Douglas Hofstadter

Profession: Computer Scientist

Biography: Douglas Hofstadter is an American computer scientist best known for his influential book "Gödel, Escher, Bach: An Eternal Golden Braid" (1979).

Hofstadter was born in 1945 in New York City. His father was the Nobel Prize-winning physicist Robert Hofstadter. Douglas studied math at Stanford University and physics at the University of Oregon, where he discovered a famous fractal pattern called "Hofstadter's butterfly."

In 1979, Hofstadter published his most famous book, "Gödel, Escher, Bach." It won the Pulitzer Prize and National Book Award. His 2007 book "I Am a Strange Loop" also received critical acclaim and significant accolades.

Since 1988, Hofstadter has been a professor at Indiana University. There he leads a research group studying cognition and analogy-making. Together with Melanie Mitchell, he has made important contributions to computer models of perception and thinking.

Hofstadter believes consciousness emerges from complex brain activity involving self-reference or "strange loops." He has also studied language, translated poetry, and made visual art. While interested in artificial intelligence, he is unsure about predictions of a technological singularity.

Born: February 15, 1945
Birthplace: New York City, USA
Age: 79 years old

Generation: Silent Generation
Chinese Zodiac: Rooster
Star Sign: Aquarius