Gödel, Escher, Bach: an eternal golden braid

Basic Books (AZ), 1999 - Philosophy - 800 pages

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 and Bach is a wonderful exploration of fascinating ideas at the heart of cognitive science: meaning, reduction, recursion, and much more.

What people are saying

Review: Gödel, Escher, Bach: An Eternal Golden Braid

User Review  - Leslie - Goodreads

never finished but liked what I did read...

Review: Gödel, Escher, Bach: An Eternal Golden Braid

User Review  - Brett - Goodreads

This book was like a bible to me as a teenager. On my second copy, well tattered.

About the author

Douglas R. Hofstadter is College Professor of Cognitive Science and Computer Science at Indiana University, Bloomington, Indiana. His previous books are the Pulitzer Prizewinning Gödel, Escher, Bach; Metamagical Themas, The Mind's I, Fluid Concepts and Creative Analogies, Le Ton Beau de Marot, and Eugene Onegin.

Bibliographic information

• Title: Gödel, Escher, Bach: an eternal golden braid; Basic Books
• Contributor: Douglas R. Hofstadter
• Edition: 20, illustrated, reprint
• Publisher: Basic Books (AZ), 1999
• ISBN: 0465026567, 9780465026562
• Length: 800 pages
• Subjects: Computers / Intelligence (AI) & Semantics; Mathematics / Logic; Philosophy / General