A Tunes-esq quote...

[David Jeske]

This comes from the new preface to the 20 anniversary Edition of
Godel, Escher, Bach. It made me think of Tunes and all our continued
discussion of reflection as a primary mechanism.

  ...one thing has to be said straight off: the Godelian strange loop
  that arises in formal systems in mathematics (i.e., collections of
  rules for churning out an endless series of mathematical truths solely
  by mechanical symbol-shunting without any regard to meanings or ideas
  hidden in the shapes being manipulated) is a loop that allows such a
  system to "percieve itself", to talk about itself, to be "self-aware",
  and in a sense it would not be going to far to say that by virtue of
  having suh a loop, a formal system _acquires a self_.

     - Douglas Hofstadter


-- 
David Jeske (N9LCA) + http://www.chat.net/~jeske/ + jeske@chat.net

       "Whoever thinks a faultless piece to see,
    Thinks what ne'er was, nor is, nor e'er shall be." - Alexander Pope