The Essence of Intelligence
Analyzing the mechanism underlying analogy can help us understand intelligence at its most basic level
For a long time now I’ve wanted to write an article that I’m not sure can be written. In the simplest terms, it’s about the basis of analogy, particularly between different senses.
The Pulitzer Prize winning book Gödel, Escher, Bach by Douglas Hofstadter did a great job highlighting it. Hofstadter argues that the work of the mathematician Gödel, the painter Escher, and the musician Bach are fundamentally the same. To give a quick, overly simplified explanation of his premise, he says they all work in repetitive, self-referencing, recursive forms. They’re naturally cyclical, and it’s impossible to distinguish where they start, so as you progress through them, you somehow keep moving forward but end up back in the same place.
If that concept confuses you, congratulations, you’re human. Here’s a visualization of it that will hopefully make it easier to understand, as shown in Escher’s paintings:
