Pedro and Me

Amazon.com

Without the third season of MTV's The Real World, set in San Francisco, Pedro Zamora would have lived and died quietly, a Cuban immigrant who became an AIDS educator after his HIV diagnosis at the age of 17. But in 1993, he and seven others were selected for the cast of The Real World, and Pedro's battle with AIDS, his irrepressible good nature, his love affair with Sean Sasser, and his growing friendship with his housemates would become public knowledge. When Pedro succumbed to complications of AIDS in November 1994, news of his death was carried on every major network and made international headlines. Thousands of letters arrived from around the world. Even President Clinton applauded Pedro's bravery in speaking out to young people about AIDS prevention and self-esteem. Judd Winick, a struggling cartoonist, had also been chosen for that season of The Real World, and became Pedro's roommate and close friend. His cartoon memoir tells the story of their friendship and serves as a vivid memorial to a bright-eyed and gifted man who made more of his 22 years of life than most of us could make of 80. --Regina Marler

Book Description

"You are eighteen years old. You get up in front of a thousand people--your classmates, your friends, basically the people who make up your entire existence--and announce, 'I'm HIV positive.'"Told entirely in sequential art, here is the story of the life-changing friendship between the author, a cartoonist from Long Island, and Pedro Zamora, an HIV-positive AIDS activist, which was filmed day by day on MTV's Real World San Francisco. As a speaker and educator, a guest on many talk shows (including Oprah), and when his tragic death received front-page coverage in the press, Pedro taught a generation that AIDS was not a punishment for moral defects or a mere killer that reduced humans to wraiths. Rather, he showed how those afflicted with the disease could live and love nobly with intelligence, humor and great humanity. Judd Winick's compelling memoir allows each of us to experience the vitally important message Pedro brought us.Inspiring, moving, informative, and instantly accessible, Pedro and Me could become one of the books that defines a generation.

Customer Reviews:

funny-sad-moving.......2007-09-09

i have been a fan of the real world show ever sense the first one but it
wasn't until the real world:san francisco show that i became a true fan.
when i first saw pedro i thought there is a interesting person, it wasn't
until i saw the show that i saw just how interesting he was. i heard of hiv/aids and i read about it but i never understood what it was until pedro came along. i use to believe what every one else believed that hiv/aids was catchable, that you could get it just by touching someone but
then pedro came along and taught me and the world that it's not true.
pedro became not just a person i saw on the tv but a friend, a brother,
i felt like he was apart of my family and i still do. i am so glad judd
wrote this book, now every one who didn't watch the real world san francisco show will know what a great and loving person pedro was. i wish
i got to meet him because there is so many things i want to say to him like thank you, thank you pedro for teaching me that i shouldn't be afraid
of the person who has hiv/aids i should be loving and kinder to the person
who has this disease because that person could be a friend of mine or one
of my brothers or sisters or it could be me.

"Pedro and Me" is poignant and powerful........2007-03-19

Pedro and Me is a graphic novel that describes the friendship between two men who became friends while they were roommates on the MTV show The Real World. The author of Pedro and Me, Judd Winick, was a struggling cartoonist and was one of the roommates. Winick's friend and roommate, Pedro Zamora, was HIV positive and although only in his 20's, was a nationally known AIDS activist. Zamora died of AIDS within months after the taping of the show was completed.

In the summer of 1994, my husband and I had a college student, Susan, living with us. She was an intern working in the area,and we had offered our guest room to her for the summer. She became a part of our family; one of her favorite television shows was MTV's The Real World. Although my husband and I had not planned to watch the program, its compelling storyline of a young AIDS activist living with a group of strangers in downtown San Francisco drew us in, and we watched every episode. (Honestly, we felt a little silly watching a show designed for the "20-something" demographic.)

