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An Interview with Douglas R. Hofstadter, following ''I am a Strange Loop''
- rms 17y agohttp://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=216358 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.
- radu_floricica 17y agoI'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.
- abefortas 17y agoGEB is much better. I didn't get very far in "I am a Strange Loop," but GEB is easily one of my favorite books.
- 321abc 17y agoSeconded. Read GEB.
- jamesbritt 17y agoStrange 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.