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Douglas Hofstadter

Douglas is a scholar of cognitive science, physics and comparative literature whose research includes concepts such as the sense of self in relation to the external world, consciousness, analogy-making, artistic creation, literary translation and discovery in mathematics and physics. He is Director of the Center for Research on Concepts and Cognition at Indiana University Bloomington. His 1979 book “Gödel, Escher, Bach: An Eternal Golden Braid” won both the Pulitzer Prize for general nonfiction and a National Book Award for Science. His 2007 book “I Am a Strange Loop” won the Los Angeles Times Book Prize for Science and Technology.

Douglas describes himself as a “non-religious person” and a “materialist” who is strongly critical of pseudoscience and claims of the paranormal – so has a naturalistic worldview.

He seems to have at least a theoretical sentiocentric moral scope, having gone vegan as a teenager due to his views on the distribution of consciousness across the animal kingdom and due to his compassionate ethics. In “I Am a Strange Loop” he describes himself as vegetarian.

Douglas on Wikipedia
Douglas at Indiana University

Latest work

Upper body shot of Joan Slonczewski sitting in a desk chair in an office, smiling towards the camera. Pin-board and computer screen in the background.

MurderBot, Non-violent Protest & Microbial Minds

Joan Slonczewski is a microbiologist at Kenyon College and a science fiction writer. A Sentientism worldview conversation about what's real, who matters and how to make a better world.
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MurderBot, Non-violent Protest & Microbial Minds

Joan Slonczewski is a microbiologist at Kenyon College and a science fiction writer. A Sentientism worldview conversation about what's real, who matters and how to make a better world.
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Teaching Compassion

Michelle St. John is founder and director of VinE (Veganism in Education). Heather Marshall is a Senior Lecturer and Religious Education PGCE Course Leader at Edge Hill University. A Sentientism conversation about what's real, who matters and how to make a better world.
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Sentientism Meet-Up 25 Oct 2025 (and some other updates)

An invitation to the second ever Sentientism meetup and some updates about our education work and a potential book!
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