Strange Loops

Author : Liz Harmer
Publisher : Vintage Canada
Page : 257 pages
File Size : 52,7 Mb
Release : 2024-01-30
Category : Fiction
ISBN : 9780345811288

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Strange Loops by Liz Harmer Pdf

"Enthralling. . . . A story that burns with intensity and daring." —Iain Reid A propulsive novel about the power and paradoxes of desire, from the acclaimed author of The Amateurs. As small children, Francine and her twin Philip shared a seemingly unbreakable bond—but in adolescence the connection frayed, and in adulthood the siblings are locked in a repeating loop of complex, destructive emotions. Matters have reached a breaking point, and Francine, now in her thirties and the married mother of two small boys, is convinced that Philip’s teenaged infatuation with religion and subsequent ongoing obsession with his sister’s “moral impropriety”—sparked by his discovery of her involvement in a forbidden relationship—are to blame. As storm clouds of resentment and mutual betrayal gather ominously, threatening to upend both siblings’ lives and damage their families, Francine unexpectedly finds herself in a situation that mirrors her earlier transgression: stirred and unsettled by her attraction to a wildly inappropriate man. And the one person who suspects is the last person she trusts—her disapproving twin. With the plot twists of a thriller, lean prose crackling with intensity, and big ideas explored alongside the messy truth of human relationships, Strange Loops simultaneously shocks and thrills the reader, all while asking vital questions about faith, love, and desire.

Author : Douglas R. Hofstadter
Publisher : Basic Books
Page : 436 pages
File Size : 45,5 Mb
Release : 2007-08-01
Category : Philosophy
ISBN : 9780465008377

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I Am a Strange Loop by Douglas R. Hofstadter Pdf

Can thought arise out of matter? Can self, soul, consciousness, “I” arise out of mere matter? If it cannot, then how can you or I be here? I Am a Strange Loop argues that the key to understanding selves and consciousness is the “strange loop”—a special kind of abstract feedback loop inhabiting our brains. The most central and complex symbol in your brain is the one called “I.” The “I” is the nexus in our brain, one of many symbols seeming to have free will and to have gained the paradoxical ability to push particles around, rather than the reverse. How can a mysterious abstraction be real—or is our “I” merely a convenient fiction? Does an “I” exert genuine power over the particles in our brain, or is it helplessly pushed around by the laws of physics? These are the mysteries tackled in I Am a Strange Loop, Douglas Hofstadter's first book-length journey into philosophy since Gödel, Escher, Bach. Compulsively readable and endlessly thought-provoking, this is a moving and profound inquiry into the nature of mind.

Author : Liz Harmer
Publisher : Vintage Canada
Page : 338 pages
File Size : 51,8 Mb
Release : 2019-04-02
Category : Fiction
ISBN : 9780345811257

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The Amateurs by Liz Harmer Pdf

In the style of Margaret Atwood's The Year of the Flood, Dave Eggers' The Circle: a post-apocalyptic examination of nostalgia, loss and the possibility of starting over. Allow us to introduce you to the newest product from PINA, the world's largest tech company. "Port" is a curiously irresistible device that offers the impossible: space-time travel mysteriously powered by nostalgia and longing. Step inside a Port and find yourself transported to wherever and whenever your heart desires: a bygone youth, a dreamed-of future, the fabled past. In the near-future world of Liz Harmer's extraordinary novel, Port becomes a phenomenon, but soon it is clear that many who pass through its portal won't be coming back—either unwilling to return or, more ominously, unable to do so. After a few short years, the population plummets. The grid goes down. Among those who remain is Marie, a thirtysomething artist living in a small community of Port-resistors camping out in the abandoned mansions of a former steel town. As winter approaches the group considers heading south, but Marie clings to the hope that her long lost lover will one day return to the spot where he disappeared. Meanwhile, PINA's corporate campus in California has become a cultish enclave of survivors. Brandon, the right-hand man to the mad genius who invented Port, decides to get out. He steals a car and drives north-east, where he hopes to find his missing mother. And there he meets Marie. The Amateurs is a story of rapture and romance, and an astoundingly powerful tale about what happens when technology meets desire.

