One of the most important and fascinating of all computer languages is Lisp (standing for "List Processing"), which was invented by John McCarthy around the time Algol was invented. Douglas Hofstadter More Quotes by Douglas Hofstadter More Quotes From Douglas Hofstadter We create an image of who we are inside our self. The image then becomes very deeply entrenched, and it becomes the thing that we attribute responsibility to - we say "I", "I" did this because "I" wanted to, because "I" am a good person or because "I" am a bad person. The loop is the fact that we represent our selves, our desires, hopes, dreads and dreams: it is the way in which we conceive of ourselves, rather than the way we conceive of Mount Everest or of a tree. And I say it exists entirely in the loop: the self is an hallucination hallucinated by an hallucination. Douglas Hofstadter responsibility self dream It turns out that an eerie type of chaos can lurk just behind a facade of order - and yet, deep inside the chaos lurks an even eerier type of order. Douglas Hofstadter eerie order science The key question is, no matter how much you absorb of another person, can you have absorbed so much of them that when that primary brain perishes, you can feel that that person did not totally perish from the earth... because they live on in a 'second neural home'?... In the wake of a human being's death, what survives is a set of afterglows, some brighter and some dimmer, in the collective brains of those who were dearest to them... Though the primary brain has been eclipsed, there is, in those who remain... a collective corona that still glows. Douglas Hofstadter keys brain home The following sentence is false. The preceding sentence is true. Douglas Hofstadter sentences following Hofstadter's Law: It always takes longer than you expect, even when you take into account Hofstadter's Law Douglas Hofstadter favourite research law It is perhaps wrong to say that the enemy of enlightenment is logic; rather, it is dualistic, verbal thinking. In fact, it is even more basic than that: it is perception. Douglas Hofstadter perception enemy thinking You can never represent yourself totally .... to seek self -knowledge is to embark on a journey which ... will always be incomplete, cannot be charted on a map, will never halt, cannot be described. Douglas Hofstadter maps journey self Irrationality is the square root of all evil. Douglas Hofstadter squares roots evil In the end, we self-perceiving, self-inventing, locked-in mirages are little miracles of self-reference. Douglas Hofstadter mirages miracle self If a mosquito has a soul, it is mostly evil. So I don't have too many qualms about putting a mosquito out of its misery. I'm a little more respectful of ants. Douglas Hofstadter qualms-about soul evil Many people believe that our lives end not when we die but when the very last person who knew us dies. Memory is part of it, yes, but I think it's much more than memory. Douglas Hofstadter memories believe thinking You make decisions, take actions, affect the world, receive feedback from the world, incorporate it into yourself, then the updated 'you' makes more decisions, and so forth, 'round and 'round. Douglas Hofstadter decision action world It as if you took a lot of very good food and some dog excrement and blended it all up so that you can't possibly figure out what's good or bad. It's an intimate mixture of rubbish and good ideas, and it's very hard to disentangle the two, because these are smart people; they're not stupid. Douglas Hofstadter smart stupid dog There has to be a common sense cutoff for craziness, and when that threshold is exceeded, then the criteria for publication should get far, far more stringent. Douglas Hofstadter criteria craziness common-sense . . . all meaning comes from analogies. Douglas Hofstadter analogies Meaning lies as much in the mind of the reader as in the Haiku. Douglas Hofstadter reader mind lying Relying on words to lead you to the truth is like relying on an incomplete formal system to lead you to the truth. A formal system will give you some truths, but as we shall soon see, a formal system, no matter how powerful cannot lead to all truths. Douglas Hofstadter powerful matter giving In fact, a sense of essence is, in essence, the essence of sense, in effect. Douglas Hofstadter effects essence facts Below Every Tangled Hierarchy Lies An Inviolate Level Douglas Hofstadter tangled levels lying We don't want to focus on the trees (or their leaves) at the expense of the forest. Douglas Hofstadter focus want tree
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