by Douglas Hofstadter is due to be released this month.Douglas Hofstadter is also the author of Godel, Escher, Bach: An Eternal Golden Braid
written in 1979, for which he won a Pulitzer Prize.I don't generally like to list a bunch of links without any explanation but I've found that reading about his upcoming book and his previous book has led me into more ideas than I can summarize at this time. I've been on a trip from the Big Bang and how we got something from nothing, to Möbius strips, Klein Bottles and String Theory with it's 10 or 11 or 26 dimensions...needless to say my head is a little too full of fragmented thoughts.
Fascinating stuff if that's your cup of tea. By the way - did you know you could make a donut into a teacup? I learned that in What is topology? about 30 minutes ago...but I digress.
What is a strange loop you ask? Why should I be interested in this? At the fundamental level a strange loop is something that creates itself or in more human terms - perception is reality. We are self-referential beings who understand what "is" only in relationship to what we are. In Hofstadter's first book he talks about beaming a Bach composition into outer space; without some prior knowledge, that piece of beautiful music would be gibberish to the recipient. If you extend that idea to "your" world you can begin to see that everything becomes what it is, based on who you are.
That's why M.C. Escher is tied into this. He drew things, that often trick us into seeing something that isn't there, or interpreting what is there in various ways - such as with the Necker cube. You can make a short jump from these ideas into string theory and the concept that there are multiple dimensions beyond what we are capable of perceiving.
Kurt Gödel comes into play because he proved there are some things that are true, but unprovable. It takes some work to pull what Gödel had to say into anything we could relate to - but for the casual observer his point may be - don't be so sure (even if you are a mathematician or logician) that there are firm underpinnings in the system of theorems, axioms and proofs you hang your hat on...unless they are very very simple.
The bottom line?
The world and the universe we live in, is a strange and very mysterious place, assuming we take the time and make the effort to look at it closely enough to get beyond the surface.
Artists, poets, philosophers, advanced mathematicians and physicists - like that idea. All of us should take great comfort that there is so much to learn - so much we don't know, and room for a whole bunch of different ideas about what "is".
If you do a little looking on the web you will find that Douglas Hofstadter's writings appeal to various people - not only those who may be technologically or mathematically inclined. Perhaps more importantly, his ideas will lead curious learners to all sorts of other interesting things to read and think about.
I found his comment in the Wired article (see link below) illuminating.
The interviewer makes the statement,
"One of the attractions of your writing is the wordplay, a fascination with the kind of recursions that appeal to programmers and nerds."
and he replies,
"It is ironic because my whole life I have felt uncomfortable with the nerd culture that centers on computers. I always hope my writings will resonate with people who love literature, art, and music. But instead, a large fraction of my audience seems to be those who are fascinated by technology and who assume that I am, too."
I only put that in since a fair number of people would assume (myself included) that this sort of thing would mainly be intended for the nerdlier among us.
Last but certainly not least - I find it touching, and hopeful, that Douglas Hofstadter who lost his beloved wife at a young age uses the idea of strange loops to point to the fact that she lives on in who he is.
Here's that promised list O' links...(some pretty interesting stuff here and lots of fun tangents if you follow some of the Wikipedia threads) -
The Year of Mathemagical Thinking
Strange loop - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Wired 15.03: PLAY
An Excerpt from I Am a Strange Loop
Nerd World - Lev Grossman - Technology - TIME
