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Godel, Escher, Bach: An Eternal Golden Braid Paperback – Illustrated, Feb. 5 1999
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A metaphorical fugue on minds and machines in the spirit of Lewis Carroll
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.
- Print length777 pages
- LanguageEnglish
- PublisherBasic Books
- Publication dateFeb. 5 1999
- Dimensions16.51 x 4.83 x 23.24 cm
- ISBN-100465026567
- ISBN-13978-0465026562
- Lexile measure1150L
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| Explore the Works of Douglas R. Hofstadter | This book argues that the key to understanding selves and consciousness is the “strange loop” a special kind of abstract feedback loop inhabiting our brains. | An autobiographical essay, a love letter to the French language, a series of musings on life, loss, and death, a sweet bouquet of stirring poetry—but most of all, it celebrates the limitless creativity fired by a passion for the music of words. | Hofstadter's collection of quirky essays is unified by its primary concern: to examine the way people perceive and think. | This book explores the meaning of self and consciousness through the perspectives of literature, artificial intelligence, psychology, and other disciplines. | Now, with his wit and special talent for making complex ideas vivid, Hofstadter has partnered with Sander to put forth a highly novel perspective on cognition. This book will profoundly enrich our understanding of our own minds. |
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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.
Review
Winner of the National Book Award in Science
"Every few decades an unknown author brings out a book of such depth, clarity, range, wit, beauty and originality that it is recognized at once as a major literary event. This is such a work."―Martin Gardner, Scientific American
"In some ways, Godel, Escher, Bach is an entire humanistic education between the covers of a single book. So, for my next visit to a desert island, give me sun, sand, water and GEB, and I'll live happily ever after."―John L. Casti, Nature
"A brilliant, creative, and very personal synthesis without precedent or peer in modern literature."―The American Mathematical Monthly
"I have never seen anything quite like this book. It has a youthful vitality and a wonderful brilliance, and I think that it may become something of a classic."―Jeremy Bernstein
"A huge, sprawling literary marvel, a philosophy book disguised as a book of entertainment disguised as a book of instruction."―Atlanta Journal-Constitution
"A triumph of cleverness, bravura performance."―Parabola
"A wondrous book that unites and explains, in a very entertaining way, many of the important ideas of recent intellectual history."―Commonweal
"Godel, Escher, Bach was a triumphantly successful presentation of quite difficult concepts for a popular audience. There has been nothing like it in computer science before or since."―Ernest Davis, IEEE Expert
About the Author
Product details
- Publisher : Basic Books; 20th Anniversary ed. edition (Feb. 5 1999)
- Language : English
- Paperback : 777 pages
- ISBN-10 : 0465026567
- ISBN-13 : 978-0465026562
- Item weight : 1.05 kg
- Dimensions : 16.51 x 4.83 x 23.24 cm
- Best Sellers Rank: #55,755 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #11 in Machine Theory
- #11 in AI Computer Mathematics
- #14 in AI Theory of Computing
- Customer Reviews:
About the author

Douglas Richard Hofstadter (born February 15, 1945) is an American professor of cognitive science whose research focuses on the sense of "I", consciousness, analogy-making, artistic creation, literary translation, and discovery in mathematics and physics. He is best known for his book Gödel, Escher, Bach: An Eternal Golden Braid, first published in 1979. It won both the Pulitzer Prize for general non-fiction and a National Book Award (at that time called The American Book Award) for Science. His 2007 book I Am a Strange Loop won the Los Angeles Times Book Prize for Science and Technology.
Bio from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
Customer reviews
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The problem of consciousness might always be a relevant problem in philosophy. However, with the advances in artificial intelligence, the issue takes on a more practical note. As a matter a fact, many of the problems exposed by the author are more relevant now that technology is catching up. Indeed, you may notice that many of the ideas in GEB had become folklore in the artificial intelligence community.
Part of the charm of GEB is that Hofstadter often deviates into exploring whatever he finds interesting. Those deviations are as amusing as the core message of the book. Thus, you may find interesting parts about modern art, mathematics, and language translations. As a matter a fact, each reader might gather something different from the book (and the same reader might gather something different on a second reading).
While it may not be obvious at the outset, the main purpose of this book is to explain how Godel proved that true mathematical statements exist for which no proofs can exist. He did this using meta-mathematics to construct positive integers that encode statements about positive integers. A sequence of such integers results in this statement (translated into English): "I am true but unprovable."
But you can still find in GEB a lot of innovative approach to explaining difficult subjects, and that makes it it worth reading. It is very well written and at no point I had an impression that the author is just trying to be amusing but out is of his depth.
But I think, and it is just my opinion, that the book is a bit too technical, at least parts of it, for entirely unprepared reader, but does not go deep enough for a reader with interest in music and background in math.
But not being able to write an extensive review I do not believe I can do justice to this book, it is still very much worth reading.
Top reviews from other countries
Though the ideas are complex and one needs time to read and process them, the book itself is quite accessible for someone with little background in the fields. I, myself, have yet to finish it but am constantly drawn to the intellectual stimuli it provides, and expands my perspective on topics like consiousness.
I am not a very studios person, and definitely incompetent to actually suggest or evey try explaining what this book is about as of now.
But as one of my best person, competent enough calls this book the devine knowledge, an alter perspective to the world", and so far I believe it too.
Reviewed in India on August 16, 2023
I am not a very studios person, and definitely incompetent to actually suggest or evey try explaining what this book is about as of now.
But as one of my best person, competent enough calls this book the devine knowledge, an alter perspective to the world", and so far I believe it too.







