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 othersCan 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.