Having watched the television show, however, I was curious to see how Winick would bring his experiences to the graphic novel format. As a gifted artist and writer, Winick focuses briefly on what viewers saw "on-camera." Instead, he allows us to see beyond the show to the real friendship between the two men. His book, similar to Art Spiegelman's Maus I and Maus II, examines the human condition, and explores the subject of death with a sensitivity one finds in the best works of literature. When Zamora dies, readers grieve for the young man who had so much to offer the world. Readers grieve for Winick, too, who had the privilege of becoming Zamora's friend, only to lose him to AIDS within months of the beginning of that friendship.

Far from being "just a comic book," Pedro and Me is poignant and powerful and deserves to be on library and media center shelves across the country. Educating about AIDS without preaching, Winick has written and illustrated a masterful work of literature. Although some people have criticized Winick for being an "opportunist" and a "publicity hound," I see nothing of the sort. I believe Pedro and Me is a heartfelt tribute to a friend who changed Winick's life forever. This beautiful book touches the heart. I have recommended it to my husband and to my teenage sons; as a school library media specialist, I will recommend it to my young adult students.

A truly touching portrait..........2006-10-16

Judd Winick's "Pedro and Me" does what the most highly regarded graphic novels do-it captures a particular moment in time and depicts the human condition like the best in literature and film do, much like art spiegelman's acclaimed "Maus," another highly regarded story told in sequential art.
Through Winick's telling of the friendship between he and Pedro Zamora, we are able to see beyond what was depicted on camera during the season of MTV's "The Real World" where they met and became friends. Winick focuses minimal time on showing what we saw during the show's run and includes depictions of some of the other housemates, but briefly. This is not a retelling of what happened during that "Real World" season--if you want that, then buy the DVD's. Instead, the building friendship and cameraderie between Winick and Zamora is what is offered here. The loss of Zamora is seen as all the more tragic when depicted by Winick, as you feel as though the two really had just gotten to know each other. As I remember, much of Zamora's onscreen time on that season of "The Real World" was spent on Pedro as a serious young man/AIDS educator, but here we get to see Pedro as a laughing, jovial sort full of cameraderie and quotable witticisms. The telling of his childhood as a Cuban immigrant and the loss of his mother are especially touching. Everyone should read this book. It is a beautiful work.

a great book!.......2005-12-27

I barely remembered the show real world when pedro was on. I happened to find this book in a library when I was waiting for the bus. I read this book in one sitting. It is a beautiful story about Pedro. It also tells a lot about the real world experience. I do think that this book should be read by all teenage students for the way it was written. It is written in a cartoon style..........anyone could read it, it really has a lot of information about aids prevention with out getting all preachy. When I finished reading this book , I felt emotionally drained. I really wish I could have met Pedro.

I also wish that MTV would release the whole season on dvd.

Wonderfully haunting.........2004-11-17

I have never seen 'The Real World', nor had I heard of Pedro. I merely picked this book up on a whim, and discovered an amazing tale of friendship, both beautifully drawn and exceptionally realised. Brief, but hard to forget.

Winick's life has obviously changed after meeting Pedro, and I am suprised so many reviewers feel that he is capitalising on Pedro's death. Rather, Winick strikes me as having a great amount of love and admiration for his former friend, all the while using the comic medium to become a voice for Pedro's cause. Essentially the work is looking to promote AIDS awareness and direct a future that is increasingly knowledgable and embracing of non-normative sexualities.

The art is quite lovely; somewhat like Craig Thompson's 'Blankets', although the comic couldn't be more different. I thought the layouts were quite innovative and the whole piece was quite an achievement and obviously completely heartfelt, which is so uncommon in the comic genre.

However, I did feel that the time in the house was skipped over quite briefly to focus on his death. While the exploration of his demise was important, I think it is also essential to portray more of his household interactions, considering they were the basis for the friendship.

Additionally, the comic's cover is a real led-down point for Winick. It is poorly designed, old-fashioned and quite unappealing. It does not really exhibit the true wonder of this comic, which is a shame, because it is quite masterful.

