Godel, Escher, Bach: An Eternal Golden Braid

Rating:
Summary:

The best book I ever read ...
Review:

That's just it. This is the best book I've ever read, and that's not a judgement that comes easily believe me. It just embraces so many themes, so elegantly, and so deeply as to leave such a lasting mark upon the reader that it is difficult to match.

The one criticisim it might draw is that it is not on the whole, light reading and is rather a heavy read, but that is something difficult to avoid when you embrace significant themes designed to make the reader think and feel at the same time. Light reading after all is not something that forces you to think after every paragraph or page, it just flows ...

I have in all honesty met many more people that started this book than have read it through. Now there's a challenge or an interesting reflection on the company I keep :-).

Rating:
Summary: The pinnacle of all human accomplishments.
Review: As pure Art, as magnificent intelligence incarnated as absolute beauty, this is the greatest book ever written by human hands. It is a terrible thing to contemplate that 150,000 people die every day without having read this book. Don't let it happen to you.

This book dramatically illustrates two things: First, that truly fascinating subjects and truly beautiful works of art require fundamental concepts from cognitive science and an implicit understanding of the Universe. Second, that no matter how deep a scientific idea is, it can still be explained to any intelligent reader, without using obscuring clouds of mumbo-jumbo.

Artificial Intelligence, mathematics, cognitive science, computer programming; art, music, language; it doesn't matter whether you know them, or you want to know them, or you just want an unlimited amount of amazing fun - read this book. I could spend the rest of my life reading this book and I would still be noticing wonderful new gems.

Rating:
Summary: One of the biggest influences in my life, and a classic.
Review: Douglas Hofstadter uses the art of M.C. Escher, the music of J.S. Bach, and Kurt Goedel's mathematics as the centerpieces for a magnificent inquiry into the nature of the mind. Along the way you will encounter Bertrand Russel, Carroll Lewis, particle physics, molecular biology, Magritte's paintings, and Zen koans. These are all used to probe recursion and the mystery of how we form thoughts. But the list of topics alone is not what makes this book great, it's the playful, joyful sense that characterize's Hofstadter's treatment of this. This sense of wonder is critical, as without it this highly challenging book would be very frustrating. The book's style itself is based on Bach's canons, and the chapters are interspersed with dialogues between the Tortois and the Hare, in the style of Carroll's Alice in Wonderland. The result is an artistic as well as scientific or philisophical masterpiece. I am currently a triple-major in molecular biology, physics, and philosophy, and much of my curriculum has been influenced by the beauty of Hofstadter's book. This will go down as one of the 20th Century's bests books.

Rating:
Summary: Everyone should own this book!
Review: Hofstadter has done a superb job of presenting an intriguing melange of disciplines that are seemingly unrelated. The author manages to quickly show that Godel's theorems, Escher's art, and Bach's music have much more in common than most would think. In a lengthy but VERY worthwhile read, he manages to get the reader to analyze many of the assumptions commonly held about the nature of thought and why it is so devilishly difficult to formalize the thought process with rigid rules, among other topics.

That he manages to entertain as well (he writes with a wry sense of humor on what are typically handled as rather dry subjects) and manages to reach the layman is what sets this volume apart as the masterpiece that it is. Although it is accessable to the layman, the book does become progressively more challenging and I strongly recommend completing his suggested exercises before moving on, otherwise you will likely find yourself unable to grasp the point he's trying to make several pages later.

Rating:
Summary: Everyone should own this book!
Review: Hofstadter has done a superb job of presenting an intriguing melange of disciplines that are seemingly unrelated. The author manages to quickly show that Godel's theorems, Escher's art, and Bach's music have much more in common than most would think. In a lengthy but VERY worthwhile read, he manages to get the reader to analyze many of the assumptions commonly held about the nature of thought and why it is so devilishly difficult to formalize the thought process with rigid rules, among other topics.

That he manages to entertain as well (he writes with a wry sense of humor on what are typically handled as rather dry subjects) and manages to reach the layman is what sets this volume apart as the masterpiece that it is. Although it is accessable to the layman, the book does become progressively more challenging and I strongly recommend completing his suggested exercises before moving on, otherwise you will likely find yourself unable to grasp the point he's trying to make several pages later.

Rating:
Summary: Challengingly Fun
Review: Hofstadter has pulled off a miracle with this book. If you like ideas and like reading about how ideas fit together, then get this book. Definately not a one-sitting book (at least for me) but very interesting and worthwhile. It's like listending to your favorite comedian lecture as a highschool teacher on a subject you can't help but be amazed at. He melds art, music, math, computer science, Zen, and more into a beautiful tapestry of fascination. Highly highly recommended.

