I Am a Strange Loop (82 page)

Hofstadter, Nancy; as All-Wise One to young son Douggie; “being” her husband, with an accent; called by son late at night; giving son
Well-Tempered Clavier
for sixteenth birthday; grieving over husband; model of her husband; putting on Chopin étude for son; savoring photos of her husband; seeking answers re daughter Molly

Hofstadter, Oliver; in kennel; movements controlled by joystick; webcam mounted on head of

Hofstadter, Robert; photo of; possibly living in brain of his son; seeking answers re daughter Molly

Hofstadter’s Law

hog, fully reductionistic view of

Holden Caulfield: personal gemma of; symbol for, inside brain of J. D. Salinger

hole in
PM

Holiday, Billie

“holons”

honking in traffic jam

Hopalong Cassidy smile, tested out on classmates

hopes and aspirations of sunflowers

hopes and dreams, sharable as similar patterns in different brains

Horney, Karen

horse, limping and being beaten

horsies-and-doggies style of writing

Houdini, Harry

“How real is X?”

human beings as representationally universal machines

human condition; as belief in a myth; naïve view of; tied to coarse-grainedness of human perception; trapped in a quandary

human identity, video metaphor for

humpback, blue

Huneker, James

hunekers, as measure of souledness

hunekometer

hurricane as swirling pattern

hype about robot vehicle Stanley

hypothetical syllogism

I

i,
Gödel number of Imp

“i” (half-pairson pronoun in Twinwirld)

“I”: analogous to Gödel’s strange loop; of another, as perceived by oneself; artificial; automatic consequence of perception; of baby; born out of generosity; as brain-independent essence; capitalization of; certain existence of; coarse-grained perception as crucial for; as commonsense belief of average person; denoting a couple; disintegration of; as efficient shorthand; as emerging from gloom; “empty” case of; flitting from brain to brain; “freely” overriding own will; as fusion of two hemispheres; germ of; growth of, over time; as hallucination; as illusion; indexicality of; indispensability of illusion of; infinitesimal changes in, over time; influenced by closest other “I” ’s; as lacking “God’s-eye view”; launching actions and receiving feedback; likened to epiphenomenal marble; as linguistic reflexes; locking-in of; as locus of causality; main brain of; missing from mosquito brain; more than one, per brain; as “most real” of all things; mystification of; as myth, self-reinforcing; needed, in order to be; not a crutch to be tossed later; not findable in physical activity; as outcome, not starting point; paradoxicality of; of particle physicist is no less entrenched; perceived as prime mover; as plural pronoun; questionable reality of; of robot vehicle; shades of gray in; in Siamese Twinwirld; simultaneously abstract and physical; spread out among many brains; as straightforward concept; as strange loop; as Strange-Loop City; as summary of much downward causality; survival value of illusion of; of symbols for other people; as third-person entity; as transportable from brain to brain; in Twinwirld; as unavoidable illusion; unbreakable feeling of; as unified representation of hopes, beliefs, etc.;
vs.
“i” and “Twe”

I Am a Strange Loop
: analogies in; dialogues in; form–content interplay in; new ideas in; origins of; title of; zombie perspective advocated in

“I am alive” as reflex statement

“I am edible”/“I am inedible”

“I am large, I contain multitudes” (Whitman)

“I am lying”

“I am not a theorem”

“I am thirsty”, written on beer can

“I am unprovable”

I Am You
(Kolak)

“I at the Center” (Oleson)

“I can’t tell you X”, as paradoxical phrase

Icelandic language, presumed opacity of

idealized image of oneself

ideas: causal potency of; interaction among

identical twins in Twinwirld

identical twinns in Twinwirld, tendency to split apart

identity,
see
personal identity

“if… then…”, formalization of

“
i
is not prim”