Irrespective of this, I could not recommend this work enough. It is beautiful and deep, aching and gentle. I really admired it.

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Manufacturer: Paidos Iberica Ediciones S a
ProductGroup: Book
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Citation Details
Title: Comedia romÃ¡ntica con toques de magia: "Hechizo del corazÃ³n".(TT: Romantic commedy with magic: Spell of the Heart.)(ReseÃ±a)
Author: Pedro Crespo
Publication: Epoca (Magazine/Journal)
Date: July 2, 2000
Publisher: Difusora de Informacion Periodica, S.A. (DINPESA)
Page: 70

Article Type: ReseÃ±a

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Exaltación de la vulgaridad: La espía que me achuchó.(reseña cinematográfica)(TT: Exaltation of vulgarity: The Spy that Shagged Me.)(TA: film review)(Reseña) : An article from: Epoca
Pedro Crespo
Manufacturer: Difusora de Informacion Periodica, S.A. (DINPESA)
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Digital
ASIN: B0009963PI
Release Date: 2005-07-28

Book Description

This digital document is an article from Epoca, published by Difusora de Informacion Periodica, S.A. (DINPESA) on October 4, 1999. The length of the article is 803 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.

Citation Details
Title: ExaltaciÃ³n de la vulgaridad: La espÃa que me achuchÃ³.(reseÃ±a cinematogrÃ¡fica)(TT: Exaltation of vulgarity: The Spy that Shagged Me.)(TA: film review)(ReseÃ±a)
Author: Pedro Crespo
Publication: Epoca (Magazine/Journal)
Date: October 4, 1999
Publisher: Difusora de Informacion Periodica, S.A. (DINPESA)
Page: 82

Article Type: ReseÃ±a

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History from the original source documents

4th Edition different from 5th

A Review of The Human Record: Sources of Global History

The Human Record: Sources of Global History Volume II: Since 1500
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Manufacturer: Houghton Mifflin Company
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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The text sheds light on the experiences of women and non-elite groups while maintaining overall balance and a focus on the major patterns of global historical developments through the ages.

Customer Reviews:

History from the original source documents.......2007-04-27

"The Human Record" is a collection of primary source documents veering world history from the beginning of written history to about 1500 AD/CE. The text provides context for the original source documents and it typically is used as a companion text for many world history textbooks at the secondary and university levels. "Human Record" includes sample questions which either the student or teacher can utilize to help assess their comprehension of the material presented.

"Human Record" has been regularly updated with new editions that further add or refine previous editions, attesting to its enduring popularity as a resource at both the secondary and university levels. Outside of teachers and students however I cannot imagine there is much appeal. It does represent a wide cultural diversity of ethnic groups and religions rather than showing a Eurocentric perspective, but then again that's become the norm at both secondary and university levels rather than the norm.

4th Edition different from 5th.......2005-09-26

If you are needing the 5th Edition for a class, Do not be fooled that the 4th is the exact same. The majority of the documents are exactly the same but a few key ones are not there. It depends if you want to do the extra work to save a few dollars...so far it's been ok for me...

A Review of The Human Record: Sources of Global History.......2000-05-28

The Human Record: Sources of Global History is an excellent introduction for History students in analyzing and discussing primary source material. The editors have selected not only the most interesting but also the most useful sources in World History. Selections range from the Epic of Gilgamesh, The Book of Genesis, Code of Hammurabi, the Analects, Bhagavad Gita, etc. The only critque I have is that some of the selections are rather short but if used in conjunction with a text book like Traditions and Encounters: A Global Perspective on the Past, and other supplemental material this book will prove beneficial to instructors and students of any World History course. cdeluca@citrus.ucr.edu

Human Record Sources of Global History Volume II Since 1500

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Binding: Paperback
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Book Description

Douglas Hofstadter's long-awaited return to the themes of GÃ¶del, Escher, Bach--an original and controversial view of the nature of consciousness and identity.

