File spoon-archives/marxism2.archive/marxism2_1996/96-06-08.010, message 51


From: ROSSERJB-AT-jmu.edu
Date: Sun, 26 May 1996 14:32:34 -0500 (EST)
Subject: Re: Waiting for Godel


To Jerry,
     I fear that this is one of those situations where if
you have to ask, I can't tell you.  What I can say in a short
space (and that is all I am going to spend on it) would be
to essentially repeat.  If you are curious, read the book.
Despite some off-the-wall sections, much of it holds up.
     I'll say this:  1)  Godel's Theorem says that any logical
system will generate a statement whose truth or falsithy cannot
be determined within the system.  At the core of the proof is
a self-referencing of the form of the liar's paradox, that is
"All Cretans are liars and I am a Cretan."  2)  Much of Escher's
art, involves self-referencing, e.g. "The Picture Gallery" in
which a guy is looking at a painting on a wall in a picture gallery,
but by a curious Klein bottle trick he is simultaneously inside
a picture gallery contained in the painting he is looking at.
3)  Bach's piece, whose title I cannot remember, but whose main
theme I can hum at this moment involves a fugual sequence that
eventually references itself.
     Hofstatder seriously argues that self-referencing is key
to consciousness and intelligence, including computerized artificial
intelligence.  This is a controversial proposition that many people
such as the philosopher Searle reject.  But it is not wacko baloney.
    (Sigh, we probably need Louis Proyect to comment on this, but
he is too busy kissing the derriere of Don Adolfo over on M1 these days.)
Barkley Rosser


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