Godel, Escher, Bach: An Eternal Golden Braid
by Douglas R. Hofstadter
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Read in March, 2008
recommends it for:
people who like thinking about thinking about thinking.
If you open up the "20th Anniversary Edition" of GEB, you'll see that the first thing Douglas Hofstadter does in the introduction - the very first thing - is grouse that nobody seems to understand what his book is about. Not even its publishers or readers who just absolutely love it. A quick glance at the back cover will give you the same impression - even the glowing, two-sentence blurbs are hilariously vague, all of them variations on the theme of "Well, that cer...more
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Read in January, 1999
Conversation overheard at a diner in Upstate NY between Rabbit and Dante. They have been arguing about the existence of God. Dante has been arguing against the proposition.
Rabbit: I have been recently reading a book which helps me to counter many of your points Dante. You should take a look at it. Godel, Escher, Bach: an Eternal Golden Braid by Douglas R. Hofstadter carries within it the seed of an answer to your skepticism. Hofstadter argues, using the pictures of Escher, the music of Bach ...more
Rabbit: I have been recently reading a book which helps me to counter many of your points Dante. You should take a look at it. Godel, Escher, Bach: an Eternal Golden Braid by Douglas R. Hofstadter carries within it the seed of an answer to your skepticism. Hofstadter argues, using the pictures of Escher, the music of Bach ...more
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Read in March, 2008
Well, this is not really my sort of thing at all, or at least, not at all the sort of thing I usually read. I more or less stumbled upon it by accident. But then again, maybe it is my sort of thing after all as I have been trying to be more diverse in what I read and sometimes enjoy the infuriating (I'm sure this is due to some combination of my education and my upbringing by a smartass engineer).
So here are some things I think I can say about this book:
It's dense with connections amon...more
So here are some things I think I can say about this book:
It's dense with connections amon...more
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GEB is an astonishing achievement in popularizing mathematical philosophy (!), and among the few truly life-changing books I've read.
The central thesis is that under certain conditions sufficiently complex, recursive self-editing systems can develop arbitrarily complex behavior without reference to external organization - and given an author who spends his days coding AI systems, you can see where he's going.
That's dense, dense stuff, but helped by the author's charming expository styl...more
The central thesis is that under certain conditions sufficiently complex, recursive self-editing systems can develop arbitrarily complex behavior without reference to external organization - and given an author who spends his days coding AI systems, you can see where he's going.
That's dense, dense stuff, but helped by the author's charming expository styl...more
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Read in June, 2005
It's a classic for a reason - Hofstadter has this idea burning a hole in his brain, and he lays it out for you over and over again throughout the novel, now with math, now with music, now with computer languages, now with neuroscience, now with Zen, now with visual art. His central thesis is that recursive loops - in all of these areas - are the foundational structures of consciousness. It's philosophy through math, perhaps the greatest work of philosophy through math, and it's a fascinating, ...more
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Read in September, 2007
A friend of mine calls this a book for "pretentious teens and people who are too busy reflecting on their own existence to do anything productive" -- with a bit of self-mockery, I'm sure. My early, tentative take on GEB is that it's decidedly unpretentious, almost certainly written to be as accessible as its subject matter will allow. (If anything, it's a little corny at times.) The subject matter is artificial intelligence, a field which I suppose could turn out to be a dead...more
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Read in September, 2006
recommends it for:
Dead braniacs.
Anyone who says they "get" this book is lying, I firmly believe that. There was next to nothing to get. Described as a "fugue", the book is more like a rambling, vague conversation with a confused brick. As fiction, it would have made a wonderful conceit in need of nothing more than a plot. Surely, there are smarter people who could appreciate this book. I am not one of those people, nor will I probably ever be. Too much math, too many leaps, way too much pretentious blatheri...more
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Read in April, 1998
Synopsis: Two books, interwoven. The first is a series of comedic dialogues in which characters created by Lewis Carrol engage in friendly battles of wit and skill, or just conversations, each dialogue being modeled after music by Johann Sebastian Bach. The second is a prosaic exploration of the nature of artificial intelligence, self-reference, and free will. The two halves intertwine with eachother and refer to eachothe...more
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Read in June, 2007
Unnameable Books (nice shout-out - got the name wrong the first time!) on Bergen Street between 5th and 6th Aves in Brooklyn is well worth a visit, and this was the fruit of mine.