“I”-less mode of being human

illusion of consciousness

imagery, lack of

Imlac room

Imp, claim of infinitude of perfect numbers; contrasted with KG; hypothetical secondary meaning of; truth and unprovability of

inability to see low-level brain activity, as central to the strange loop of “I”-ness

inaccessibility of interiority of others

inaccessible core of passing strangers

inanimate matter, as substrate for animacy

incarceration, as indicative of soul-size

incompleteness of
PM
: deriving from
PM
’s strength; due to system’s expressive power; following from Gödel’s formula’s existence

incomprehensibility of low-level view

inconsistency of
PM
following from any provable falsity

“indescribably”, as paradoxical adverb

index, ordeal of making a good

indexicality: barred by Russell; bypassing of, by Gödel; of “I” as magical; not needed for self-reference

Indian dinner chez Carol and Doug

“Indian hot” dishes

Indiana University

indirect motor control

indirect perceptual feeding

indispensable illusion of “I”

indistinguishability: of content-free loops; of self-containing singleton sets; of Universes Q and Z

inferiority complex as incommunicable feeling

infinite coincidence: apparent, in Fibonacci sequence; nonexistence of

infinite regress,; bypassed; of index entry; risk of

infinitely long formula

“Infinity, ho!”

influences of others on one’s growing soul

informational properties of molecules

inhabitation of several brains,
see
living

“inner light”, slowly turning on

inner voices, conflicting

insects, respect for lives of

insertion of elephant’s DNA into matchbox

insertion of huge number’s short description into
PM
formula

instantaneous jumping: across country; into someone else’s world

integers: describability of; flexibility and richness of; as underwriting video games; universality of, as missed by Whitehead and Russell; very large

intentionality, as synonym for having an “I”

interaction of unrelated-seeming notions in mathematics

interchangeable terms for “I”, soul, etc.

interesting
vs.
uninteresting integers; blurriness of the notion

interiority: entering into another’s; of Frédéric Chopin; of Carol Hofstadter; of Robert Hofstadter; of knee; of mosquitoes; preserved, by critical mass of surviving shards; of robots; secondary instantiations of; of symbols for other people; of tomato; varying levels of importability of

internal model of someone else as “wrong kind of structure” to be an “I”

internalization of outer world in brains and in careenium

interpenetrating human souls: denied by ordinary language; extent of; image of; as result of many intimate conversations

interpenetrating national souls

interword spacing, exerting control over content

Introduction to Logic
(Suppes)

intuition pumps

inventors not foreseeing consequences

inverted-spectrum riddle; as fairy tale; floral variation; political variation; sonic variation; sports variation; timidity of

invisibility of numbers in today’s computers

irrelevance of lower-level details

isomorphisms: as formal analogies; as mediating reference

“is white”, color of

“It ain’t the meat, it’s the motion” (Mann and Glover)

Italian translation of Bach aria words

Italy, unclear boundaries of country and of nation

iteration in complex plane

J

James, William

jealousy, as causal agent

Jefferson, Thomas

“Jetzt bin ich ein strahlendes Paar”

Jewish sense of humor as explanatory device

Jews during Diaspora

“jilted”, as essence of Nicole episode

Jim (friend’s father)

Joan of Arc

jogger, in thought experiment

jokes, as causes of laughter

Jones, Peter

joystick control of remote robot (or dog)

judo, exploiting adversary’s strength

Jupiter, approached by comet

“just too very Berry”

K

k
(Gödel number of Gödel’s formula fragment)

Karen,
see
Greg

Kasparov, Garry

Kennedy, Robert

Kern, Jerome

KG or KH,
see
Gödel’s formula

killing of animals

Kim, Scott

King, Carole

King, Jeannel, poem by

King, Martin Luther, Jr.

