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Hofstadter on Strange Loops, Beauty, Free Will, AI, God, Utopia and Gaza — John Horgan (The Science Writer)

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Hofstadter sent me this “very nice pic of myself taken by my wife Baofen just after she gave me a haircut” in 2020. HOBOKEN, JUNE 21, 2025. Did Douglas Hofstadter discover the strange loop? Or did he create it? Either way, the strange loop, which Hofstadter propounds in Gödel, Escher, Bach and I Am a Strange Loop, may be the deepest idea I’ve met. It fascinates me, as does Hofstadter. In 2016 I spent a day with him at his home in Bloomington, Indiana, after which I profiled him in my book Mind-Body Problems. Earlier this month, I saw Hofstadter again at an event in NYC where he got an award (given to him by his former student David Chalmers), and he agreed to answer questions via email. –John Horgan Horgan: I’ve always had trouble labeling you. At the Choose Creativity event we recently attended, while receiving an award you said, as I recall, that you increasingly think of yourself as an artist. Why do you say that? Hofstadter: I see myself more and more as an artist as I grow older

Hofstadter on Strange Loops, Beauty, Free Will, AI, God, Utopia and Gaza Jun 21 Written By John Horgan Hofstadter sent me this “very nice pic of myself taken by my wife Baofen just after she gave me a haircut” in 2020. HOBOKEN, JUNE 21, 2025. Did Douglas Hofstadter discover the strange loop? Or did he create it? Either way, the strange loop, which Hofstadter propounds in Gödel, Escher, Bach and I Am a Strange Loop , may be the deepest idea I’ve met. It fascinates me, as does Hofstadter. In 2016 I spent a day with him at his home in Bloomington, Indiana, after which I profiled him in my book Mi

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