Customer Reviews

Godel, Escher, Bach: An Eternal Golden Braid

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You show this book as out of print here, but elsewhere, you indicate that a 20-year anniversary edition comes out in January 1999. I just thought people who want to purchase it should know this...

It's well over a decade since I first read this book so maybe I could say that I have now finally sobered up after the initial intoxication of reading this book!

At the absolute very least it gives the most lucid account of Godel's Theorem that I have read. Contrary to what many popular authors would have you believe this is neither the most important nor the most profound theorem of logic but it is a deep and interesting one and to have such a result so accessible in a form that is not watered down is a remarkable achievement. Along the way it gives an introduction to logic and formal systems - important branches of modern mathematics. This material alone is enough to make the book a very worthwhile read.

Much of the kind of game playing that goes on in proving Godel's result stems from the same kind of playfulness behind some aspects of the music of Bach and the images of Escher. It would seem that similar ideas that at first seem only mathematical or only artistic can actually find their expression in many different ways. This is also an important insight that makes the book worthwhile.

(And by the way - anyone who criticises this book as being just another religious cult book had better make note of this - to damn the book is to damn (or fail to understand) a large chunk of modern thought including much of mathematics.)

Elsewhere there is a mass of thought provoking material on Zen, ants, psychology, translation, meaning, representation and computers all of which has prompted many readers to think about these topics in a far broader way. In fact giving this book to someone is a good way to smuggle ideas about non-technical subjects into the thought of someone who would normally only read more technically oriented books - and vice versa!

On the other hand I find much of the book's discussion of artificial inteligence a little dated. The book was written in what was probably the heyday of classical artificial intelligence research. Today we see that this research programme produced far less fruit than many expected and much of Hofstadter's discussion doesn't always hold up. I don't think that any kind of magic threshold is going to be crossed on the day we design an artifical system able to reason about itself - by time we reach that point far more amazing thresholds will already have been crossed and self-representation will just be the icing on the cake. So I don't feel that much of the discussion on self-representation is as important or as profound as Hofstadter may originally have thought. Nonetheless there are lessons to be learnt even in this part of the book.

Unfortunately I now have to use that oft repeated cliche: 'Unfortunately I now have to use that oft repeated cliche: "This book changed my life!"'. It opened up my mind to the many varied uses for formal systems and self-reference. This isn't just abstraction - it is something I have to deal with in my ordinary everyday work solving problems and designing systems with computers. And more importantly it made me realise how much of a crossover there is between science and art - after all they are both the product of human minds!

(And to the review reviewers at amazon.com: the first sentence of the last paragraph wasn't a typo but maybe you need to read the book to see what I mean! (But you can leave this paragraph in if you like (oh dear - too much self-reference can drive one mad. Maybe Godel, Escher, Bach needs a health warning - (hmmm...now how many closing brackets do I need to balance the opening ones...1...2...3...4))))

As a mathematician, I rate this one of the most profound books I have ever read along with Penrose's "The Emperor's New Mind",

This book is, like I said above, great. I'm only 13 years old (no joke.) I was getting really sick of sci-fi one day and was looking for Joseph Heller books at our bookstore, when I spied this one. The title was what really grabbed me. Godel I had never heard of. Escher is (I think) the greatest artist that has ever lived, same for Bach only music. Also the subtitle, which compared it to the works of Lewis Carroll, who I think is a very good author and mathemetician (sp?). It took me two readings to fully comprehend this book. The translating of zen koans into the prepositional calculus explained in this book is both hard to understand (for me, at least) and interesting. This book didn't really change my life; the only book that has ever done that to me is maybe the Illuminatus! trology. But this was one of the best books that I have ever read.

I was given G.E.B. as a gift in 1981 but didn't get around to reading it for the first time for two years. I've made up for it since by reading it twice. Each time another layer is peeled away and I marvel at the depth and range of the author's mind. Don't consider yourself 'well read' until you read this book.

I was in awe of the book when I read it. But to be honest it was the title that enticed me to read it. I was refferd to it by books on chaos theory and cosmology. The manner in which Hofstadter approaches the complex idea of looped systems is what impressed me the most. Not "being good in maths" and the like is simply no excuse for one not to at least attempt to read the book. Beware! Read it during the day most certainly not for bed-time reading!

I must accept it. I was fascinated with this book once. That was some time ago. But then I realized what everything standed for. And I started to turn very critical against it. "What is this book about?" one should ask. The sad answer Hofstadter would give: "A statement of my religion" (p. xxi) And that's exactly what the book is all about: mixing all the author's interests (AI, recusion, mathematics, Escher paintings, Bach music, computer languages, etc.) to create a "cult" product. It is no coincidence that a lot of the readers claim they've read the book so many times; this behavior is in close relation with attempts of creating "life answers" or "religions" like this one. But what is this religion about? That's the problem: when one starts interpreting relations between different systems in terms of discovering "truths", as the author does, --instead of taking them as what they are-- one falls in mysticism ! and obsurantism. That's why the book has attracted such an audience: not because its scientific or artistic contributions (it does not have!) but due to its childish belief in a divine element in the behavior of systems. Just look at the way different topics are discussed: in a very "simplistic" or "happy" way. It avoids to mention all the pesimistic implicances. You can check this in every page of the book, even looking at the bibliography: *not a single* classic, scholar treatise; all the mentioned books are either bestsellers or "strange" books, but never profound, deep.

--"A personal, superficial book of religion, diguised as a book of instruction, disguised as a book of entertainment"-- if you know what I mean...

A few years ago, a friend lent me this book, and I started to read. 24 hours later, with no sleep and little food, I'd finished it. Each concept in this book was presented in such a clear way, and leading from one thread to the next. A wonderful work, giving part-time and amature philosophers, mathematitians, and computer scientists something to think about! Everyone should read this book at least once. *smile*

Being a primative philosopher, a genetist, a naturalist and a teacher of the Gifted and Talented in rural Alaska, I use this book to seperate those who know and those who understand. The beauty of mathematics, the realism of our discovered systems and symbols makes this book the most significant work I use in class. One out of 10 slog through this work and become masters of their own thought. I have bought 6 copies thus far and have ordered my 7th all given to teenagers who showed potential. They get passed on and become the seed for a greater consience of this great being. May God bless this book and the lives it has and will touch. Ahabonook (The man who surprizes, Yupik Eskimo)

I just finished reading this book as part of my Sophmore Math 2 AP class in high school. It was very interesting and insightful. Some of the ways that Hofstadter described certain things were brilliant. It is definitely worth reading. You will learn many things that you never even dared to think about before. Once in while it gets a bit boring, but overall it is fascinating.