kits, electronic

KJ, Himalayan peak, unscalability of

Klagsbrun, Francine

Klee, Paul

Klüdgerot, the

Klüdgerotic condition

knees: awareness level of; as candidates for consciousness; reflex behavior of

knobs of Twinwirld

knowing, elusive nature of

knurking and glebbing; not physical processes but subjective sensations; reliably evoked independently of brain’s wiring

koans

Kolak, Daniel

Krall, Diana

Kriegel, Uriah

Külot, Gerd, drama critic, review of
Prince Hyppia: Math Dramatica
by

L

lambs as edible beings

landmark integers

language: acquisition of; as unperceived code; without self-reference

“language”, vagueness of the term

lap loop; photo of

large-souled
vs.
small-souled beings

Latin

leaf piles: as endowed with Leafpilishness; intrinsic nature of; as macroscopic entities

Leafpilishness, Capitalized Essence of

leather, purchase of

leatherette dashboard

Leban, Roy and Bruce

leg that is asleep

Leibniz, Gottfried Wilhelm von

Le Lionnais, François

Leonardo di Pisa (Fibonacci)

letters of the alphabet, as meaningless

level-confusion, prevalence of, in discussions of brain/mind

level-crossing feedback loops

level-shifts, perceptual

levels of description: causality at different; oscillation between

Lexington (in “Pig”)

liar paradox

liberty and imprisonment as flipped sensations

life: defined; as illusion; in Universe Z

Life, John Conway’s Game of

“light on inside”; suddenly extinguished

linguistic sloppiness in reference to robots

Linus (“Peanuts”)

lions: compassion of; conscience of; possible vegetarianism of

liphosophy

lists: abstract patterns having great reality for us; abstractions in brain having causal powers; accidental attachments of Leafpilishness dollops; actions launched by self; brain structures, in descending order; Carol’s losses; causes and effects; composers whose style the author borrowed from; concepts in canine minds; concepts involved in “grocery store checkout stand”; concepts involved in “soap digest rack”; conscious entities, according to panpsychists; copycat actions by the author; determining factors of identity; emotionladen verbs; entities without selves; epiphenomena at human size; episodes in one’s memory; famous achievements influencing the author; high-level causal agents; high-level phenomena in brain; high-level phenomena in mind; ideas beyond Ollie’s ken; importable mannerisms of other people; items of dubious reality in newspaper; items in hog’s environment; leaf-pile enigmaslist of principal lists in
I Am a Strange Loop
; low-level phenomena in brain; macroscopic reliabilities; macroscopic unpredictables; magnanimous souls; memories from Carol’s youth; mentalistic verbs; mundane concepts beginning with “s”; mythical symbols; names morphing from “Derek Parfit” to “Napoleon Bonaparte”; objects of study in literary criticism; obstacles that crop up at random in life; Parfit book’s chapter titles; people with diverse influences on the author; phrases denying interpenetration of souls; physical phenomena that lack consciousness; physical structures lacking hereness; potential personal attributes; potential symbols in mosquito brain; problems with Consciousness as a Capitalized Essence; prototypically true sentences; qualia; questions triggered by Gödel’s theorem; rarely thought-of things; realest things of all; recipients of dollops of Consciousness; scenic events perceived by no one; self-referential sentences; shadowy abstract patterns in brain; simultaneous experiences in one brain; small-souled beings; stuff without inner light; synonyms for “consciousness”; synonyms for “eagerness”; things I wasn’t but could imagine being; things of unclear reality beginning with “g”; traits of countries; unlikely substrates for “I”ness; video-feedback epiphenomena; video-feedback knobs; what makes the world go round; words with ill-defined syllable-counts; words for linguistic phenomena

literary criticism, objects of study in

Little Tyke, allegedly vegetarian lion

living inside someone else;
see also
survival; visitation

Löb, Martin Hugo

locking-in: of epiphenomena on TV screen: of “I”; of perceptions; of self

lockstep synchrony of Gödel numbers and
PM
formulas

logic of simmballs’ dance

Logical Syntax of Language, The
(Carnap)

logicians’ use of blurry concepts

long sentence

loophole in set theory, Russell’s

love: for children leading to soul-entanglement; halo of concepts with which we understand love; as cause for marriage; inseparability from “I” concept; poorly understood so far in terms of quantum electrodynamics; profound influence on us of those whom we