Godel, Escher, Bach: An Eternal Golden Braid
by: Douglas R. Hofstadter
Amazon.com Review:
Everything is a symbol, and symbols can combine to formpatterns. Patterns are beautiful and revelatory of largertruths. These are the central ideas in the thinking of KurtGödel, M.C. Escher, and Johann Sebastian Bach, perhapsthe three greatest minds of the past quarter-millennium. In a stunningwork of humanism, Hofstadter ties together the work of mathematicianGödel, graphic artist Escher, and composer Bach.
Gödel, Escher, Bach, a Pulitzer prize-winningtreatise on genius, explores the workings of brilliant people's brainswith the help of historical examples and brainteaser puzzles. Not forthe dim or the lazy, this book shows you, more clearly than most anyother, what it means to see symbols and patterns where others see onlythe universe. Touching on math, computers, literature, music, andartificial intelligence, Gödel, Escher, Bach is achallenging and potentially life-changing piece of writing.
Product Description:
Everything is a symbol, and symbols can combine to formpatterns. Patterns are beautiful and revelatory of largertruths. These are the central ideas in the thinking of KurtGödel, M.C. Escher, and Johann Sebastian Bach, perhapsthe three greatest minds of the past quarter-millennium. In a stunningwork of humanism, Hofstadter ties together the work of mathematicianGödel, graphic artist Escher, and composer Bach.
Gödel, Escher, Bach, a Pulitzer prize-winningtreatise on genius, explores the workings of brilliant people's brainswith the help of historical examples and brainteaser puzzles. Not forthe dim or the lazy, this book shows you, more clearly than most anyother, what it means to see symbols and patterns where others see onlythe universe. Touching on math, computers, literature, music, andartificial intelligence, Gödel, Escher, Bach is achallenging and potentially life-changing piece of writing.
Product Description:
Douglas Hofstadter’s book is concerned directly with the nature of “maps” or links between formal systems. However, according to Hofstadter, the formal system that underlies all mental activity transcends the system that supports it. If life can grow out of the formal chemical substrate of the cell, if consciousness can emerge out of a formal system of firing neurons, then so too will computers attain human intelligence. Gödel Escher and Bach is a wonderful exploration of fascinating ideas at the heart of cognitive science: meaning, reduction, recursion, and much more.
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Customer Reviews
Average Rating:
Rating: 
- Great, Excellent, Breathtaking
Hofstadter takes some very difficult concepts in logic, mathematics, and computing and makes them much more than understandable - he makes them enjoyable. Self-reference, completeness, paradox, artificial intelligence - if you have the courage to approach it at all, you might as well have fun doing it. Read Godel, Escher, Bach. By the way, MIT OpenCourseWare has two courses available (free!) on this book - one at university level and one at high school level. They make great companions to the book. ... Read More
Rating: - An involving, mind-expanding experience.
Most people will miss the point of this book. I certainly did in High School. Despite its highly interesting mix of philosophy, artificial intelligence, music, art and mathematics, this book is not really ABOUT any of these things, at least not primarily. This is a book that truly explains how something as complex and sophisticated as human consciousness (really, consciousness of any sort) could be built out of relatively small components.
Hofstadter proposes neither a big picture nor microscopic ... Read More
Rating: - GEB: EGB puts the I in Intelligence
GEB: EGB is basically an exploration of the idea of intelligence, artificial and otherwise. Hofstader's goal is to shed some light on how intelligence / consciousness / self-awareness happens. I would call him a materialist, in the sense that he believes that there is a physical basis for thoughts, feelings and emotions. He is dismissive of "soulists," who believe that there is some sort of inexplicable metaphysical aspect to consciousness.
The question, in Hofstader's mind, is, "If the human brain ... Read More
Rating: - FAB: FAB And Brilliant
Life-Changing. Read it in sophomore year of high school, am rereading it now, late senior year. Just as good the second time. -Eric Frank
Rating: - One for the Proverbial Deserted Island
If there was one book I was allowed, it would be this, even if I don't understand it - and that is why I would take it to an eternal isolated spot (or even prison) - it would take me years of mental gymnastics to figure out.I would be entertained.The book is worth every bit of the Pulitzer it got.
- Great, Excellent, BreathtakingHofstadter takes some very difficult concepts in logic, mathematics, and computing and makes them much more than understandable - he makes them enjoyable. Self-reference, completeness, paradox, artificial intelligence - if you have the courage to approach it at all, you might as well have fun doing it. Read Godel, Escher, Bach. By the way, MIT OpenCourseWare has two courses available (free!) on this book - one at university level and one at high school level. They make great companions to the book. ... Read More
- An involving, mind-expanding experience.Most people will miss the point of this book. I certainly did in High School. Despite its highly interesting mix of philosophy, artificial intelligence, music, art and mathematics, this book is not really ABOUT any of these things, at least not primarily. This is a book that truly explains how something as complex and sophisticated as human consciousness (really, consciousness of any sort) could be built out of relatively small components.
Hofstadter proposes neither a big picture nor microscopic ... Read More
- GEB: EGB puts the I in IntelligenceGEB: EGB is basically an exploration of the idea of intelligence, artificial and otherwise. Hofstader's goal is to shed some light on how intelligence / consciousness / self-awareness happens. I would call him a materialist, in the sense that he believes that there is a physical basis for thoughts, feelings and emotions. He is dismissive of "soulists," who believe that there is some sort of inexplicable metaphysical aspect to consciousness.
The question, in Hofstader's mind, is, "If the human brain ... Read More
- FAB: FAB And BrilliantLife-Changing. Read it in sophomore year of high school, am rereading it now, late senior year. Just as good the second time. -Eric Frank
- One for the Proverbial Deserted IslandIf there was one book I was allowed, it would be this, even if I don't understand it - and that is why I would take it to an eternal isolated spot (or even prison) - it would take me years of mental gymnastics to figure out.I would be entertained.The book is worth every bit of the Pulitzer it got.