Author : Douglas Robinson
Publisher : Bloomsbury Publishing USA
Page : 240 pages
File Size : 55,9 Mb
Release : 2021-12-16
Category : Literary Criticism
ISBN : 9781501382444

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The Strange Loops of Translation by Douglas Robinson Pdf

One of the most exciting theories to emerge from cognitive science research over the past few decades has been Douglas Hofstadter's notion of “strange loops,” from Gödel, Escher, Bach (1979). Hofstadter is also an active literary translator who has written about translation, perhaps most notably in his 1997 book Le Ton Beau de Marot, where he draws on his cognitive science research. And yet he has never considered the possibility that translation might itself be a strange loop. In this book Douglas Robinson puts Hofstadter's strange-loops theory into dialogue with a series of definitive theories of translation, in the process showing just how cognitively and affectively complex an activity translation actually is.

Author : Everest Media,
Publisher : Everest Media LLC
Page : 86 pages
File Size : 45,9 Mb
Release : 2022-06-09T22:59:00Z
Category : Computers
ISBN : 9798822529700

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Summary of Douglas R. Hofstadter's I Am a Strange Loop by Everest Media, Pdf

Please note: This is a companion version & not the original book. Sample Book Insights: #1 The author’s mother said that the photograph of her father had no meaning, and that it was just a flat piece of paper with dark spots on it. The author explained to her that the photograph was a soul-shard of someone departed, and that she should cherish it as long as she lived. #2 I do not feel any sense of guilt when I slice up and eat tomatoes. I do not go to bed uneasily after having consumed a fresh tomato. I do not believe it is meaningful to try to imagine how the tomato felt as it was sitting on my plate being sliced apart. #3 I had a summer job at age 15 punching buttons on a Friden mechanical calculator in a physiology lab at Stanford University. I was asked to bring down two animals for my friend’s next round of experiments. I fainted right away, and the next day, I was told not to do that again. #4 I was 21 when I read the Norwegian-English writer Roald Dahl’s short story Pig, which changed my life and the lives of other animals as well. It showed me that meat-eating was a common background fact in the lives of my friends, and that vegetarians were strange and sternly moralistic nutcases in my mind.

Author : Douglas R. Hofstadter
Publisher : Penguin Group(CA)
Page : 832 pages
File Size : 41,7 Mb
Release : 2000
Category : Art and music
ISBN : 0140289208

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Gödel, Escher, Bach by Douglas R. Hofstadter Pdf

'What is a self and how can a self come out of inanimate matter?' This is the riddle that drove Douglas Hofstadter to write this extraordinary book. In order to impart his original and personal view on the core mystery of human existence - our intangible sensation of 'I'-ness - Hofstadter defines the playful yet seemingly paradoxical notion of 'strange loop', and explicates this idea using analogies from many disciplines.

Author : Anonim
Publisher : Hal Leonard Corporation
Page : 173 pages
File Size : 54,5 Mb
Release : 2022-11-01
Category : Music
ISBN : 9781705185674

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A Strange Loop by Anonim Pdf

(Vocal Selections). Winner of the Tony Award for Best Musical, Michael R. Jackson's Pulitzer Prize-winning blisteringly funny masterwork exposes the heart and soul of a young artist grappling with desires, identity, and instincts he boths loves and loathes. This collection features 15 songs from the show arranged for vocal line with piano accompaniment. Songs include: Boundaries * Didn't Want Nothin' * Exile in Gayville * Inner White Girl * Intermission Song * Inwood Daddy * Memory Song * Periodically * Precious Little Dream / AIDS Is God's Punishment * Second Wave * A Strange Loop * A Sympathetic Ear * Today * Tyler Perry Writes Real Life * We Wanna Know.

