Douglas Richard Hofstadter (born February 15, 1945) is an American academic whose research focuses on consciousness, analogy-making, artistic creation, literary translation, and discovery in mathematics and physics. He is best known for his book Godel, Escher, Bach: an Eternal Golden Braid, first published in 1979, for which he was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for general non-fiction and the National Book Award for Science.

Hofstadter has said that he feels “uncomfortable with the nerd culture that centers on computers”. He admits that “a large fraction [of his audience] seems to be those who are fascinated by technology”, but when it was suggested that his work “has inspired many students to begin careers in computing and artificial intelligence” he replied that he was pleased about that, but that he himself has “no interest in computers.”

— Wikipedia on Douglas Hofstadter

2012.03.10 Saturday ACHK