Gödel, Escher, Bach: an Eternal Golden Braid 🪢
Last modified on May 16, 2022
TODO: write about the passage where Hofstadter challenges the idea that Symbols get their meaning when we look at them. – perhaps if we sent symbols to an alien species and they were able to decipher it, then some symbols could have universal meaning??
M-mode vs. I-mode.
Go look up the MU puzzle.
Links to “Gödel, Escher, Bach: an Eternal Golden Braid 🪢”
The Cybernetic Manifesto
The way they describe knowledge systems is very similar to the way certain philosophers approach computational systems – they only have meaning relative to an observer. Symbols get their meaning when we look at them.
When a number of systems become integrated so that a new level of control emerges, we say that a metasystem has formed. We refer to this process as a metasystem transition.
A metasystem transition is, by definition, a creative act. It cannot be solely directed by the internal structure or logic of a system, but must always comes from outside causes, from “above”.
Feels related to the “I”-mode and “M”-mode discussion in Gödel, Escher, Bach: an Eternal Golden Braid 🪢
recursion (*recursive editing reminds me of Hofstadter’s pushing and popping allegory.)
I just realized something. If you supposedly go “depth-first” on something, you don’t necessarily get stuck in a rabbit hole.
Because the structure of knowledge isn’t just a bunch of separate rabbit holes – you might enter one tunnel, but then come shooting out some other tunnel, traversing over the graph of ideas, Mariokart style!
Figure 1: woohoo!!
Links to “GEB”
The Cybernetic Manifesto
The way they describe knowledge systems is very similar to the way certain philosophers approach computational systems – they only have meaning relative to an observer. Symbols get their meaning when we look at them.
When a number of systems become integrated so that a new level of control emerges, we say that a metasystem has formed. We refer to this process as a metasystem transition.
A metasystem transition is, by definition, a creative act. It cannot be solely directed by the internal structure or logic of a system, but must always comes from outside causes, from “above”.
Feels related to the “I”-mode and “M”-mode discussion in Gödel, Escher, Bach: an Eternal Golden Braid 🪢
recursion (*recursive editing reminds me of Hofstadter’s pushing and popping allegory.)
I just realized something. If you supposedly go “depth-first” on something, you don’t necessarily get stuck in a rabbit hole.
Because the structure of knowledge isn’t just a bunch of separate rabbit holes – you might enter one tunnel, but then come shooting out some other tunnel, traversing over the graph of ideas, Mariokart style!
Figure 2: woohoo!!