Of Strange Loops and Real Effects: Five Theses on Autofiction/the Autofictional

This chapter explores the advantages of understanding the autofictional as a flexible matrix with scalable parameters. It puts forward five theses: (1) The fact that so many scholars have tried to work with the term “autofiction” indicates an obvious need for the “autofictional” to grasp what is vibrant between life and text. (2) The autofictional is a scalable and latent dimension in all autobiographical writing. Therefore, autofiction is not a separate genre in addition to autobiography and the novel. (3) Imagination and the use of the supernatural may support autobiographical reference. (4) Autofiction produces real-life effects. (5) Autofiction oscillates between fictionality and factuality. Although it brings one or other aspect to the foreground, all of them persist and continue to, more or less, resonate together.

Reciprocally-Coupled Gating: Strange Loops in Bioenergetics, Genetics, and Catalysis

Bioenergetics, genetic coding, and catalysis are all difficult to imagine emerging without pre-existing historical context. That context is often posed as a “Chicken and Egg” problem; its resolution is concisely described by de Grasse Tyson: “The egg was laid by a bird that was not a chicken”. The concision and generality of that answer furnish no details—only an appropriate framework from which to examine detailed paradigms that might illuminate paradoxes underlying these three life-defining biomolecular processes. We examine experimental aspects here of five examples that all conform to the same paradigm. In each example, a paradox is resolved by coupling “if, and only if” conditions for reciprocal transitions between levels, such that the consequent of the first test is the antecedent for the second. Each condition thus restricts fluxes through, or “gates” the other. Reciprocally-coupled gating, in which two gated processes constrain one another, is self-referential, hence maps onto the formal structure of “strange loops”. That mapping uncovers two different kinds of forces that may help unite the axioms underlying three phenomena that distinguish biology from chemistry. As a physical analog for Gödel’s logic, biomolecular strange-loops provide a natural metaphor around which to organize a large body of experimental data, linking biology to information, free energy, and the second law of thermodynamics.

Reciprocally-coupled Gating: Strange Loops in Bioenergetics, Genetics, and Catalysis

Bioenergetics, genetic coding, and catalysis are all difficult to imagine emerging without pre-existing historical context. That context is often posed as a “Chicken and Egg” problem; its resolution is concisely described by de Grasse Tyson: “the egg was laid by a bird that was not a chicken”. The concision and generality of that answer furnish no details—only an appropriate framework from which to examine detailed paradigms that might illuminate paradoxes underlying these three life-defining biomolecular processes. We examine experimental aspects here of five examples that all conform to the same paradigm. The paradox in each example is resolved by coupling if, and only if, conditions for two related transitions between levels. One drives, and each restricts fluxes through, or “gates” the other. That reciprocally-coupled gating, in which two gated processes constrain one another, maps onto the formal structure of “strange loops”. That mapping may help unite the axiomatic foundations of genetics, bioenergetics, and catalysis. As a physical analog for Gödel’s logic, biomolecular strange-loops provide a natural metaphor around which to organize these data, linking biology to the physics of information, free energy, and the second law of thermodynamics.

Strange loops: Producing history in financial times

In this rejoinder, I discuss three fundamental ‘deadlocks’ raised by contributors to this forum. These relate to the status of historical discourse, financial market logics, and above all the figure of the ‘strange loop’, which I put forward as a means of reorienting historical thought. I also offer some preliminary remarks on why History in Financial Times departs from conventional forms of historicism in political economy, as well as a further set of reflections on the contemporaneity of the book’s argumentation.

Strange Loops and Circular Tones

Chapter 4 explores a class of musical illusions and paradoxes that involve the circular dimension of pitch. Pitch can be described in terms of two dimensions. The first is called pitch height, which can be experienced by sweeping one’s hand from left to right up a piano keyboard. The second is a circular dimension known as pitch class, which defines the position of a tone within the octave. Circularity effects in music are analogous to many of the visual works of M. C. Escher, and have been employed in music for hundreds of years. However, with the advent of computer music, striking pitch circularities became possible. The circular scales invented by Roger Shepard (based on Shepard tones) and circular glides invented by Jean-Claude Risset are explored. These remarkable illusions of ever-increasing (or ever-decreasing) pitch are presented as sound examples. They have powerful emotional effects, and their influence in musical compositions, such as the soundtracks and sound design of The Dark Knight and Dunkirk, is described. A new way of producing pitch circularity, which was invented by the author, is also discussed. This new algorithm can be used with natural instrument sounds, and so opens the door to new compositional opportunities.

Strange loops of attention, awareness, action, and affect in musical improvisation

This chapter champions the notion of ‘strange’, paradoxical, level-crossing feedback loops as a means to address the shortcomings of information-processing approaches to cognition, especially as applied to musical improvisation. It highlights the inherent challenges of studying improvisation and consciousness, and suggests ways that embodied and enactive theories of cognition, and emerging ideas in predictive processing and social psychology, may offer productive ways to understand mind and consciousness, and the dynamics of collective musical improvisation. Improvising music together, the chapter argues, involves joint action, embodied coordination, collective attention, and shared intention in ways that challenge conventional understandings of cognition and consciousness.