I've been trying to get through I Am a Strange Loop by Hofstadter, but the math in just puts me to sleep. great concepts(not all of which I agree with), but.
I've just finished this myself. after a while, he has done with the math. in the latter part of the book some fascinating thought experiments are posed, including this one: you are teletransported from Earth to Mars; the Scanner here on Earth destroys your brain and body while copying the exact state of all of your cells, transmits the data to Mars, traveling at the speed of light the data reaches Mars in about three(3) minutes where the Replicator creates, out of new matter, a brain and body exactly like yours. there are variations on this theme -- in one, the system is improved such that it is no longer destructive and a
copy of you is produced on Mars; in another, two copies are produced, one on Mars and one on Venus. the question posed, in all of these cases, is "what happens to the (inveterate) self?!"
