Implementing the Strange Loop of Douglas Hofstadter

Douglas Hofstadter is the author of "Gödel, Escher, Bach: An Eternal Golden Braid" and "I Am I Strange Loop" in which the explained counsiousness an an emerging state if a sel-referential system.

I was professionally involved with layered communication protocols as used in modern communication systems and was wondereing if the SL could be modeled in the same way.

I think it can and may be even demonstrated. Humans know about inner speech, known as the “little voice in the head”.

Normally people use speech for peer-to-peer communication. That seems nothing special but that is deceptive.

 What you see is that a brain is here both an observer and an actor

That suggests that it could in principle observe itself, forming a loop which is the idea Douglas Hofstadter worked out. The brain is internally connected to itself so it can converse with itself without anything outside of the brain. 

The loop is indicated by the blue and green arrows around the picture of the neural network,actally they are flowing through the connections within that network.

In this diagram neurotransmitters from sensors in the eye and ear are also depicted, they mix in the network by a connection to a dendrite. The loop can send neurotransmitters via the output of a neuron to the muscles used for speech.

The body is chock full of sensors and motors. No wonder we can have all sorts of feelings and express them.

 

 

 

 

to be continued