A question I have about Douglas Hoftstadter
Is he still making waves?
Douglas Hoftstadter (placeholder)
Author of several books, including “Godel, Escher, and Bach”.
Recent stories by and about Douglas Hoftstadter
Why I want to meet Douglas Hoftstadter
His books have provided important insights into who I am. As I read his works, I really want to sit down with him and talk about some of the implications, how some of my experiences relate, and where I think he’s taken some shortcuts that really don’t compute.
Why I want to meet Douglas Hoftstadter
He may be one of the smartest people on the planet. And his ambigrams are just incredible! Required reading for anyone who likes to do a lot of serious thinking.
A story about Douglas Hoftstadter
Doug gave an interesting speech about pattern recognition in Boston back in the mid-80s, and showed some of his artistic creations involving words that were constructed in such a way as to allow them to be turned upside-down and still say the same thing…only using different patterns, both of which are detectable by the human mind…although not, at that time, by computers.
See: “Godel, Escher & Bach” and “The Mind’s I”.
A story about Douglas Hoftstadter
So I didn’t really meet him, but I did see him give a way-too-abstract-for-me mathematics lecture at Ole Miss. Godel, Escher, Bach is awesome!
A story about Douglas Hoftstadter
Sort of met him. Via Email. Copycat and Metacat have long affected my brain. (Happily.)
