Click on a thumbnail to go to Google Books.
Loading... Godel, Escher, Bach : an eternal golden braid (original 1979; edition 1999)by Douglas R. Hofstadter
Work InformationGödel, Escher, Bach : An Eternal Golden Braid by Douglas R. Hofstadter (1979)
Favourite Books (101) » 23 more Books Read in 2021 (4,633) Reiny (16) Swinging Seventies (66) KayStJ's to-read list (707) Entender el mundo (37) My List (60) Five star books (1,434) I Can't Finish This Book (173) Unread books (935) Loading...
Sign up for LibraryThing to find out whether you'll like this book.
A very dense book that still manages to have a sense of whimsy and humor. Best absorbed in chunks and then read again at a later date. And then yet again. You will certainly have your share of "homework" to do to get the most out of GEB. At the risk of sounding snobbish, I have to wonder how accessible GEB is to those, even readers of other books on philosophy, who do not have at least some grounding in the diverse subject matter. While Hofstadter's enthusiasm for the material is infectious, the math alone in this book can be an exercise in frustration. Still, the intersection of complex math, music, and art is hardly unheard of. GEB is less a book that you stumble upon, and more one that is passed down to you by a mentor or friend. An heirloom, in many ways. Full of lively discussions about patterns, language, loops, paradoxes, systems, AI, the nature of consciousness... primarily using examples of mathematician Godel, artist M.C. Escher, and composer J.S.Bach, but also dipping into greek philosophy, Zen Buddhism, computer programming, and more. Ultimately, recommended if you enjoy just... thinking about thinking. I started reading this book almost simultaneously with my application for an Artificial Intelligence master at my University. Honestly, I got a little frustrated with the one-sided approach to AI that I read about, the premise always seems to be 'artificial intelligence'=='machine learning'. So I was entirely happy during my read of this book. It gave me a playful introduction and a new look into first-order logic, a subject in which I was already pretty invested, as well as an endless supply of inspiration on which to draw in my further AI adventures. I loved this book for it and I cannot believe that no-one in my first few explorations with AI told me to stop what I was doing and read this tome first. I did have some issues with the book. While I loved the first few dialoges and I was thoroughly impressed with the underlying themes of the dialogs, they did become somewhat stale and forced after a few of them. Also, the constant meta-ness that Hofstadter supplies is very interesting and part of what makes the book great, but at some times this also seemed a little forced and it undermined the credability of the story just a little. Even so, writing (and reading for that matter) this book has been an amazing feat and I cannot imagine that I will not read it again some time and take even more insight away from it. This book should be mandatory reading for anyone doing something or another in the field of AI, or conciousness or anything related. Is abridged inWas inspired byAwardsDistinctionsNotable Lists
References to this work on external resources. Wikipedia in English (24)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, Bach is a wonderful exploration of fascinating ideas at the heart of cognitive science: meaning, reduction, recursion, and much more No library descriptions found.
|
Current DiscussionsNonePopular covers
Google Books — Loading... GenresMelvil Decimal System (DDC)510.1Natural sciences and mathematics Mathematics General Mathematics Philosophy And PsychologyLC ClassificationRatingAverage:
Is this you?Become a LibraryThing Author. |
I can wholeheartedly recommend this if you are a fan of Dan Dennett's work, of Zen koans, or of other writing which addresses questions wrongly asked. GEB masterfully breaks down common (or at least, my) preconceptions about abstraction and consciousness. ( )