Can thought arise out of matter? Can 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 called "I." The "I" is the nexus in our brain, one of many symbols seeming to have free will and to have gained the paradoxical ability to push particles around, rather than the reverse.

How can a mysterious abstraction be real--or is our "I" merely a convenient fiction? Does an "I" exert genuine power over the particles in our brain, or is it helplessly pushed around by the laws of physics?

These are the mysteries tackled in I Am a Strange Loop, Douglas R. Hofstadter's first book-length journey into philosophy since GÃ¶del, Escher, Bach. Compulsively readable and endlessly thought-provoking, this is the book Hofstadter's many readers have been waiting for.

Customer Reviews:

Very good read .......2007-09-25

Douglas Hofstadter fans will find this book fun and interesting to read. Although many of the GED ideas have been reshashed in this book but it includes some new learnings and evolution in thinking that the writer has gone through in last 30 years.

You may find the book using a bit to many analogies, but you should expect that from the writer of fluid concepts and creative analogies. Once again Hofstadter's description of Godel's incompleteness theorem is one of the best written explanation for non mathematicians.

Book maintains its focus on explanation of conciousness and overall does a decent job in making its point.

Shadman

Nice complement to GEB.......2007-09-20

If you have already read and enjoyed Godel, Escher, Bach: An Eternal Golden Braid, then you should read this. Just don't expect GEB 2.

If you have not, then go read that first, then read this.

Syllogistic fantasy.......2007-09-01

There's a revealing passage in this book, in which Hofstadter tells us how he dropped out of math graduate school, having reached the limit of his ability to handle the complex abstractions in abstract algebra and topology. I went to the same graduate school, and I know what he means. I observed there that the best mathematicians handle this complexity with two hard-earned skills operating in parallel: deft and precise manipulation of strict definitions according to the rules of logic; and deep intuition. Hofstadter has the latter, and in this book you believe he's onto something. But he's not so good at the former. At some point the analogies grow tiresome, and you just want him to spell it out.

It's disappointing that a brilliant thinker and teacher writing about a fascinating subject central to his work ends up leaving too much to the reader.

The book, in essence, expresses the following syllogistic fallacy: The human brain creates an internal "symbol" for its owner, which we call "I", and which can observe itself, creating a sort of self-enriching feedback loop called a "strange loop". Now strange loops, found primarily in mathematics, are magical things. And consciousness is a magical thing. Therefore it's the strange loop we call "I" that creates consciousness.

Unfortunately, Hofstadter never really connects all the dots. For example, he never explains precisely what a "strange loop" is. He makes a "first stab" in Chapter 8, but then never tries again, so we're left with a "definition" that is more vague than no definition at all. (It involves the word "paradoxical" and "level-crossing" - terms that wouldn't fly in a math seminar.)

He does go on to explain why he believes the self creates strange loops. The idea is that by observing its interaction with the world, it creates an ever more elaborate symbol of itself. It's a compelling idea, amply illustrated by analogies to video cameras and Gödel's theorem. But then he never quite closes the loop. What's the link between that strange mechanism and the feeling of consciousness that we all find so tangible and yet mysterious?

Quite possibly Hofstadter has rushed to a conclusion based on enthusiasm and intuition rather than evidence. It's clear that the man is obsessed with self-reference. He's never lost his early fascination with hallway mirrors and video feedback and Gödel. Which is good for us, but it doesn't serve this book well. He sees a connection between the self-reference of the mind and the self-reference of numerical systems, and leaps to a conclusion without checking his work. I can imagine the moment when the young Hofstadter realized that the self is self-reflexive, just like Gödel's proof. It must have been like the time I had this sudden insight into my own mathematics research. It was thrilling. I knew I was onto something. I rushed back home to write it down, and suddenly there were a hundred little details that had to be resolved, and it was two more years before I was done. Douglas Hofstadter isn't quite done yet, but I think he's onto something, and I look forward to the result.

