Hofstadter Chaotic Heart Sequence

Saw this sequence from Simone Conradi on twitter:

Made with #python #numpy #matplotlib pic.twitter.com/ekpMRva175
— Simone Conradi (@S_Conradi) December 12, 2025

Havent heard of the sequence in Gödel, Escher, Bach yet, but it is interesting to see the recursive visuals Douglas Hofstadter seems to be known for.

I believe it comes up in the book as something to do with Hofstadter’s Hofstadter Q sequence, will have to do some more tinkering to find out.

Attempted to recreate:

Python

import numpy as np
import matplotlib.pyplot as plt
from functools import lru_cache


@lru_cache(maxsize=None)
def Q(n):
    if n == 1:
        return 2
    elif n == 2:
        return 2
    elif n == 3:
        return 1
    elif n > 3:
        return Q(n - Q(n - 1)) + Q(n - Q(n - 2))
    else:
        return 0


@lru_cache(maxsize=None)
def a(n):
    if n == 1:
        return 1
    elif n == 2:
        return 1
    elif n == 3:
        return 2
    elif n > 3:
        return a(a(n - 1)) + a(n - a(n - 1))
    else:
        return 0


n_max = 1000000
n_values = []
diff_values = []

batch_size = 50000
for i in range(1, n_max + 1):
    n_values.append(i)
    diff_values.append(a(i) - Q(i))

    if i % batch_size == 0:
        print(f"  Computed {i:,} / {n_max:,} values...")

fig, ax = plt.subplots(figsize=(12, 10))
ax.scatter(n_values, diff_values, c="#E91E63", s=0.1, alpha=0.3, rasterized=True)
ax.set_title(
    "The Hofstadter Chaotic Heart Sequence $a(n) - Q(n)$",
    fontsize=16,
    fontweight="bold",
    pad=20,
)
ax.set_xlabel("$n$", fontsize=14)
ax.set_ylabel("$a(n) - Q(n)$", fontsize=14)
ax.grid(True, alpha=0.2, linewidth=0.5)
ax.set_facecolor("#F5F5F0")
fig.patch.set_facecolor("white")
plt.show()

Output

Graph View

Hofstadter Chaotic Heart Sequence

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