll usually resubmit it if it's a year or more old.

I've heard a lot about Hofstadter, and I was very surprised when finally getting "I am a Strange Loop" that I didn't really like it. Actually I couldn't get past 100-150 pages - not because I hated it or anything, but it was just not interesting enough. Or maybe it digressed too much.

I'm a big fan of Marvin Minsky (I'm plowing through Society of Mind right now) and I enjoy immensely the way he demystifies the concept of consciousness - while still having buddhist quotes before half the chapters.

GEB is much better. I didn't get very far in "I am a Strange Loop," but GEB is easily one of my favorite books.

Strange Loop was a big disappointment for me. Not because it wasn't another GEB, but because it didn't break much, if nay, new technical or conceptual ground.

Compared to Le Ton beau de Marot: In Praise of the Music of Language, Fluid Concepts and Creative Analogies, and Metamagical Themas, Stranger Loop left me strangely unmoved.

Seconded. Read GEB.

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