On my first trip to any newly discovered used book store, I feel obliged to immediately demonstrate support for its existence by buying something. Though it would be a poor reflection on either the store or me (or both) if I really couldn't find a single book that appealed to me, sometimes you want that frisson of &qu...more
On my first trip to any newly discovered used book store, I feel obliged to immediately demonstrate support for its existence by buying something. Though it would be a poor reflection on either the store or me (or both) if I really couldn't find a single book that appealed to me, sometimes you want that frisson of &qu...more
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Read in December, 2007
To start let me explain why I didn't give it the highest ranking. This is a case of where I went to college spoiled me. Many of the subjects involved were not new to me, number theory, set theory, and the like I've seen before. This led me to experience GEB more as a review textbook in places.
The dialogues were amusing, an obvert tribute to Lewis Carroll, and how the author leads the reader through the abstract mathematical concepts was done very well. That being said, I think their ar...more
The dialogues were amusing, an obvert tribute to Lewis Carroll, and how the author leads the reader through the abstract mathematical concepts was done very well. That being said, I think their ar...more
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Read in December, 2007
recommends it for:
Anyone interested in Artificial Intelligence
The book was extremely interesting, and put together (with the exception of a few chapters around the middle, in my opinion) for just about anyone. It is a book about artificial intelligence - what he believes is and is not possible for a computer to "learn". Before each chapter there is a Dialogue, which consists of multiple characters carrying out a conversation in such a way to illustrate the point he will be discussing in the chapter - this REALLY helps to set the scene and show wh...more
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Read in July, 2006
recommends it for:
geeks and perpetual students
This is perhaps the best-written book I have ever read. It swings from baroque fugues to programming languages to number theory to Zen Buddhism to artificial intelligence, and doesn't leave you behind. He uses a good deal of graphic illustrations in his discussions, which are pretty welcome in some of the heavier topics. Before each chapter, Hofstadter introduces the new ideas in a distilled version through his own fable-style scenes. He clearly took the time to make it enjoyable for the reader,...more
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Read in January, 1998
If I were stranded in a desert island and had my wish of three books, this was going to be one of them.
This book is unique. It is about mathematics, philosophy, art, science, music and the material is presented in a delighful way via dialogs among fictional creatures (Achiles, the turtle, and the crab) as an introduction to each topic.
The book has a goal for the reader: To learn and understand Godel's Incompleteness Theorem, one of the most significant results of meta-mathematics. This soun...more
This book is unique. It is about mathematics, philosophy, art, science, music and the material is presented in a delighful way via dialogs among fictional creatures (Achiles, the turtle, and the crab) as an introduction to each topic.
The book has a goal for the reader: To learn and understand Godel's Incompleteness Theorem, one of the most significant results of meta-mathematics. This soun...more
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Read in March, 2008
recommends it for:
thinkers
I suppose I will always be "currently reading" this book because I've never been able to read it from start to finish. But I've read and reread a good amount of it over the years, choosing sections based on my mood, and I've recently started from the beginning again, so here it is. Maybe I'll finish it one day... until then, it gets five stars for the way that every page contains at least one idea that twists my brain up into convoluted knots of paradox and joy.
Update: I finished...more
Update: I finished...more
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Read in January, 1998
recommends it for:
those who think a mathematical proof can be "awesome"
An epic, totally inventive, completely unique whirlwind tour of... uh... where to begin? The philosophy of the mind, the conceptual limits of formal logic, patterns and self-reference in music, art, and mathematics, the nature of contradiction, and a whole bunch of other stuff that I can't even begin to remember.