Rating:
Summary: A Must for every student of cognitive science
Review: I came across this book in 1993. I had to prepare for a seminar on AI as part of my curriculum. My then tutor recommended that I read this book before preparing for my seminar.

The journey started at this point. No matter however hard I tried, I couldnt keep the book down.

One could not help repeatedly starring at Escher's paintings on relativity and admiring it. It seems to be whole new world out there. Another painting that is great is the 'Waterfall'.

The dialogues between Achiless and the tortoise are simply great. It gives us the insight on how great men think.

WONDERFUL WONDERFUL WONDERFUL It is indeed creditable of Mr. Hofstadter to bring out this masterpiece.

Rating:
Summary: question?
Review: Question: Where can I buy the model which made by hard paper to represent a picture (in the book) in three-dimentional picture(model). I like to buy it and display for students. If you can release any info, please forward it to Claudio Oh at [e-mail]

Rating:
Summary: A delightfully coonfusing book about number theory, I think.
Review: Read Godel, Escher, Bach: An Eternal Golden Braid. Each time I do, I realize how truly unique it is. A wonderfully composed sonnet about number theory, um, I mean about genetic engineering, no, wait, it's about philosophy. Dear me, I'm confused; I think it's about artificial intelligence. This book weaves together number theory, musical theory, and art in a whirlwind of self-reference. Hofstadter's main theme is whether artificial intelligence is a possibility or not. I'ts most fascinating element is that, while reading this book, one never quite knows if the book is serious or lighthearted, persuasive or informative. Some say that the most enjoyable part of this book comes after each chapter, when the reader is shown the misadventures of Achilles and the Tortoise, creatures who debate the topics of the following chapterin a roundabout way. Books like this contain so many levels of meaning. One true mark of a classic book is that the reader learns something new each time she reads it. Only one book deserves a ten, so a rating of nine is my highest. Kindly enjoy this book, but before you do, I have one last comment; see if you can find the hidden meaning in this review, because it is representative of the hidden meaning in this book.

Rating:
Summary: GEB - A must read for all aspiring thinkers
Review: The Atlanta Journal Constitution describes Gödel, Escher, Bach (GEB) as "A huge, sprawling literary marvel, a philosophy book, disguised as a book of entertainment, disguised as a book of instruction." That is the best one line description of this book that anybody could give. GEB is without a doubt the most interesting mathematical book that I have ever read, quickly making its place into the Top 5 books I have ever read.
The introduction of the book, "Introduction: A Musico-Logical Offering" begins by quickly discussing the three main participants in the book, Gödel, Escher, and Bach. Gödel was a mathematician who founded Gödel's Incompleteness Theorem, which states, as Hofstadter paraphrases, "All consistent axiomatic formulations of number theory include undecidable propositions." This is what Hofstadter calls the pearl. This is one example of one of the recurring themes in GEB, strange loops.
Strange loops occur when you move up or down in a hierarchical manner and eventually end up exactly where you started. The first example of a strange loop comes from Bach's Endlessly rising canon. This is a musical piece that continues to rise in key, modulating through the entire chromatic scale, ending at the same key with which he began. To emphasize the loop Bach wrote in the margin, "As the modulation rises, so may the King's Glory."
The third loop in the introduction comes from an artist, Escher. Escher is famous for his paintings of paradoxes. A good example is his Waterfall; Hofstadter gives many examples of Escher's work, which truly exemplify the strange loop phenomenon.
One feature of GEB, which I was particularly fond of, is the 'little stories' in between each chapter of the book. These stories which star Achilles and the Tortoise of Lewis Carroll fame, are illustrations of the points which Hofstadter brings out in the chapters. They also serve as a guidepost to the careful reader who finds clues buried inside of these sections. Hofstadter introduces these stories by reproducing "What the Tortoise Said to Achilles" by Lewis Carroll. This illustrates Zeno's paradox, another example of a strange loop.
In GEB Hofstadter comments on the trouble author's have with people skipping to the end of the book and reading the ending. He suggests that a solution to this would be to print a series of blank pages at the end, but then the reader would turn through the blank pages and find the last one with text on it. So he says to print gibberish throughout those blank pages, again a human would be smart enough to find the end of the gibberish and read there. He finally suggests that authors need to write many pages more of text than the book requires just fooling the reader into having to read the entire book. Perhaps Hofstadter employs this technique.
GEB is in itself a strange loop. It talks about the interconnectedness of things always getting more and more in depth about the topic at hand. However you are frequently brought back to the same point, similarly to Escher's paintings, Bach's rising canon, and Gödel's Incompleteness theorem. A book, which is filled with puzzles and riddles for the reader to find and answer, GEB, is a magnificently captivating book.