
Contrapuntal Consciousness - mxcrossb
https://aeon.co/essays/what-the-music-of-bach-can-teach-us-about-consciousness
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ksaj
Dumping on Hofstadter this way feels almost sacrilegious. Sometimes the writer
sounds like they get what GEB is about, then follow up with statements that
show they clearly do not.

I hope the writer doesn't read Metamagical Themas (admittedly, a book I like
more, but it reaches even further to the fringes). It'll clearly go over their
head in spectacular fashion, and would certainly fuel more of this kind of
half-informed op ed.

Even worse, the writer dishes on terms like Molecular Canon. That's not
Hofstadter's invention, and it is very not as stupid as the writer makes it
out to be. Those who study Origins of Life are quite familiar with the
concept.

Read any of good biology text, and you'll become more than comfortable with
the term and what it specifically means. Unsurprisingly you'll discover it is
exactly "how ribosomes translate messenger RNA into proteins" as Hofstadter
describes.

A molecular canon (ribosome) literally splits DNA into codons (kinda like
half-DNA in 3-nucleotide sets), which get transcribed into mRNA, shoots it
through a ring of protein (the canon), where it fuses the resulting tRNA with
material available at the exit. Now attach the result to an amino acid, fold,
and voila, protein synthesis, and most importantly for this analogy - a solid
copy of the original material. Reproduction 101.

Taken in the Hofstadter sense comparing that to Bach, themes are ripped apart,
work their way through the cannon, mix with other themes until they eventually
replicate a copy of the original theme. How isn't that concept similar?

Even the idea that the canon ends an octave higher shows their ignorance,
since a canon is played by multiple instruments, and those octaves do indeed
resolve together. So the writer fails on both sides of their arguments.

I hate how this article is written in such a way it almost sounds like the
writer knows what they are talking about, when they are snidely riffing it
throughout. The writer repeatedly demonstrates they do not understand the
subjects covered in GEB.

