Douglas Richard Hofstadter was born on February 15,1945 and is an American scholar of cognitive science, physics, and comparative literature whose research includes concepts such as the sense of self in relation to the external world, consciousness, analogy-making, artistic creation, literary translation, and discovery in mathematics and physics.
20 Facts About Douglas Hofstadter
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Douglas Hofstadter graduated with distinction in mathematics from Stanford University in 1965, and received his Ph.
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Since 1988, Douglas Hofstadter has been the College of Arts and Sciences Distinguished Professor of Cognitive Science and Comparative Literature at Indiana University in Bloomington, where he directs the Center for Research on Concepts and Cognition which consists of himself and his graduate students, forming the "Fluid Analogies Research Group".
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Douglas Hofstadter was initially appointed to the Indiana University's Computer Science Department faculty in 1977, and at that time he launched his research program in computer modeling of mental processes.
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Douglas Hofstadter was appointed adjunct professor of history and philosophy of science, philosophy, comparative literature, and psychology, but has said that his involvement with most of those departments is nominal.
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In 1988 Douglas Hofstadter received the In Praise of Reason award, the Committee for Skeptical Inquiry's highest honor.
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Douglas Hofstadter has had several exhibitions of his artwork in various university galleries.
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Douglas Hofstadter invented the term "ambigram" in 1984; many ambigrammists have since taken up the concept.
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Douglas Hofstadter collects and studies cognitive errors, "bon mots", and analogies of all sorts, and his longtime observation of these diverse products of cognition.
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Douglas Hofstadter's thesis about consciousness, first expressed in Godel, Escher, Bach but present in several of his later books, is that it is "an emergent consequence of seething lower-level activity in the brain".
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In 1999, the bicentennial year of the Russian poet and writer Alexander Pushkin, Douglas Hofstadter published a verse translation of Pushkin's classic novel-in-verse Eugene Onegin.
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Douglas Hofstadter has translated other poems and two novels: La Chamade by Francoise Sagan, and La Scoperta dell'Alba by Walter Veltroni, the then-head of the Partito Democratico in Italy.
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Douglas Hofstadter has said that he feels "uncomfortable with the nerd culture that centers on computers".
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Douglas Hofstadter was an invited panelist at the first Singularity Summit, held at Stanford in May 2006.
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Douglas Hofstadter expressed doubt that the singularity will occur in the foreseeable future.
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Douglas Hofstadter was married to Carol Ann Brush until her death.
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In 2010, Douglas Hofstadter met Baofen Lin in a cha-cha-cha class, and they married in Bloomington in September 2012.
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Douglas Hofstadter has composed pieces for piano and for piano and voice.
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Douglas Hofstadter has written over 50 papers that were published through the Center for Research on Concepts and Cognition.
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Douglas Hofstadter has written forewords for or edited the following books:.