I am a strange loop

Douglas Hofstadter’s long-awaited return to the themes of Gödel, Escher, Bach —an original and controversial view of the nature of consciousness and identity
What do we mean when we say “I”? Can thought arise out of matter? Can a self, a soul, a consciousness, an “I” arise out of mere matter? If it cannot then how can you or I be here? I Am a Strange Loop argues that the key to understanding selves and consciousness is the “strange loop”— a special kind of abstract feedback loop inhabiting our brains. The most central and complex symbol in your brain or mine is the one we both call “I.” For each human being, this “I” seems to be the realest thing in the world. But how can such a mysterious abstraction be real—or is our “I” merely a convenient fiction? Does “I” exert genuine power over the particles in our brain, or is it helplessly pushed around by the all-powerful laws of physics? Compulsively readable and endlessly thought-provoking, this is the book Hofstadter’s many readers have long been waiting for.