Reading Notes: On Serendipity and Consciousness
These are some thoughts I had after reading Gnomon and while reading I Am a Strange Loop and Witches Abroad. Based on the mostly happenstance coincidence that occurred, I think I can safely call the train of thought created and running from one book to the next as serendipitous.
SERENDIPITY The fact of finding interesting or valuable things by chance.
Serendipity is really just an informed calculation based upon any number of our individually unique interests, habits, location, the time and date, and prior knowledge. – From TechCrunch
Gnomon by Nick Harkaway
I recently finished Nick Harkaway's Gnomon, which, as an extremely brief overview, is likened to the movie Inception. It involves an onion-like narrative construction, meta-discussions on the nature of consciousness and reality, a murder mystery, and a near-future society governed by an all-knowing artificial intelligence, “The System,” that may or may not be a police-state.
If any of the above sounds interesting, then I strongly recommend that you check it out. Gnomon, if anything, is thought-provoking.
All that being said, Nick Harkaway introduces two thought exercises in Gnomon that I'd like to mention: 1. The Barber Paradox – Let it be known that I wasn't aware of this linguistic puzzle until reading Gnomon. According to Wikipedia, incorrectly attributed to Bertrand Russell, the Barber Paradox is the following: The barber is the “one who shaves all those, and those only, who do not shave themselves.” The question is, does the barber shave himself?. 2. The Wheat and Chessboard Problem is a simple story, involves relatively simple math, and illustrates the power of exponential growth. It's also been closely linked to the origins of chess. The story below is very similar to Nick Harkaway's version in his retelling. To spoil the ending, the rule just committed to giving the advisor 2^64 -1 = 18,446,744,073,709,551,615 grains of rice.
Wheat and Chessboard Problem “A wise old ruler wanted to reward his servant for an act of extraordinary bravery. The servant said: ‘Master I ask you for just one thing. Take your chessboard and place on the first square one grain of rice. On the first day I will take this grain home to feed my family. On the second day place on the second square 2 grains for me to take home. On the third day cover the third square with four grains for me to take. Each day double the number of grains you give me until you have placed rice on every square of the chessboard. Then my reward will be complete.’ The wise old ruler replied: ‘This sounds like a small price to pay for your act of incredible bravery, I will ask my servants to do as you ask immediately.’” -Source for this version of the story
I Am a Strange Loop by Douglas R. Hofstadter
After finishing Gnomon, a heavier book of fiction, I decided to allow time for the novel to gesticulate in my mind palace by reading something drier, not story-driven, and potentially involving similar themes—in walks I Am a Strange Loop.
Another disclaimer, I went into reading Hofstadter's book knowing almost nothing about his prior work or the book itself. I had a vague feeling that it would be about the nature of consciousness, perhaps involve some mathematics, and most likely combine these two topics in a philosophical discussion.
Only a few chapters in (five chapters, to be exact), I can, with reservation, say that I'm not far off. Hofstadter's text indeed discusses the nature of consciousness. As an author fond of using metaphors to illustrate theories surrounding thought and what drives the sense of “I,” he spends a chapter, for instance, discussing what drove his impulse to pick up a book in a bookstore, read the back for an idea of what it's about, and then to set down that book having decided not to pursue purchasing/reading it. The deliberation involved in choosing to think about reading that book and then ultimately deciding not to. This is just an example of the type of thought discussion that Hofstadter has in I Am a Strange Loop. Basically, the same type of discussion involved in my decision to go from reading Gnomon to I Am a Strange Loop.
I Am a Strange Gnomon
Now, for the serendipitous happenstance that leads me to write these words on this “page”: both of the previously mentioned thought exercises, the Barber Paradox and the Wheat and Chessboard Problem, are mentioned by Hofstadter in I Am a Strange Loop. You can imagine my surprise when having chosen this book for what I thought would be a pleasant interlude before reading other fantasty/scifi I discover that I couldn't have chosen a more perfect book. I literally feel like I'm potentially reading the same book that inspired some of Harkaway's writing. Obviously, this is most likely not the case, and the fact that the two previous thought exercises were unknown to me is more likely an example of my ignorance due to not coming from a background in mathematics, but still, the fact that the same thought exercises feature in both books seems like such serendipity.
It also illustrates some other points made by Hofstadter, which revolve around the fact that these two stories only stand out because I read (or am reading in the case of Hofstadter) both books. Without having read Gnomon, there would be no connection, and I wouldn't be writing this right now.
Furthermore: A Last Aside
As one last stream of consciousness aside, I decided to read Terry Pratchett's Witches Abroad concurrently with Hofstadter's I Am a Strange Loop. I made this decision purely because I wanted something light and entertaining to switch to when tired of reading philosophical discussions (not that Hofstadter's work is particularly boring or dense; it's just something I like to read a chapter of, think about and then read another chapter later on).
The last chapter I read of I Am a Strange Loop ended with a discussion of feedback loops, and he used as an example the visual infinity loop that's created when two mirrors opposite one another reflect each other for ad infinitum (Yes, I'm just as surprised as you that I actually used ad infinitum in a sentence, 🤮).
Of course, the very next section of Pratchett's Witches Abroad opened with what scene? A witch...standing on a tower...surrounded by mirrors...admiring the effect of infinity that was created. I can't make this stuff up, folks. And, no, I haven't taken any LSD, for anyone wondering.