Author : Joseph Chilton Pearce
Publisher : Unknown
Page : 0 pages
File Size : 52,9 Mb
Release : 2010
Category : Evolution
ISBN : 0983226105

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Strange Loops and Gestures of Creation by Joseph Chilton Pearce Pdf

Strange Loops and Gestures of Creation brings the lifetime work of Joseph Chilton Pearce into symphonic resonance, sounding all of the themes that have made him one of the most significant thinkers of this time. The book, however, hardly repeats his previous work. Here it is framed in intimate, spiritual, and personal ways that open us to surprising revelations. Joseph Chilton Pearce confronts, more clearly, precisely and convincingly than any previous writing, our dire cultural situation --- we live in a collective, society that lacks true meanings of nurturing in every way. He, with equal intensity, points toward the inherent capacity of the heart – the physical heart – to bring the survival oriented brain, functioning through violence, astute manipulative sensing and perceiving, and calculative cleverness, into balance and, indeed to new creative capacities. The key to a creative culture lies in the phenomenon of the ‘strange loop’ between potential and actuality, the relation between the heart as the palpable presence within us of the universal, and the mind as the individual aspect of things. The many examples, ranging from biographical sketches of individuals to neurological research to intimate and personal stories, bring home the inescapable conclusions – we must find again the way to a holy science, that the spirit can be approached with all of the rigor of observational science, and the spirit is not ‘out there’ in the universe, but within our very being, both heart and brain.

Author : Catherine Hernandez
Publisher : Atria Books
Page : 272 pages
File Size : 40,7 Mb
Release : 2020-12-08
Category : Fiction
ISBN : 9781982146023

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Crosshairs by Catherine Hernandez Pdf

The author of the acclaimed novel Scarborough weaves an unforgettable and timely dystopian tale about a near-future, where a queer Black performer and his allies join forces to rise up when an oppressive regime gathers those deemed “Other” into concentration camps. Set in a terrifyingly familiar near-future, with massive floods leading to rampant homelessness and devastation, a government-sanctioned regime called The Boots seizes on the opportunity to round up communities of color, the disabled, and the LGBTQ+ into labor camps. In the shadows, a new hero emerges. After he loses his livelihood as a drag queen and the love of his life, Kay joins the resistance alongside Bahadur, a transmasculine refugee, and Firuzeh, a headstrong social worker. Guiding them in the use of weapons and close-quarters combat is Beck, a rogue army officer, who helps them plan an uprising at a major televised international event. With her signature “raw yet beautiful, disturbing yet hopeful” (Booklist) prose, Catherine Hernandez creates a vision of the future that is all the more frightening because it is very possible. A cautionary tale filled with fierce and vibrant characters, Crosshairs explores the universal desire to thrive, love, and be loved for being your true self.

Author : Conrad Wesley Snyder
Publisher : Unknown
Page : 32 pages
File Size : 55,9 Mb
Release : 1999
Category : Electronic
ISBN : STANFORD:36105022001080

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Strange Loops in Education by Conrad Wesley Snyder Pdf

Author : Peter Erdi
Publisher : Springer Science & Business Media
Page : 397 pages
File Size : 47,9 Mb
Release : 2007-11-09
Category : Technology & Engineering
ISBN : 9783540357780

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Complexity Explained by Peter Erdi Pdf

This book explains why complex systems research is important in understanding the structure, function and dynamics of complex natural and social phenomena. It illuminates how complex collective behavior emerges from the parts of a system, due to the interaction between the system and its environment. Readers will learn the basic concepts and methods of complex system research. The book is not highly technical mathematically, but teaches and uses the basic mathematical notions of dynamical system theory, making the book useful for students of science majors and graduate courses.

