Rating: 
Summary: The review following this title is false.
Review: The title preceding this review is true
Rating:
Summary: Physician/brain-author:most influential book of my career!!!
Review: I read this symphonic masterpiece of genius 3 times in the summer of 1982 before I began my studies at Johns Hopkins Medical School. Was deciding between actually matriculating or pursuing a career as a rock drummer. This book was the deciding piece. It made me commit myself to a life goal of understanding the human brain. I have headed in that direction ever since...All the best to Dr. Hofstadter who though we have never met or spoken, is like an old friend. I still refer to it regularly and am on copy #4 not including those I have given to friends and colleagues. If you have any interest in AI, the brain, consciousness, computer science, or all of the above, buy it now...Kenneth Giuffre MD, author, "The Care and Feeding of Your Brain"
Rating:
Summary: A remarkable mind-boggling work !
Review: It's a classic book and it's becoming old. I've read it when I'm in High Scholl. After 20 years it is amazingly refreshing. But I think that some parts is becoming outdated ( However, a classic book never loses its charm). Being an unsual work, between Knuth's "The Art of Computer Programming" and Carl Sagan's "Broca's Brain", it's somewhat difficult to read. Written in a pre-internet (as we use today), it loses some appeal for the young ones ( except for the gifted ones). I hope that Mr. Hofstadter has some plans to update and refresh with new format, new insights and appeal to the young ones.
Rating:
Summary: !
Review: At first I was undecided, now I am not sure
Rating:
Summary: Making accessible the essential laws of nature.
Review: I read it once some 15 years ago, and it is still hauntingly the finest book that I've ever read.GENIUS shows us how the laws and structure of one discipline repeat themselves across seemingly disparate studies. Hofstadter convinced me that the Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle, and Godel's Incompleteness Theorem are cut from the same cloth. Both describe the limits of a finite system in defining something greater than itself. It is RARE GENIUS that makes such connections accessible to the minds of average people (that's me!). Douglas Hofstadter showed me that these principles of Physics and Mathematics extend up the chain of the sciences to Biology and Sociology. For me, this book painted a simple illustration: I do not exist without each cell in my body doing its certain work. But I have no better chance of understanding what the organism of my society is doing than one of my cells has in understanding what the organism of me is doing. This is an utterly simple concept. So, why didn't I think of it? It is also a humbling thought about the structure of our existence. So on this twentieth aniversary, I'm back to get a copy of the book for the my favorite thinker --- my Mom. Douglas Hofstadter is the greatest Philosopher of our time. Treat yourself to his thoughts...and smile.
Rating:
Summary: A Wonderful Summary of the Capabilities of Spirit
Review: Read it once, twice and trice: GEB Will surprise you again and again. In a delightful manner, Hofstadter presents us to his reach inner world, from his love to art to molecular biology and mathematical logic, all in search of the paradoxes ensuing from our recursive World.
Rating:
Summary: Ultimately meaningless.
Review: After all the convolutions contained in this book, one essential fact seems to be overlooked by all its avid readers: it's meaningless. I too waded through the seemingly endless analogies, entanglements, metaphors, and, yes, isomorphisms with the same fascination which nearly everyone else did. But all the while something was lurking in the back of my head, something that told me, in its own nebulous way, that something was missing. I've only recently realized what it was that was bothering me: self reference. Self reference is meaningless! It is absolutely meaningless for a human being to talk about their self, especially in qualitative terms. In other words, it means absolutely nothing for someone to say that they're intelligent, or stupid, or beautiful, or ugly. They are referring to themselves. Their speech means nothing. It means no more than defining a box, for example, by saying it's a box. You have to go "outside" of the word "box" to truly define a box. Hofstadter hasn't truly described intelligence to us; he's merely told us how he feels. To truly describe his mind (and, thus, ours as well) he would have to step outside of it, which is obviously absurd.
Rating:
Summary: A shower of sparks
Review: Hofstadter's GEB is rarely out of reach. The pages of my original edition are yellowing and dog eared and the cover has been repaired twice. I was fascinated by the comments of a reader from Ann Arbor, MI , February 3, 1999, when she/he observed that "the author no longer has claim to his novel. He has no idea what it is all about either". Hofstadter provides a shower of sparks that leads the reader off in directions hardly imaginable. GEB is a book and more than a book.
Rating:
Summary: Good for CS undergraduates, but not for graduates
Review: This book surely is a must-read for computer science students, especially undergraduates. GEB explains the most important research topic in 20th century mathematics - "self-reference." The explanation is succinct and his writing style is very attractive. I think the value of this book should be evaluated on his `theory of intelligence' based on self-reference, but the popularity of this book seems to stem from the fact that it explains the abstruse topic "self-reference" understandably. But be warned. If you are reading this book just for the understanding of Goedel's theorems or computabilty thoery (just as I once was) and you are a CS graduate, I'd like to recommend that you should read more rigorous mathematics books, such as Kleene's or Barwise's logic book, rather than this "general science" book. GEB does not give us a full or rigorous understanding of the subject just like Steven Hawking's "History of Time" does not give us a rigorous understanding of the theory of relativity.
Rating:
Summary: Mmmmmm.... Brain Candy
Review: For those that have an interest in mathematics (better yet, mathematical logic), or artificial intelligence, this book may be for you. If you want become aquainted with some of these topics, this may even be a good starting place, if you're willing to make the effort. Though this book covers a lot of fairly esoteric concepts, Hofstadter merges the fiction with the non-fiction in such a way that you are well prepared for the material as it is formally presented. In the end, it is an enjoyable read, though definately not something to be read in one sitting.
|
