Fluidity of Intelligence: From Hofstadter to LLMs

The text analyzes the nature of intelligence not as the efficient manipulation of fixed symbols, but as the ability to continuously reconfigure the representation of a problem. Drawing on Douglas Hofstadter's Fluid Analogies Research Group (FARG) research program, the author points to a transition from rigid algorithms toward "cognitive fidelity." A key element here is conceptual slippage, which allows a cognitive system to adjust category boundaries in order to capture deeper structures and regularities. In contrast to classical AI, where representation is predefined, this approach assumes a feedback loop between reasoning and perception, providing the foundation for understanding modern language models and their capacity for flexible information processing.