Hofstadter, Dennett - The Mind's I

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What Is It Like to Be a Bat? 405What is it like to bat a bee? What is it like to be a bee being batted? What is it like to be a battedbee? (Illustration by Jim Hull.)What is it like to hear English (or one's native language) without understanding tt?What is it like to be of the opposite sex? (See selection 15, "Beyond Rejection")What would it be like to be your mirror image? (See the movie Journey to the FarSide o/ the Sun)What would it be like to be Chopin's brother (he had none)? The present King of France?What is it like to be a dreamed person? To be a dreamed person when the alarm rings? Tobe Holden Caulfield? To be the subsystem ofJ. D. Salinger's brain that represents thecharacter of Holden Caulfield?What is it like to be a molecule? A collection of molecules? A microbe? A mosquito? Anant? An ant colony? A beehive? China? The United States? Detroit? General Motors? Aconcert audience? A basketball team? A married couple? A two-headed cow? Siamesetwins? A split-brain person? One half of a split-brain person? The head of a guillotinedperson? The body? The visual cortex of Picasso? The pleasure center of a rat? Thejerking leg of a dissected frog? A bee's eye? A retinal cell in Picasso? A DNA moleculeof Picasso?What is it like to be a running Al program? An operating system in a computer? Anoperating system at the moment the system "crashes"?What is it like to be under a general anesthetic? To be electrocuted? To be a Zen masterwho has attained a satori-like state in which no more subject ("I," ego, self) exists?What is it like to be a pebble? A wind chime? A human body? The Rock of Gibraltar?The Andromeda Galaxy? God?
What Is It Like to Be a Bat? 406The image conjured up by the phrase "What is it like to be X"? IS so seductive andtempting.... Our minds are so flexible, so willing to accept this notion, this idea that thereis "something it is, like to be a bat.' Furthermore, we also willingly buy the idea that thereare certain things that it is "like something to be"-"be-able things," or "BATs" for short -such as bats, cows, people; and other things for which this doesn't hold -such as balls,steaks, galaxies (even though a galaxy may contain innumerable be-able things). What isthe criterion for "BAT-itude"?In philosophical literature, many phrases have been used to try to evoke the rightflavors for what being sentient really is ("being sentient" is one of them). Two old termsare "soul" and "anima." These days, an "in" word is "intentionality." There is the oldstandby, "consciousness." Then there is "being a subject," "having an inner life," "havingexperience," "having a point of view," having "perceptual aboutness" or "personhood" ora "self" or "free will." In some people's eyes, "having a mind," "being intelligent," andjust plain old "thinking" have the right flavors. In Searle's article (selection 22), thecontrast was drawn between "form" (hollow and mechanical) and "content" (alive andintentional); the words "syntactic" and "semantic" (or "meaningless" and "meaningful")were also used to characterize this distinction. All of the terms in this huge showcase arenearly synonymous. They all have to do with the emotional issue of whether it makessense to project ourselves onto the object in question: "Is this object a BAT, or not?" Butis there really some thing to which they refer?Nagel makes it clear that the "thing" he is after is a distillation of tha which iscommon to the experiences of all bats; it is not the set o experiences of some particularbat. Thus, Searle might say Nagel is a "dualist," since Nagel believes in some abstractionmade from all those individuals' experiences.Surprisingly enough, a look at the grammar of sentences that invite the reader toperform a mental mapping yields some insights into these tricky matters. Consider, forinstance, the contrast between the questions "What would it be like to be Indira Gandhi?"and "What is it like to be Indira Gandhi?" The conditional sentence forces you to projectyourself into the "skin," so to speak, of another human, whereas the indicative sentenceseems to be asking what it is like for Indira Gandhi to be Indira Gandhi. The questionmight still be asked, "Described in whose terms?" Were Indira Gandhi to try to tell youwhat it is like to be Indira Gandhi, she might try to explain matters of political life inIndia by referring to things she considered vaguely analogous in your own experience.Would you protest and say, "No, don't translate it into my terms! Say it in your
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PrefaceWhat is the mind? Who am I?
