Discussion about this post

User's avatar
Overcoming Bias Commenter's avatar

Doug Hofstaders is quoted as saying something to the effect that analogy is almost everything with respect to thinking.

My own analogy that I use to think about Hofstader's ideas is a poker tournament. You have a defined rule book and you start out with a bunch of players and tables. The winners of each table move on, until you arrive at a winner. Note, you don't need a optimal hand to win each table or the tournament.

But how does the winner of the tournament inform all the tables that gave rise to it?

That's the tricky part. In order for you to have won this table you must have won the prior table and so forth. So how does evolution give rise to that?

And how come I'm only aware of the end of the card game, the higher order of representation?

Expand full comment
Overcoming Bias Commenter's avatar

I happen to love GEB. But I recognize that its "solution" to the problem of consciousness has its distinct limits. I have not had time to read the new book.

Expand full comment
5 more comments...

No posts