This is a series on the book Gödel, Escher, Bach: An eternal golden braid by Douglas Hofstadter.
Earlier diaries are here
Today we will discuss Ant Fugue pages 311-336.
From the overview
An imitation of a musical fugue, each voice enters with the same statement. The theme - holism versus reductionism - is introduced in a recursive picture composed of words composed of smaller words, etc. The words which appear on the four levels of the strange picture are "HOLISM", "REDUCTIONISM", and "MU". The discussion veers of to a friend of the Anteater's - Aunt Hillary, a conscious ant colony. The various levels of her thought processes are the topic of discussion. Many fugal tricks are ensconced in the Dialogue. As a hint to the reader, references are made to parallel tricks occurring in the fugue on the record to which the foursome is listening. At the end of the Ant Fugue themes from the Prelude return, transformed considerably.
Some notes, comments, thoughts ....
In the picture on p. 310, did you see the artist's name? It's in there.
p. 312 - middle of the page - does the Anteater give an accurate description of 'reductionism' - i.e 'the whole is nothing but the sum of its parts'? A lot is contained in the words 'sum of'.
- the Crab's response also seems to be slightly off - consciousness arises from the 'sum'.
- any holistic argument has to state what there is besides parts and combination.
p. 313 - middle - the Tortoise's statement has obvious analogies to voices
- towards the bottom - could the Anteater's statement that he is a 'colony surgeon' be accurate? Or does it mask an aspect of 'the blind watchmaker' (from a Richard Dawkins title).
p. 314 - near the middle - how would an ant colony become 'educated'?
- the second half of the page is a conversational fugue,
multiple conversations going on at once - but all intertwined. Has this ever happened to you?
p 315 - when Achilles fails to see how one could have a conversation with an ant colony, he ignores the 'sum of'.
and, at the bottom of 315, he says ants wander randomly, but they do not.
p 318 - middle - I don't know how accurate this description is. Do we have any entomologists in the audience?
p 321 - middle - Achilles now begins to see things in a fugal manner.
p 322 - bottom - here is another conversational fugue!
p. 327 - near the top - the Anteater see colonies the way a chess master sees chess games. Achilles like a non-player. How about a chess fan (as opposed to a master)?
p. 330 - Achilles has an organ point on the gee string.
p. 332 - middle - if all the neurons in your brain were in a bucket, could they be reconnected to form a different brain?