I Am a Strange Loop

universality, representational, of humans; empathy as by-product of; threshold for

Universe Q vs. Universe Z

unlimited category system of humans

unpennable lines; pennability of

unprecedented situation as having many precedents

unpredictability: loci of, learning about; in video feedback

unscalability of Himalayan peak KJ

upside-down causality, see downward causality

upside-down perception: of PM strings by Klüdgerot; of world by humans

upside-down reasoning, conclusions drawn from meanings alone

upwards reasoning: in mathematics; in mountaineering

“useful vitality”

use–mention distinction

“W” (second-pairson pronoun in Twinwirld)

V

value of human and animal lives

vanishing point

vegetarianism: in lions, unlikelihood of; of Little Tyke (lion); reflections on

velvet, experience of

verbal behavior: as evidence for consciousness; as insufficient for skeptics

verbal habits, as reinforcing naïve sense of “I”-ness

vibrations vs. pitches

vicarious experiences: hunger for; smooth transition into “real” experiences; thanks to representational universality

victims of macroscopicness

video camera, purchase of

video feedback: as candidate for strange loop; epiphenomena in; fear of meltdown; fractalic gestalts of; lack of “I” in; lack of perception in; lack of symbols in; lack of thinking in; locking-in of patterns in; parameters of; reverberation in; two systems entwined in; vanilla loop in

video games, courtesy of integer arithmetic

videotapes: as important soul-shards; triggering of symbols by

Video Voyages I and II

violation of hierarchical order as essence of strange loop

violets and roses as flipped sensations

violin concertos, Prokofiev and Bartók

“Virtual Creatures” (Karl Sims)

virtual food as yielding nutrition

virtual people, influences of

virtual presence elsewhere

virtual vision via sonic communication

virtual worlds on computer screens

virtuosity vs. depth; Schweitzer on

visitation of one’s cranium by another being

volcano as explanatory entity

voodoo

voting inside brain

W

Wadhead, Rosalyn

Wagner, Richard

“wall” hit by marathoners

Wallenberg, Raoul

Waller, Fats

wants, see desires, will

wars: as caused by religious beliefs vs. by particle collisions; as soul-shrinkers

Washington, George

water glass as site of frenetic activity

Watt, James

wax, melting in sun on planetoid

way-stations in explanation of brain

weak force in physics

webcams

wedding cantata by Bach

wedding ceremony as soul merger

Weekly World News, The

well-formed formulas of PM (wffs)

Wells, David

Well- Tempered Clavier, The (Bach)

“wet”, elusiveness of concept

wff numbers

What is it like to be X ?

“what makes the world go round”

what makes you you and me me

“Where am I?”: Dennett fantasy; as genuinely relevant question in real life; as posed in teleportation fantasies

Whitehead, Alfred N.

Whitman, Walt

“who”: as denoting thousands of “how” ’s; as identity question; as question about meat; as synonym for Cartesian Ego; vs. “that”, see machines, Hattie Gutman, Chalmers, McCorduck

“Who shoves whom around?”

“Who was this meat once?”

whole numbers, banned by Klüdgerot

why: I am I and you are you; in mathematics

Wiles, Andrew

will: constrained by hard facts in the hedge maze of life; hypothetically overridden by itself; not free; as prime mover

Willfits, Bernek

Williams, Bernard

Williford, Ken

windmill blades turned by air

wine, putative quale of

Wired article on robot vehicles

wiring patterns independent of color qualia

wispy aura floating into heaven

women lacking souls, dogma of

“word” and other language-referring words

words: as alien to Zen; hollow; in isolation, as lacking power; as unanticipated names for video-feedback epiphenomena

written records, as important soul-shards

“wrong stuff ” for consciousness

Wunder, Susan

X

Xerxes and Yolanda, in tender clinch

Y

yolk, sacred

“you can’t get there from here”

You, city-limits version of

“you guys”

“you”-ness, sources of

“youthful vitality”

Z

“Z”, as rhyming with “dead”

Zen, as seeking to deconstruct the “I”

Zermelo-Fraenkel set theory

“0=0”

zombie: humans; leaf piles; robots; twin of Dave Chalmers

zooming in and out on careenium

Copyright © 2007 by Douglas R. Hofstadter

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews. For further information, please address Basic Books, 387 Park Avenue South, New York, New York 10016-8810.

Books published by Basic Books are available at special discount rates for bulk purchases within the United States by corporations, institutions, and other organizations. For further information, please contact the Special Markets Department at the Perseus Books Group, 2300 Chestnut Street, Suite 200, Philadelphia, PA, 19103, or telephone (800) 810-4145, ext. 5000, or send an email to [email protected].

A CIP catalogue record for this book is available from the United States Library of Congress in Washington D.C.

eISBN : 978-0-465-00837-7