Relax, It's Just Physicalist Functionalism.......2007-08-25

I became interested in philosophy of mind about three years ago, and have since read a variety of books written by philosophers, neuroscientists, psychologists and computer experts. About a year ago I heard about Douglas Hofstadter and his [then] forthcoming book "I Am A Strange Loop". I also discovered his 1979 work Godel, Escher, Bach: An Eternal Golden Braid, where the strange loop concept was expounded in great detail. While GEB did indeed attempt to apply strange loops to the workings of the mind, IAASL promised to focus this idea with laser intensity upon the mysteries of human consciousness. Given what I had already read about the importance of circular processes within the brain, especially regarding the "binding" of multiple sense and memory data into a "unified impression", I looked forward to IAASL with great anticipation. I hoped that it would provide cutting insights that would help dispel the fog surrounding the current consciousness debate. In the end, however, Dr. Hofstadter provided little more than a warmed-over version of an old theory, i.e. PHYSICALIST FUNCTIONALISM; albeit with a quasi-mathematical twist to it, i.e., the Godel / strange-loop approach.

Although Hofstadter is a computer scientist, his first love appears to be mathematics. He gives a great description of what mathematicians do, i.e. finding and analyzing patterns amidst groups of numbers. He gives examples of how this is done, and then shows how these patterns are analyzed and formally documented via axioms and theorems and strings of logical symbols. He then kicks it up a notch by explaining what number theory is, i.e. the foundation for those theorems and logical constructs. Not content with stopping there, he takes you to the next level by explaining how mathematician Kurt Godel performed a brilliant meta-analysis of number theory in 1931 and found that it breaks down when "indexicals" are considered (i.e., self-referential propositions such as "this quote is untrue"). By now, most of us reasonably-intelligent readers are gasping for mental oxygen, as though we're way up in the Andes. But Hofstadter then pushes us up to the peak, i.e. the "strange loop", which is an abstraction and generalization of what Godel did to number theory.

Yikes! How many levels up have we gone? Numbers can be called first-order abstractions of reality. Identified number patterns would be a second-order; documentation of these by theorems would represent a third. Number theory is four levels up, and Godel hits the fifth floor elevator button. So a "strange loop" is a sixth-order abstraction from everyday reality. No wonder it seems somewhat "strange" to mere mortals.

But strangeness doesn't mean that an idea is useless. Hofstadter makes it clear (more so in GEB) that mathematicians have come up with all sorts of abstract ideas, which often sit for years in dusty library books until some physicist comes along looking for a way to describe something rather peculiar about the data he or she has gathered from the lab. All of a sudden, an ignored system or obscure concept is found to be exactly what is needed to solve the problem of, say, electrical superconductence at room temperature. The question here is just how useful the strange loop concept would be in solving problems. It is not a logically formal idea, in the way that a math construct such as the proof of Fermat`s Last Theorem is. The strange loop paradigm is really more of a philosopher's construct, something a bit looser around the edges. Hofstadter tries to do with math what the late, great David Bohm attempted with quantum physics, i.e. to stretch it into a bigger, more holistic thought system that extends to the far corners of the human mind. What Hofstadter and Bohm found once they reached those far corners are quite different however; instead of localized loops, Bohm saw "implicate universal order". (Bohm's 1987 book Science, Order and Creativity is to "implicate order" what GEB is to strange loops).

This is important to keep in mind if you choose to climb the mountain of thought with Hofstadter. Right up through Godel's intellectual craftwork, Hofstadter stays on the pathways of formal logic. But that last jump is different, and Hofstadter does not warn you. It's easy (for those of lesser minds like myself) to be impressed by the strict methods used to get to level number five, and believe that such intellectual acuity carries through right to the top. So keep your eyes open (even though it's difficult at such intellectual heights); Hofstadter is very impressive as a wanna-be mathematician, but may not be as skilled when he shifts to philosophy, where the "strange loop" proposition actually resides.

