Can thought arise out of matter? Can self soul consciousness I arise out of mere matter? If it cannot then how can you or I be here? I Am a Strange Loop argues that the key to understanding selves & consciousness is the strange loopa special kind of abstract feedback loop inhabiting our brains The most central & complex symbol in your brain is the one called I The I is the nexus in our brain one of many symbols seeming to have free will & to have gained the paradoxical ability to push particles around rather than the reverse How can a mysterious abstraction be realor is our I merely a convenient fiction? Does an I exert genuine power over the particles in our brain or is it helplessly pushed around by the laws of physics? These are the mysteries tackled in I Am a Strange Loop Douglas Hofstadter's first book-length journey into philosophy since Goedel Escher Bach Compulsively readable & endlessly thought-provoking this is a moving & profound inquiry into the nature of mind