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Fluid Concepts and Creative Analogies: Computer Models Of The Fundamental Mechanisms Of Thought

Douglas R Hofstadter · 3 HN comments
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Amazon Summary
Readers of earlier works by Douglas Hofstadter will find this book a natural extension of his style and his ideas about creativity and analogy; in addition, psychologists, philosophers, and artificial-intelligence researchers will find in this elaborate web of ingenious ideas a deep and challenging new view of mind.
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I think you might enjoy the book Fluid Concepts and Creative Analogies, by Douglas Hofstadter [1]. The first chapter is on (what Hofstadter argues is) the fundamental nature of recognizing patterns in number sequences.

[1] http://www.amazon.com/Fluid-Concepts-And-Creative-Analogies/...

There is more to it than being information-rich or information-poor. A pile of junk is information-rich, but it's not beautiful. It comes down to style and taste.

The house looks organic. Like it has been grown instead of built. Gaudi's buildings have the same style. I think there is a lot of appeal in the organic style, it's a pity it's so rare.

The computational properties of style are explored in Douglas Hofstadter's book "Fluid Concepts and Creative Analogies" (I recommend it to any hacker interested in aesthetics or cognitive science, but it is not an easy read):

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0465024750?ie=UTF8&tag=...

Interestingly, computers can eventually make an assembly line produce unique stylish (organic or otherwise) things. Fractal images are, after all, beautiful, even being totally regular. Certain amount of randomness can do wonders.

Of course computers are similarly supposed to enable mass customization for physical things which is probably more important economically, and it hasn't happened yet.

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