Tal Cohen's Bookshelf: A Collection of Personal Opinions about Books

Rich Falzone writes:
An Interview with Douglas R. Hofstadter, following ''I am a Stra
I just now (in 2012) discovered this website.
I notice the last post was in 2010, and I hope it's not too late now (in 2012) to add my own thoughts.
I read GEB, Mind's I & etc. in the 80's, Le Bon Ton and Strange Loop more recently.
I am very impressed with Hofstadter's writings, and his intellect which gives them such force.
I was very impressed with GEB at the time I read it, and was convinced that yes, the basis of conscious thought just had to be software - how could it be otherwise?
These days (in my 70's) I dunno.
The conceptual framework of H. Sapiens may not be powerful enough to capture the concepts required to understand consciousness.
Kind of like a parakeet trying to understand long division.
In any case, I think that to understand consciousness one must first understand the fundamental nature of physical existence itself.
This is not meant to be pessimistic!
Merely realistic.
[734] Posted on Tuesday, 15 May 2012 at 23:09 GMT [Reply to this] [Permalink]

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