I am a strange loop

[it’s teh book review](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/I_Am_a_Strange_Loop "I am a strange loop")

A few weeks ago I read an interesting book; [I am a strange loop](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/I_Am_a_Strange_Loop "I am a strange loop") - by Douglas Hofstadter. He’s quite famous for earlier works, and this book is supposed to set the record straight regarding some things he felt didn’t came out right earlier. I don’t know - I haven’t read his previous material.

I liked this book, however, because it elaborated along the same views that I hold myself regarding the human consciousness - what constitutes an "I". It’s also a bit frightening, since it also means that behaviour often viewed as strange or even not-normal is rather very normal and something that should be encouraged.

A human being is nothing more than a pattern matching machine, in a loop … and why limit ourselves to humans? The same applies to all animals, but with a difference in the the number of stored patterns and the ability to create new ones dynamically. A computer that is only capable of running a single program is a boring computer. A brain only able to run a single loop would also be a pretty boring brain.

It’s probable that we indeed can create patterns and loops about other humans (or animals - pet owners know what I mean!) that we use to predict what their actions would be, how they feel about things we do and ask silently for guidance - i.e, "What would Ben do in this situation?". The more we interact with others, the stronger and better their loops become. A husband and wife who’ve lived together for 50 years have no problems finishing each other’s sentences - and when one of them passes on it’s not uncommon for the grieving spouse to "talk to him/herself" addressing the late partner.

Of course not - there’s a very detailed loop still running that makes it possible! I get a nice, warm, fuzzy and tingling feeling when I start thinking about a world where everyone’s connected to everyone else, with large bandwidth channels, and where a person (that is - loop+patterns!) can be said to "exist" in many brains. Don’t you? ;)