In GEB, Hofstadter attempts to give real-world examples of strange-loop situations. Not surprisingly, the results are of mixed efficacy. He first refers to the Escher paintings so liberally sprinkled throughout his first book (a few of which show up in IAASL). But he gains little traction - those are just optical illusions. He then refers to what almost happened during the Watergate crisis during Richard Nixon's presidency; i.e. the Supreme Court interpreting the Constitution for the Executive Branch, and the Executive Branch contrarily interpreting the Constitution regarding the Judiciary. In fact, such political situations don't loop around very much; they are resolved rather quickly by riots and bullets (luckily Nixon backed off in 1974). Hofstadter's greatest success with strange loops in GEB came in a wonderful chapter about the workings of DNA in living beings.

Hofstadter also took on the problems of the mind in GEB. However, his efforts in that field were overshadowed by the expansive brilliance of the book. And thus, in IAASL Hofstadter conveys his disappointment about not being taken more seriously by the brain-mind-consciousness crowd. He calls GEB a "shout into a chasm" - although Hofstadter did in fact team up with one of the most formidable "mind philosophers", Daniel Dennett, soon after GEB (e.g., their 1981 book The Mind's I: Fantasies and Reflections on Self & Soul). I read GEB only recently, but it was rather clear to me that Hofstadter's strange-loop concept of the mind was really nothing more than physicalist functionalism, a viewpoint that has been around since the mid-1960s. Not surprisingly, Dennett is quite sympathetic to this approach. For a good introduction to functionalism and its materialist interpretation, I'd recommend David Papineau's Introducing Consciousness.

In applying strange loops to the workings of the brain, Hofstadter establishes that the mind works "recursively". Sense data flows in from the body and drives the neurons; and yet this "bottom level" activity works its way through a hierarchy to the upper levels of the mind, where sensations are felt and decisions are made. Those decisions are then "passed back down" to the neurons and synapses, completing the strange loop from low-level to high-level and back again.

The brain is thus seen as having "mind states" that exist between sensory input and behavioral output. These states are loopy and recursive; their present status is as much a function of what they were like an instant ago, as of what new sense data was just inputted into them. Through devices such as memory, they tend to stabilize human behavior, allowing a longer-term perspective. E.g., if you are chasing a rabbit for food, and the rabbit temporarily disappears behind a tree, you don't stop running just because you no longer see it - you hold a belief that it will soon reappear. Brain states, as an intermediary between stimulus and response, obviously have a function, one that contributes to survival. And thus the case for functionalism. The physicalist part rejects any dualist notions about the ontological independence of "qualia" and inner experience, and equates our mind states and their functional interactions with consciousness itself. In GEB, Hofstadter used the strange loop abstraction to get to functionalism. In IIASL, he concentrates somewhat more on the physicalist agenda.

As such, Hofstadter wears the philosopher's hat more frequently in IIASL, while in GEB he mostly kept the mathematician's cap on. But the new hat doesn't fit as well. First off, he doesn't seem to be aware that he's pouring the old wine of functionalism into the new skin of strange loopiness (to reverse the Biblical metaphor). He seems a bit too sure of himself, too ready to summarily ridicule those who have argued against functionalism, most notably philosopher John Searle. (He may be doing the bidding of his partner Daniel Dennett, who has had rather vitriolic debates with Searle over the years; but unlike Hofstadter, Dennett has spelled out in great detail his position relative to Searle's. Hofstadter, in turn, is mostly yelling insults at the enemy of his friend). He spends many pages setting up and attacking a straw man, i.e. substance dualism, a position that has not been seriously espoused since Sir John Eccles passed away.