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from Mars. Your narrow escape from
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you from your brain in a brain swit
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the most mysterious feature of our
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are the paradigmatic conscious crea
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For Locke, indeed, there was a seri
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ence has begun to analyze the human
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simulations, illusions. Free will,
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Borges and I 20ming of a guitar. Ye
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Borges and I 22Asked to “translat
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On Having No Head 24Downwards in a
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On Having No Head 26One’s life to
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On Having No Head 28my nonentity he
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On Having No Head 30Fantastic pictu
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On Having No Head 32Them both, we a
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3Harold J. MorowitzRediscovering th
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Rediscovering the Mind 36No general
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Rediscovering the Mind 38Before in
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Rediscovering the Mind 40Circle - f
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Rediscovering the Mind 42uniquely h
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Rediscovering the Mind 44Be shown t
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Rediscovering the Mind 46to this ve
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Rediscovering the Mind 48which stor
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4A.M. TURINGComputing MachineryAnd
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Computing Machinery and Intelligenc
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5Douglas R. HofstadterThe Turing te
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A Coffeehouse Conversation 71SANDY:
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A Coffeehouse Conversation 73PAT: E
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A Coffeehouse Conversation 75canes.
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A Coffeehouse Conversation 77shadow
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A Coffeehouse Conversation 79any ot
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A Coffeehouse Conversation 81SANDY:
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A Coffeehouse Conversation 83on eit
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A Coffeehouse Conversation 85intere
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A Coffeehouse Conversation 87They r
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A Coffeehouse Conversation 89they
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A Coffeehouse Conversation 91CHRIS:
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A Coffeehouse Conversation 93includ
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A Coffeehouse Conversation 95sent s
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The Princess Ineffabelle 97Dunes we
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The Princess Ineffabelle 99disappoi
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The Soul of Martha a Beast 101Close
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The Soul of Martha a Beast 103The r
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The Soul of Martha a Beast 105“he
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The Soul of Martha a Beast 107innat
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8TERREL MIEDANERThe Soul ofthe Mark
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The Soul of the Mark III Beast 111H
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The Soul of the Mark III Beast 113p
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The Soul of the Mark III Beast 115I
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Spirit 120A river or a rock, writes
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Spirit 122footprint. Not life’s;
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10RICHARD DAWKINSSelfish GenesAnd S
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Selfish Genes and Selfish Memes 126
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Prelude . . . Ant Fugue 150world. I
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Prelude . . . Ant Fugue 152Pierre d
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Prelude . . . Ant Fugue 154about it
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Prelude . . . Ant Fugue 156ACHILLES
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Prelude . . . Ant Fugue 158dominant
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Prelude . . . Ant Fugue 160
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Prelude . . . Ant Fugue 164by, uhh-
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Prelude . . . Ant Fugue 168involved
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Prelude . . . Ant Fugue 172some dis
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Prelude . . . Ant Fugue 174CRAB: No
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Prelude . . . Ant Fugue 178as long
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Prelude . . . Ant Fugue 182ANTEATER
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Prelude . . . Ant Fugue 184to help
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Prelude . . . Ant Fugue 186CRAB: Wh
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Prelude . . . Ant Fugue 192anthropo
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Prelude . . . Ant Fugue 194of the s
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Prelude . . . Ant Fugue 196that the
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Prelude . . . Ant Fugue 198chime st
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Prelude . . . Ant Fugue 200tion or
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12ARNOLD ZUBOFFThe Story of a Brain
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The Story of a Brain 204had been br
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The Story of a Brain 206neuron of t
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The Story of a Brain 208periencing
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The Story of a Brain 210have to mis
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The Story of a Brain 212this physio
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13DANIEL C. DENNETTWhere am I?Now t
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Where am I? 219circuit chips, plast
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Where am I? 221Barring capital puni
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Where am I? 223warms my gullet whil
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Where am I? 225uniqueness of that t
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Where am I? 227switch now set at B.
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Where am I? 229where I am. But such
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Where am I? 231like as identical tw
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Where was I? 233..If we can bypass
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Where was I? 235It enables most of
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Where was I? 237Tin Woodman, whose
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Where was I? 239on the messy typesc
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Where was I? 241sensational thing M
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Beyond Rejection 243that it would t
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Beyond Rejection 245looked like a c
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Beyond Rejection 247with some mirro
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Beyond Rejection 249tion after a fi
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Beyond Rejection 251As my hand move
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16RUDY RUCKERSoftwareCobb Anderson
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Software 255tentative first sip. He
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Software 257your contact up there.
