Self-Reference
How recursive symbols and strange loops can produce stable self-models.
Research Quest Log
Qinglin Yang
I want to understand how human intelligence comes into being: how symbols, analogies, perception, memory, and self-reference can form a mind that says "I".
Human Intelligence
Self-Reference
Strange Loops
Analogy
Current route: mind formation, symbolic systems, analogy-making, self-models, and the emergence of "I".
Gargantua Lab Browser-rendered black hole
Biomes
Research territories
Analogy
How minds use analogical mapping to compress experience and create meaning.
Symbol Systems
How symbols become grounded, active, and capable of supporting thought.
Mind Formation
How perception, memory, language, and social feedback may assemble intelligence.
Theory Board
Questions I am chasing
Core Question
Where does the "I" come from?
Can a self arise from patterns that refer to, revise, and stabilize themselves over time?
Hofstadter
Strange loops as a theory of mind
Reading self-reference not as a trick, but as a candidate mechanism for conscious selfhood.
AI & Cognition
Can machines form selves?
Thinking about whether symbolic recursion, memory, embodiment, and social interaction can support intelligence.
Writing