New Releases by Douglas Hofstadter

On the history and creation of ambigrams, by a pioneer of the practice In the 1960s and 1970s, a trio of imaginative individuals independently discovered that ordinary words and phrases could be given double readings by playfully distorting the letters composing them. These doubly readable words and phrases, if designed by an artistic eye and hand, could possess great visual beauty. Douglas Hofstadter named such calligraphic creations "ambigrams," and over the decades he has designed thousands of them, as have his friends Scott Kim and John Langdon, the other main pioneers of the subtle art form he calls ambigrammia. ABCD (Hofstadter''s informal title for this book) offers a sampler of hundreds of Hofstadter''s ambigrams, along with a few dozen by Kim, Langdon, and others. With deep links to cognitive science, ABCD exhibits ambigrams of many types and shows how ambigrammia can be extended in surprising directions. All along the way, Hofstadter discusses creativity and its alter ego, "discoverativity," revealing how the "pocket sized creativity puzzles" that constitute the art form are pervaded by these complementary qualities. ABCD is also notably autobiographical: Hofstadter vividly recounts how his life has been intimately intertwined with the creation/discovery of ambigrams in many countries and in many languages.

To Light the Flame of Reason is all about the art of clear thinking, an art that is needed now more than ever in the world we now live in. Written for anyone who wants to navigate better in this world filled with populist dogmas, anti-science attitudes, and pseudo-philosophy, authors Christer Sturmark and Douglas Hofstadter provide a set of simple tools for clear thinking, as well as a deeper understanding of science, truth, naturalism, and morality. It also offers insights into the rampant problems of extremism and fundamentalism - and suggestions for how the world can move towards a new enlightenment. The book argues that we need to reawaken the basic values and ideals that defined the original age of enlightenment. We need to accept the idea that the world we inhabit is part of nature, and that it has no trace of supernatural or magical forces. Ethical questions should be detached from religion. This doesn''t mean that the questions become any easier -- just that ideas are tested and judged without being profoundly tainted and constrained by religious dogmas. Such a form of secular humanism builds on the power of free thought -- the power to investigate and understand the natural world. Although not everything can be investigated or understood, the sincere quest for knowledge and understanding establishes a flexible, nondogmatic attitude toward the world. Curiosity and openness lie at the core of such an attitude. The scientific method of careful and open- minded testing, as well as science''s creative and reflective ways of thinking, provides key tools. What clear, science-inspired thinking helps us to understand, among many other things, is that a person can be good and can be motivated to carry out morally good actions without ever bowing to, or being limited by, supposedly divine forces. To Light the Flame of Reason will appeal to adults who are trying to figure out how to deal with the ever-increasing daily bombardment of conflicting messages about what is right, true, sensible, or good, and it should appeal even more to teenagers and university students who are struggling to find a believable and reliable philosophy of life that can help guide them in their choices of what and whom to trust, and how to act, both on the personal and the social level. Today, more people have greater access to information and knowledge than ever was dreamt of before, and more people are concerned about the world situation. More people have the chance, through their own actions, to make a difference. Each one of us, as an individual, matters. It is thus vitally important that each of us should choose, in a conscious and reflective manner, our own views of reality, of the world, and of humanity. And this means that it is crucial for us all to train ourselves in the art of thinking clearly. Christer Sturmark along with Pulizer Prize winning author Douglas Hofstdter argue that we must refocus our efforts on cultivting a secular society, and in doing so, we will rediscover the values and ethics that are so foreign in today''s society.

Aucune entreprise scientifique récente ne s''est avérée aussi séduisante, terrifiante et remplie de promesses extravagantes et de revers frustrants que l''intelligence artificielle. Dans ce livre, Melanie Mitchell se penche sur les questions les plus urgentes posées par l''IA : Dans quelle mesure les meilleurs programmes d''IA sont-ils vraiment intelligents ? Comment fonctionnent-ils ? Que peuvent-ils réellement faire, et quand échouent-ils ? Dans quelle mesure deviennent-ils humains, et quand devrons-nous nous inquiéter qu''ils nous dépassent ? En cours de route, elle présente les modèles dominants de l''IA moderne et de l''apprentissage machine, en décrivant les programmes d''IA de pointe, leurs inventeurs et les courants de pensée historiques qui sous-tendent les réalisations récentes. Elle explore la profonde déconnexion entre le battage publicitaire et les réalisations réelles en IA, en donnant une idée claire de ce que le domaine a accompli et de ce qu''il reste à faire. Associant les recherches les plus stimulantes du domaine, et les observations personnelles de l’auteure, ce livre est un guide indispensable pour comprendre l''IA d''aujourd''hui, sa quête d''intelligence " à l''échelle humaine " et son impact sur l''avenir pour nous tous. Avec une postface de Douglas Hofstadter, auteur du best seller international Gödel, Escher, Bach: les brins d''une guirlande éternelle

Dove si trova e come è fatta l''anima? Cos''è che chiamiamo "io" quando parliamo di - o con - noi stessi? Cosa resta (se resta qualcosa) dopo la nostra morte fisica?

L’analogie est le mécanisme qui, sans que nous en ayons conscience, dicte le choix de nos mots et notre compréhension des situations les plus quotidiennes. Elle nous guide face à des circonstances inattendues, inspire notre imagination et est même à la source des découvertes d’Einstein. La logique est-elle le fondement de notre pensée ? Réhabilitant les pouvoirs et la richesse créatrice de l’analogie, cet ouvrage montre qu’il n’en est peut-être rien. Trente ans après Gödel, Escher, Bach (prix Pulitzer 1980), dont l’influence et le succès ont été considérables, ce nouveau livre, totalement révolutionnaire, écrit à quatre mains dans un langage non technique et illustré d’une foule d’exemples empruntés à tous les champs de la vie, propose une nouvelle théorie de la pensée. Douglas Hofstadter est professeur de sciences cognitives à l’Indiana University et directeur du Center for Research on Concepts and Cognition. Il est notamment l’auteur de Je suis une boucle étrange (2008) et de Gödel, Escher, Bach (1979), immense succès. Emmanuel Sander est professeur de psychologie à l’université Paris-VIII, où il dirige l’équipe « Compréhension, raisonnement et acquisition des connaissances ». Il a notamment publié Les Connaissances naïves (2008) et L’Analogie. Du naïf au créatif (2000).

One of our greatest philosophers and scientists of the mind asks, where does the self come from -- and how our selves can exist in the minds of others. 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.

ISBN 0576504624X LCCN 8166099.