For me, the big message of the book was that the mathematical world of Godel, the art of Escher, and the music of Bach, all dance around the same thing. It's a totally awesome th...more
For me, the big message of the book was that the mathematical world of Godel, the art of Escher, and the music of Bach, all dance around the same thing. It's a totally awesome th...more
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Has a copy to sell/swap
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Read in February, 2008
recommends it for:
the intellectually curious, the recursively enumerable
This book presents a way of understanding thought as a formal system. It doesn't so much "argue" for that position as teach you a lot of logic, math, AI, and even a little neuroscience and genetics to give you the tools to understand this. That said, GEB is obviously not so much for those who a) already understand the afore-mentioned fields and/or b) already accept the main thesis of the book. I fall squarely within category b), and have some background in the topics mentioned in categ...more
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Read in February, 2007
recommended to Erin by:
Brent from Menomenarecommends it for: people who like reading dry textbooks.
I picked up this book thinking from the title and content it would be the greatest thing ever, as I am kind of a music nerd and am interested in visual art, parallelism (?), and the vast interconnection of things. Little did I know that after a few pages I would want to hang myself with the eternal golden braid. Getting through pages was like sitting through a lecture of a disinterested professor. In other words, it reads like a textbook. In fact, I have leafed through more enthralling textbooks...more
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Read in July, 2007
I take this book to be an argument for why artificial intelligence is not only possible, but inevitable. However, it goes very far afield in order to make it's point.
Littered with word games, logic problems and the paintings of M.C. Escher and Magritte, the book does an excellent job of taking you through the author's fairly complex reasoning.
Chapters are interspersed with allegories that reinforce or illustrate the points made through the dialogs of characters like Achilles, the Tortoise ...more
Littered with word games, logic problems and the paintings of M.C. Escher and Magritte, the book does an excellent job of taking you through the author's fairly complex reasoning.
Chapters are interspersed with allegories that reinforce or illustrate the points made through the dialogs of characters like Achilles, the Tortoise ...more
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Read in January, 2003
recommends it for:
anyone who likes math, music, or art, and especially anyone who likes any combination of them
This book is an amazing work of popular science nonfiction. It is simply the best mathematical philosophy book and it draws clear and remarkable parallels between mathematical-logical structures and art like Bach's music and Escher's paintings.
It introduces undecidability, one of the most fascinating advances of modern mathematics in a way that is simple enough for anyone with the patience to read through to understand.
Furthermore, as a student of mathematics with little background in m...more
It introduces undecidability, one of the most fascinating advances of modern mathematics in a way that is simple enough for anyone with the patience to read through to understand.
Furthermore, as a student of mathematics with little background in m...more
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Read in May, 2008
recommended to dusty.rhodes by:
amy
What is it about?
Well, it is about what it isn't about, for the most part. The spaces illuminated by putting GEB together within the context of systems of X (where X is whatever system you want it to be) and stepping out of said system from within and looking into said system from without.
Two takeaway points:
1. The reader can choose his own level of difficulty/density in this book. That's pretty cool.
2. The author is an exceedingly clever and playful writer. He brings joy to h...more
Well, it is about what it isn't about, for the most part. The spaces illuminated by putting GEB together within the context of systems of X (where X is whatever system you want it to be) and stepping out of said system from within and looking into said system from without.
Two takeaway points:
1. The reader can choose his own level of difficulty/density in this book. That's pretty cool.
2. The author is an exceedingly clever and playful writer. He brings joy to h...more
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book data (includes all editions)
avg rating (all editions): 4.41 (1279 ratings) avg rating (this edition): 4.40 (1079 ratings) number of reviews: 200popular shelves
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quote
"How gullible are you? Is your gullibility located in some "gullibility center" in your brain? Could a neurosurgeon reach in and perform some delicate operation to lower your gullibility, otherwise leaving you alone? If you believe this, you are pretty gullible, and should perhaps consider such an operation."
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