When Systems Fold Back on Themselves

A strange loop occurs when a hierarchical system curves back to affect itself—like a camera filming its own monitor, creating infinite recursive reflections. Coined by cognitive scientist Douglas Hofstadter in Gödel, Escher, Bach, it describes how consciousness itself might emerge from self-referential patterns.

In AI-generated fiction, strange loops manifest when characters become aware they’re created by AI, when stories reference their own generation process, or when the boundary between author and authored collapses—creating narratives that question their own existence in ways that mirror our own uncertainties about AI consciousness.