“Jootsing” and the Nature of Consciousness
Mind and Matter June 30, 2026 D. Rickles
Human consciousness may have a hard limit on its ability to 'jump out of the system'—a capacity called jootsing that Douglas Hofstadter thought might be unique to minds and not replicable by AI. This paper argues that any theory aspiring to describe the totality of reality, including observers and their interactions, faces a Gödelian limitation that produces two conflicting stances: an eternal inflation of knowledge or closed loops. Drawing on a version of dual-aspect monism that decomposes a totality, the paper shows that these stances can be reconciled, and that this reconciliation reveals something special about consciousness.