Douglas Hofstadter (Image: Chris Meyer/University of Indiana)
Getting up each day, you probably take the idea that there is such a thing as a “self” for granted. Even if you do think about it, the existence of self seems obvious – what else would be asking whether it existed? But push harder, and it all gets very strange. Nearly thirty years after his best-selling book Gödel, Escher, Bach, cognitive scientist and polymath Douglas Hofstadter has returned to his extraordinary theory of self in his latest book. Mike Holderness caught up with him recently.
Why do we need to challenge the…
