Quotes by Douglas Hofstadter

About Douglas Hofstadter:

Douglas Richard Hofstadter is an American professor of cognitive science whose research focuses on the sense of "I", consciousness, analogy-making, artistic creation, literary translation, and discovery in mathematics and physics. He is best known for his book Gödel, Escher, Bach: An Eternal Golden Braid, first published in 1979. It won both the Pulitzer Prize for general non-fiction and a National Book Award (at that time called The American Book Award) for Science. His 2007 book I Am a Strange Loop won the Los Angeles Times Book Prize for Science and Technology.
A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z

For 13 to be unlucky would require there to be some kind of cosmic intelligence that counts things that humans count and that also makes certain things happen on certain dates or in certain places according to whether the number 13 'is involved' or n...

Douglas Hofstadter

This sentence contradicts itself - no actually it doesn't.

Douglas Hofstadter

It always takes longer than you expect, even if you take Hofstadter's Law into account.

Douglas Hofstadter

We all have heard it claimed that 13 is an 'unlucky number.' Indeed, there are many hotels in America that for this very reason claim not to have a 13th floor, in the sense that there is no button bearing the label '13' in their elevators (I recently...

Douglas Hofstadter

There has to be a common sense cutoff for craziness, and when that threshold is exceeded, then the criteria for publication should get far, far more stringent.

Douglas Hofstadter

You can imagine a soul as being a detailed, elaborate pattern that exists very clearly in one brain. When a person dies, the original is no longer around. But there are other versions of it in other people's brains. It's a less detailed copy, it's co...

Douglas Hofstadter

Many people believe that our lives end not when we die but when the very last person who knew us dies. Memory is part of it, yes, but I think it's much more than memory.

Douglas Hofstadter

I don't feel I have the right to snuff the lives of chicken and fish.

Douglas Hofstadter

If a mosquito has a soul, it is mostly evil. So I don't have too many qualms about putting a mosquito out of its misery. I'm a little more respectful of ants.

Douglas Hofstadter

You make decisions, take actions, affect the world, receive feedback from the world, incorporate it into yourself, then the updated 'you' makes more decisions, and so forth, 'round and 'round.

Douglas Hofstadter

Author Bio

  • NameDouglas Hofstadter
  • DescriptionAmerican professor of cognitive science
  • BornFebruary 15, 1945
  • CountryUnited States Of America
  • ProfessionPhilosopher; Writer
  • AwardsGuggenheim Fellowship; Pulitzer Prize For General Non-Fiction; National Book Award