Books

So David Deutsch basically looked at all of human knowledge and said “you know what, I think I can tie this all together.” And somehow, he actually pulls it off. The Fabric of Reality isn’t just another physics book. It’s Deutsch’s attempt to show how four completely different areas of knowledge: quantum mechanics, computation, evolution, and epistemology, are actually describing the same underlying reality. It’s like he’s revealing the hidden connections between everything we know about the universe. ...

So I thought I had a “decent” handle on “how consciousness and intelligence work”. Then I read Gödel, Escher, Bach and realized I might not know shit :-D. Hofstadter’s basic pitch is wild: consciousness emerges when systems get complex enough to reference themselves. He calls these “strange loops,” like when you point a camera at its own monitor and get that infinite tunnel effect, except somehow that creates you. The book connects three seemingly random things: Gödel’s math proofs that show logical systems can’t fully understand themselves, Escher’s impossible staircases and hands drawing themselves, and Bach’s fugues that loop back on themselves in musical patterns. At first I’m thinking “okay, cool analogies bro,” but then Hofstadter starts building this argument that these aren’t just similar; they’re all examples of the same fundamental process that creates consciousness. ...