Author : Steph Davis
Publisher : The Mountaineers Books
Page : 190 pages
File Size : 47,8 Mb
Release : 2007-03-09
Category : Travel
ISBN : 9781594852572

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High Infatuation by Steph Davis Pdf

* A collection of vivid, intimate essays and prose poetry on the universal themes of life, love, friendship, personal empowerment, and more, told through a career in climbing * 40 percent of these pieces debut here for the first time * Davis has been profiled in publications including Outside, Men's Journal, W Magazine, and Sports Illustrated. Throughout her life, Steph Davis has chosen to take risks, to trust her impulses, to make decisions based on what feels right inside -- and never look back. Studying to be a concert pianist, she quit music the day she was introduced to rock climbing. Later, she abandoned the respectability of university life and pursuit of a law degree to become a "dirtbag climber," living out of her grandmother's hand-me-down Oldsmobile sedan with Fletcher, a heeler mix dog. Today, through courage and perseverance, Davis is a high-profile athlete whose sponsors have included Patagonia, Mammut, Clif Bar, Five Ten and Cascade Designs. In High Infatuation, Davis writes on the universal themes of life, love, friendship, personal empowerment, and more, told through a career in climbing. We wait with her in the tent through weeks of rain, wind, snow, and sleet, hoping for the weather to improve in the mountains of Patagonia, then race with her up a towering rock wall of Yosemite's El Capitan in a single day. More than adventure stories, these pieces reveal Davis' soul. They draw us into her struggles with safety, independence, ambition, and compassion. By following the journey of this remarkable woman, we learn what it means to live a truly adventurous life.

Author : Alva Noë
Publisher : Macmillan + ORM
Page : 291 pages
File Size : 52,6 Mb
Release : 2015-09-22
Category : Philosophy
ISBN : 9781429945257

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Strange Tools by Alva Noë Pdf

A philosopher makes the case for thinking of works of art as tools for investigating ourselves In his new book, Strange Tools: Art and Human Nature, the philosopher and cognitive scientist Alva Noë raises a number of profound questions: What is art? Why do we value art as we do? What does art reveal about our nature? Drawing on philosophy, art history, and cognitive science, and making provocative use of examples from all three of these fields, Noë offers new answers to such questions. He also shows why recent efforts to frame questions about art in terms of neuroscience and evolutionary biology alone have been and will continue to be unsuccessful.

Author : Marcus du Sautoy,Victoria Gould
Publisher : Faber & Faber
Page : 106 pages
File Size : 42,5 Mb
Release : 2021-06-03
Category : Drama
ISBN : 9780571360741

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I is a Strange Loop by Marcus du Sautoy,Victoria Gould Pdf

Alone in a cube that's glowing in the darkness, X is content within its little universe of infinite thought. This solitude is disturbed by the appearance of Y, who insists on exposing X to the richness of the physical world. Each begins to long for what the other has, luring them into a strange loop.In this play for two variables, Marcus du Sautoy and Victoria Gould use mathematics and theatre to navigate the furthest reaches of our world. Through a series of surreal episodes, X and Y tackle some of life's greatest questions: where did the universe come from, does time have an end, do we have free will?I is a Strange Loop was first performed by the authors at the Barbican Pit, London, in March 2019.'I is a Strange Loop is a play that plays... with ideas, concepts, abstractions and relationships that are, usually, hidden from the sight of ordinary mortals, articulating the ineffable, incarnating the incorporeal, revealing the inconceivable... it makes us feel we know a great deal more than we do.... and is also very funny, utterly compelling and marvellously human.' Simon McBurney

Author : Gerald R. Weeks
Publisher : Psychology Press
Page : 340 pages
File Size : 42,9 Mb
Release : 1991
Category : Psychology
ISBN : 0876306458

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Promoting Change Through Paradoxical Therapy by Gerald R. Weeks Pdf

Originally published in 1985 and now revised and updated, this work presents the seminal theory that has led to the use of paradoxical techniques in different systems of therapy. Dr. Weeks, a pioneer in the field, has gathered well-known therapists to address key issues such as structure and process of paradoxical therapy; theories of health, dysfunction, and change; ethical implications of working paradoxically; and effectiveness of paradoxical interventions. Selected case studies shed light on basic questions such as whether to work paradoxically and how to establish treatment goals and termination procedures.