For what it's worth, we'd consider the quoted bit a decent, if a touch pejorative, description of our (median-type) system. We're probably a touch more distinct, complex, and individual than Hofstadter would expect, but as a model it's not wrong, just a touch on the "insufficiently correct" side.

I strongly suspect that each of us is slightly more . . . focused? than we'd be independently; whether this is our nature or simply because others handle things we'd otherwise have to do individually I don't know. I suspect some of both; I mean, if Silver didn't have the rest of us she'd need to learn to talk.