Professor Hofstadter doesn't show any appreciation for the subtleties of modern property dualism and its hope that future progress in understanding the nature of "deep reality" may eventually close the "explanatory gap" between physics and consciousness, e.g. the "information substrate to reality" and the hologram paradigms that physicists such as John Wheeler now discuss, and which David Bohm anticipated. Hofstadter admires, yet refuses to adopt the self-doubt that his fellow materialist Derek Parfait expresses after Parfait strictly identifies qualia and self-awareness with brain electrochemistry.

Hofstadter as philosopher shows no knowledge of the "mysterian" position of Colin McGinn and Thomas Nagel; this is especially regrettable given Hofstadter's words in GEB about the human brain ultimately being a Turing algorithmic system subject, one that at some point faces a determinability limit similar to what Godel found in number theory. Is it possible that our questions regarding our own consciousness are the ultimate indexicals? Hofstadter also seeks to kill some "sacred cows" of philosophy that are antithetical to the functionalist viewpoint, such as the "inverted spectrum" thought experiment. (Hofstadter swears in the book to be a vegetarian pacifist, but I suppose that philosophic sacred cows are still fair game.) Interestingly, though, he does not attempt to "kill" the thought-experiment denizen who should trouble him the most: i.e., Frank Jackson's "Mary", the formerly color-blind neuroscientist (also explained well by Papineau, cited above).

Even when explaining his own paradigms, Hofstadter can be a bit confusing. He spends a lot of time telling us that human consciousness is like a television with a camera pointed at it (he even provides pictures of what the frame-within-frame results looks like). The implied infinite series of frames-within-frames is claimed to be much like the strange loops that power our consciousness. But if so, then how far is this paradigm from the much reviled "Cartesian theater" idea of the homunculus (tiny little person) within the brain watching a screen tied to our sense organs, with a homunculus within him/her watching a screen, with a homunculus . . . . in the end, just another infinity of screens. Nonetheless, after a lot of words about TV cameras pointed at monitors, Hofstadter then tells us that it's not the infinity of screen frames that is important; infinity would have sunk Godel had he not gotten around the problem with a finite reference to infinity. The given example of a finite reference to the infinite is the girl on the Morton Salt container, holding an identical salt container under her arm so that her image, and an infinite regress, is blocked but still implied. OK, fine, but I didn't see how the TV/screen system was squared with the salt container. Are they both kinda-sorta like indexical consciousness, but in differing ways?

And then there's Hofstadter's illusion of the marble in the box of envelopes - proving that our everyday notions regarding self-consciousness are just illusions, anyway. But illusions to who? Don't ask, just be satisfied that the illusion is had by an illusion which is perceived by another illusion . . . . ad infinitum / ad absurdum.

IAASL is an intensely personal book - it could almost be sub-titled 'Please Understand Me', with apologies to David Keirsey and his work on Myers-Briggs and human temperaments (Hofstadter is clearly an INTP "architect" - an architect of numbers, ideas and systems). You learn a lot about the life and times of Douglas Hofstadter while climbing the intellectual heights with him. He makes a lot of entertaining little jokes and quips along the way, but becomes very serious as he discusses Carol, his beloved late wife. His word are truly moving until he tries to convince you that Carol lives on in his mind, almost as much as Douglas Hofstadter does. She is still conscious within him - certainly not to the same degree that he is, but according to his hyper-functional concept of "consciousness", just as qualitatively conscious. He goes through a rather convoluted thought experiment (regarding "Twinwirld") to justify the notion that one consciousness can be shared among more than one brain.

To truly grasp what is going on here, you need to be familiar with a certain tenant of physicalist functionalism: i.e., that consciousness is "platform independent". Platform independence has been used to support the notion that living protoplasm is not a sine qua non for consciousness, and that there is no reason why artificial intelligence researchers (such as Hofstadter) will not eventually reproduce consciousness "in silico". Hofstadter has put a rather innovative twist on the platform independence theory here: why not a person-to-person transfer of conscious awareness? One could think of all sorts of skeptical questions in response, but I would like to ask something more personal: is this really healthy? At some point, don't we need to learn to let go after we lose something or someone we love? (Or am I taking Hofstadter too seriously, since he feels that all human consciousness is just a "marble in an envelope box" anyway?)

