In this section of the reading, Hofstadter continues discussing Jumbo. He details its purpose and writes about the importance of the thought processes that Jumbo was aimed to model. When I first read about Jumbo, I was initially thinking about how much effort Hofstadter went through to create a program that does something that, on the outside at least, seems like a very trivial thing—solving “insignificant word games.” However, he makes sure to remind the reader that the real purpose is much different than that.
Attempting to model these thought processes is very interesting, and that might be because I did so many of these types of puzzles when I was younger, as I am sure many other people have as well. I also suppose that not many of those people actually think about their own thought processes either during or after the solving of the problem at hand. Clearly, he is interested in things that most people do not even think to think about.
I find it interesting how he points out ideas that he is currently discussing in the reading by referring to text that the reader has just read in the very same paragraph. Occasionally he points out how he worded something in a previous sentence, which I feel helps to connect the reader to the material. It also shows how he truly does think about these kinds of things quite frequently.
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