"What would make a human brain a candidate for housing a loop of
self-representation? Why would a fly brain or a mosquito brain not be just as
valid a candidate? Why, for that matter, not a bacterium, an ovum, a sperm, a
virus, a tomato plant, a tomato, or a pencil? The answer should be clear: a
human brain is a representational system that knows no bounds in terms of the
extensibility or flexibility of its categories. A mosquito brain, by contrast,
is a tiny representational system that contains practically no categories at
all, never mind being flexible and extensible. Very small representational
systems, such as those of bacteria, ova, sperms, plants, thermostats, and so
forth, do not enjoy the luxury of self-representation. And a tomato and a
pencil are not representational systems at all, so for them, the story ends
right there (sorry, little tomato! sorry, little pencil!).
"So a human brain is a strong candidate for having the potential of rich
perceptual feedback, and thus rich self-reresentation. But what kinds of
perceptual cycles do we get involved in? We begin life with the most
elementary sorts of feedback about ourselves, which stimulate us to formulate
categories for our most obvious body parts, and building on this basic
pedestal, we soon develop a sense for our bodies as flexible physical objects.
In the meantime, as we receive rewards for various actions and punishments for
others, we begin to develop a more abstract sense of "good" and "bad", as well
as notions of guilt and pride, and our sense of ourselves as abstract entities
that have the power to decide to make things happen (such as continuing to run
up a steep hill even though our legs are begging us to just walk) begins to
take root.
"It is crucial to our young lives that we hone our developing self-symbol
as precisely as possible. We want (and need) to find out where we belong in
all sorts of social hierarchies and classes, and sometimes, even if we don't
want to know thee things, we find out anyway. For instance, we are all told,
early on, that we are "cute"; in some of us, however, this message is
reinforced far more strongly than in others. In this manner, each of us comes
to realize that we are "good-looking" or "gullible" or "cheeky" or "shy" or
"spoiled" or "funny" or "lazy" or "original", or whatever. Dozens of such
labels and concepts accrete to our growing self-symbols.
"As we go through thousands of experiences large and small, our
representation of these experiences likewise accrete to our self-symbols. Of
course a memory of a visit to the Grand Canyon, say, is attached not only to
our self-symbol but to many other symbols in our brains, but our self-symbol is
enriched and rendered more complex by this attachment."
(Hofstadter, Douglas,'I Am A Strange Loop', pp.182-183)
---
A extremely interesting explanation of self-forming, yet ALL in this
explanation are patterns and analogs including the concept of a "human brain"
(sorry little marsha).
Does the concept 'dna' as a pattern have any more substance for the biologist
than for the police officer?
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