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Loading... Gödel, Escher, Bach: an Eternal Golden Braid (1979)by Douglas Hofstadter
Quite possibly the most conceptually challenging book I've ever read, and it was worth every page. (  ) MattP225 | Apr 27, 2013 |  I read this book as part of a college course about the book back in 1982. I remember enjoying it. Much food for thought. I feel it's time to re-read it. So it's going in my to-read shelf. I wonder how well it's aged. Since it's such an unusual book it'll either show it's age or it'll be timeless. My copy has not aged well. I'm reluctant to buy it again new, but I can probably find a used one in better shape. When I pulled the book of the shelf it had a bookmark on page 480, Edifying Thoughts of a Tobacco Smoker. Note this copy has become very fragile. I'll try to find a used copy. (  ) clmerle | Apr 2, 2013 | Can I get a gold star, teacher? I started reading this book many years ago and put it down many times, picking it up again because the ideas in it stuck with me. Often, I would find myself reminded of it during certain long and interesting conversations with friends, in the car, or late at night. "Oh, that reminds me of this bit from GEB ...", I would say to blank stares. It is hard to recommend a book you nearly didn't finish but GEB is best read in small episodes. Give it time to percolate. I may not understand everything Hofstadter writes, but it is there, along with the Tortoise and Achilles, bubbling away down in the various levels of my noggin. By design, I believe, and well played. ( ) angerie | Mar 31, 2013 | A challenging, great book that guides you through many abstract notions on symmetry, mathematics and logic. I wish I had read it as a young adult, as it would definitely widen the horizon of any thoughtful teenager - but it is a book that will It is clumsy at times, but with its fictional dialogs it is a great entertaining approach to mathematical philosophy - quite a tome, so not one book that you may want to pick up every year, but definitely worth a re-read every so often. ( ) PaolaM | Mar 31, 2013 | I read this so long ago that I really think I need to re-read it. KrisR | Mar 30, 2013 | no reviews | add a review Is abridged inWas inspired by
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Hofstadter's great achievement in Gödel, Escher, Bach was making abstruse mathematical topics (like undecidability, recursion, and 'strange loops') accessible and remarkably entertaining. Borrowing a page from Lewis Carroll (who might well have been a fan of this book), each chapter presents dialogue between the Tortoise and Achilles, as well as other characters who dramatize concepts discussed later in more detail. Allusions to Bach's music (centering on his Musical Offering) and Escher's continually paradoxical artwork are plentiful here. This more approachable material lets the author delve into serious number theory (concentrating on the ramifications of Gödel's Theorem of Incompleteness) while stopping along the way to ponder the work of a host of other mathematicians, artists, and thinkers.
The world has moved on since 1979, of course. The book predicted that computers probably won't ever beat humans in chess, though Deep Blue beat Garry Kasparov in 1997. And the vinyl record, which serves for some of Hofstadter's best analogies, is now left to collectors. Sections on recursion and the graphs of certain functions from physics look tantalizing, like the fractals of recent chaos theory. And AI has moved on, of course, with mixed results. Yet Gödel, Escher, Bach remains a remarkable achievement. Its intellectual range and ability to let us visualize difficult mathematical concepts help make it one of this century's best for anyone who's interested in computers and their potential for real intelligence. --Richard Dragan
Topics Covered: J.S. Bach, M.C. Escher, Kurt Gödel: biographical information and work, artificial intelligence (AI) history and theories, strange loops and tangled hierarchies, formal and informal systems, number theory, form in mathematics, figure and ground, consistency, completeness, Euclidean and non-Euclidean geometry, recursive structures, theories of meaning, propositional calculus, typographical number theory, Zen and mathematics, levels of description and computers; theory of mind: neurons, minds and thoughts; undecidability; self-reference and self-representation; Turing test for machine intelligence.
(retrieved from Amazon Tue, 24 Aug 2010 19:19:43 -0400)
A scientist and mathematician explores the mystery and complexity of human thought processes from an interdisciplinary point of view.
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Penguin AustraliaAn edition of this book was published by Penguin Australia.
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