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Software 259and on top was a sensor
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Software 261This was worse than Ral
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Software 263sun was angling right d
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Software 265The gates and switches
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Software 267The Soul of the Mark II
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The Riddle on the Universe and its
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The Seventh Sally 288sallies of Tru
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The Seventh Sally 290Excelsius was
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The Seventh Sally 292brains, but in
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The Seventh Sally 294vertently-in y
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19Stanislaw LemNon ServiamProfessor
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Non Serviam 298which there takes pl
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Non Serviam 300ance with their beha
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Non Serviam 302It were, a self real
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Non Serviam 304The harmonizing of t
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Non Serviam 306complicated as it mi
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Non Serviam 308ceeded -- says Dobb
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Non Serviam 310in turn begat DANN a
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Non Serviam 312ments to support it
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Non Serviam 314Correcting his handi
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Non Serviam 316Rebuke, not the hope
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Non Serviam 318Around on a table to
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Non Serviam 320ries, the larger the
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Is God a Taoist? 322GOD: If you don
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Is God a Taoist? 324GOD: So you ref
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Is God a Taoist? 326Omniscience, bu
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Is God a Taoist? 328MORTAL: What po
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Is God a Taoist? 330GOD: I meant th
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Is God a Taoist? 332GOD: Not at all
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Is God a Taoist? 334get done. In mo
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Is God a Taoist? 336MORTAL: Of cour
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Is God a Taoist? 338of nature. What
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Is God a Taoist? 340I can see by yo
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Is God a Taoist? 342Are “inner pe
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21Jorge Luis BorgesThe Circular Rui
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The Circular Ruins 346the vain ligh
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The Circular Ruins 348with these di
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The Circular Ruins 350"If I wasn't
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Page 339 and 340: Minds, Brains and Programs 354progr
Page 341 and 342: Minds, Brains and Programs 356prete
Page 343 and 344: Minds, Brains and Programs 358cases
Page 345 and 346: Minds, Brains and Programs 360cause
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Page 361 and 362: Minds, Brains and Programs 376Knob
Page 363 and 364: Minds, Brains and Programs 378You m
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Page 367 and 368: Minds, Brains and Programs 382are w
Page 369 and 370: An Unfortunate Dualist 384ding the
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Page 373 and 374: An Unfortunate Dualist 388Ripper wa
Page 375 and 376: What Is It Like to Be a Bat? 392of
Page 377 and 378: What Is It Like to Be a Bat? 394jec
Page 379 and 380: What Is It Like to Be a Bat? 396des
Page 381 and 382: What Is It Like to Be a Bat? 398nat
Page 383 and 384: What Is It Like to Be a Bat? 400ces
Page 385 and 386: What Is It Like to Be a Bat? 402sen
Page 387: What Is It Like to Be a Bat? 404lan
Page 391 and 392: What Is It Like to Be a Bat? 408com
Page 393 and 394: What Is It Like to Be a Bat? 410rep
Page 395 and 396: What Is It Like to Be a Bat? 412bat
Page 397 and 398: What Is It Like to Be a Bat? 414Lan
Page 399 and 400: An Epistemological Nightmare 416FRA
Page 401 and 402: An Epistemological Nightmare 418EPI
Page 403 and 404: An Epistemological Nightmare 420is
Page 405 and 406: An Epistemological Nightmare 422FRA
Page 407 and 408: An Epistemological Nightmare 424dec
Page 409 and 410: An Epistemological Nightmare 426red
Page 411 and 412: An Epistemological Nightmare 428ano
Page 413 and 414: 26Douglas R. HofstadterA Conversati
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A Conversation with Einstein’s Br
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Fiction 462him. And if he writes th
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Fiction 464wouldn't it be true for
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Further Reading 466"enter and infor
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Further Reading 468Hugh Everett's o
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Further Reading 470logic, see Howar
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Further Reading 472is Pamela McCord
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Further Reading 474who wants to dec
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Further Reading 476Fictional object
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Further Reading 478Two other recent
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Further Reading 480than phenomena t
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Further Reading 4821972), a harrowi
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IndexAbelson, Robert P:, 473, 477ab
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Index 486in, 11-12; and propagation
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Index 488devil, nature of, 334, 342
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Index 490game of Life, 319-20, 385,
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Index 492Jaynes, Julian, 468-69jeal
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Index 494ear" nature of, 294; nonqu
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Index 496physical symbol system, 36
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Index 498scribes, 128Scriptures, 38
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Index 500systems theory, 358-62, 37
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Hofstadter, Dennett - The Mind's I

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