Given all the psychological sharing in IAASL, one can see how much even a brilliant person's views are shaped by their own personal history and circumstances. It's not surprising that the wrapping of physicalist functionalism with a strange loop bow comes from a fellow of prodigious intellectual talents who, as a young boy, bought math treatises and who got goose bumps thinking about self-referential propositions, and whose teenage music thrills came from Albert Schweitzer doing Bach's greatest hits. (I wonder if Hofstadter considered calling this book "Godel, Schweitzer and Bach"?) Professor Hofstadter didn't know that Southside Johnny and the Asbury Jukes also recorded a song using the refrain "it ain't the meat, it's the motion", which Hofstadter uses to mockingly attack Searle's consideration of the idea that living protoplasm might be essential to consciousness. Hofstadter is being unfair here, as Searle is in fact quite cautious in discussing this. As to Southside and Mr. Popeye, well, they will probably get over the slight eventually . . . .

I'd give this book two stars from the perspective of the general reader who might want an overview on the current debate regarding how our brains, minds and consciousness relate. If you are already familiar with philosophy of mind, then perhaps Hofstadter earns a third star - he will at least give YOUR mind a work-out. And if you enjoyed GEB and more-or-less understood it, then IAASL could be a four or even five-star read for you. So I've averaged it out to three stars overall. As with Hofstadter's sense of humor, which is liberally sprinkled throughout the book (aside from the Carol chapters), some will enjoy and benefit from Hofstadter's approach, but many won't.

A final note about Douglas Hofstadter's admittedly touching tribute to his late wife. Despite his heartfelt attempts to weave his theories into something of beauty in her honor, recursive mathematical constructs still pale in comparison with Tennyson's "In Memoriam":

I trust I have not wasted breath:
I think we are not wholly brain,
Magnetic mockeries; not in vain,
Like Paul with beasts, I fought with Death;

Not only cunning casts in clay;
Let Science prove we are, and then
What matter Science unto men,
At least to me? I would not stay.

As Dr. Parfait realized, dualism will not be easily vanquished. Like Professor Hofstadter, I too am a vegetarian romanticist computer geek, albeit a considerably less brilliant one. But as to being a strange loop . . . no way.

The mind plays tricks on us.......2007-08-24

Interesting fellow this author.

He has done a good job illuminating the inner clouds of thought rolling around in the brain.

Takes you on an interesting trip. Still a little tough to grasp.

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I Am a Strange Loop
Douglas Hofstadter
Manufacturer: Basic Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000OU9BSS

Book Description

The personal and the political, the local and the global—divergent perspectives are synthesized in this visionary examination of globalization and how it affects individual lives. Personal stories of urban and rural living reveal the many varieties of experience and how Western culture has created both immense wealth and poverty. Discussions of primary production, neoclassical economics, and international trade agreements accompany writing about nature and how rural life is deeply connected to land.

Wild Politics: Feminism, Globalisation and Bio/diversity.(Book review): An article from: Melbourne Journal of Politics

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Wild Politics: Feminism, Globalisation and Bio/diversity.(Book review): An article from: Melbourne Journal of Politics
Meagan Tyler
Manufacturer: Thomson Gale
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Digital

General | Politics | Nonfiction | Subjects | Books

Book Description

This digital document is an article from Melbourne Journal of Politics, published by Thomson Gale on January 1, 2006. The length of the article is 1038 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.

Citation Details
Title: Wild Politics: Feminism, Globalisation and Bio/diversity.(Book review)
Author: Meagan Tyler
Publication: Melbourne Journal of Politics (Magazine/Journal)
Date: January 1, 2006
Publisher: Thomson Gale
Volume: 31 Page: 151(3)

Article Type: Book review

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