Gödel, Escher, Bach: An Eternal Golden Braid

Rating:
Summary: GEB can also be used as an unusual textbook
Review: I teach a summer course on complexity theory to talented high school students, and one of the books I use is GEB. We work through many of the puzzles and we even "act out" some of the witty dialogues, but we glide over a number of details and leave much unfinished. The purpose, however, is to introduce some of Hofstadter's ideas and to inspire further investigation. In end-of-course evaluations, many students listed the GEB dialogues as one of their favorite parts of the course. While I am sure that some of my students will never pick up GEB again, at least two of them (probably the most thoughtful two) have finished GEB and, more importantly, they plan to pursue cognitive science in college.

Rating:
Summary: A waste of time
Review: I gotta side with the minority here. That the book is omnipresent even after many years and has such a loyal following boggles my mind. I suppose the same people who get off on elaborate dungeons and dragons fantasies played over months and years would enjoy this. I did not. It is over-complicated, trite and sometimes positively obnoxious in its desire to be cute. If Hofstadter's desire was to write a nonfiction "Finnegan's Wake," he's succeeded, but without the artistic accomplishment, only the chaos. If ever there were a case of the "emporer's new clothes," this book is it. As a mathematician and attorney, I object to this kind of obsfucation.

Rating:
Summary: It's great stuff, really !!?!!
Review: It's great stuff, but sometimes a bit of boring, because I've read it to get an idea of "Goedels 2. Unvollstaendigkeitssatz" and I've to read nearly 600 pages to get it !!

Rating:
Summary: It saved me 40+ years of armchair philosophizing
Review: It changed my life. I had majored in philosophy and psychology. It answered all the major questions I had: How can neurons just fire on/off and somehow combine to produce seeing, hearing, thinking, etc.?
Then I found DHR's G.E.B.! My favorite part is the "anthill" analogy: Ants have no brains, just a nerve center, yet these dumb ants prosper. How is that possible? Where is the intelligence? Answer: it is distributed as a system within the anthill itself! Soldier ants defend, queen ants lay eggs, workers do the leg work, etc. -- But each ant doesn't know anything, doesn't have "consciousness". The individual ant (neuron) does one thing, and one thing only, yet in a complex system, the WHOLE is greater than the sum of its PARTS.
It's all related: foreground vs. background, the medium is the message, the simulated feeling in simulated people produce simulated pleasure/pain. The confusion of form & content (like DNA sequencing, and Bach's crab canon) makes one's mind spin!
I don't pretend to understand the mathematical part, but Part Two just blew my mind. Yes, it is my favorite book of all time.

Rating:
Summary: I picked up a girl with this book.
Review: Looking for the perfect book to pick up that trendy intellectual chick, but can't get a conversation started! Use this book! I popped this on the desk during my lecture and 'Viola' conversation started and date got. I mean, if she's worth having, chances are she's interested in one of these geniuses. The book itself is fascinating and complicated. If you want an easier way in to Hoffstadter, read Metamagical themas, or the Minds I. Forget 'Fluid concepts' its too techie and lacks his usual fuun. Thanks Douglas, you've improved my intellect and my love life

Rating:
Summary: "Are beautiful paradoxes" are beautiful paradoxes.
Review: Mathematical theories shape-shift like ice cream on a tin roof in Tijuana, time and space invert, and talking tortoises demolish record players-and that's the simple stuff. Its a tall drink for the casual reader, but those who've secretly yearned for more surrealism in their algebra or who won't look both ways before approaching the intersection of art, mathematics, and philosophy will be rewarded. GEB presents a view of mind mechanics, the nature of intelligence, and the challenges of creating both artificially that is at best enlightening, and, at worst, unparalleled in most readers' experience. Take five months off and tackle it.

Rating:
Summary: Truly fascinating and wonderful
Review: I read this book years ago and thought it was terrific then. This isn't "dumbed down" for the mass market reader and requires some time to finish but it is well worth it. To prospective readers- enjoy.

Rating:
Summary: If intelligence = making connections, Hofstadter is a genius
Review: One sure sign of intellect is the ability to draw parallels and make connections between apparently unrelated topics. In this, Hofstadter proves to be a genius. Like James Burke's "Connections," GEB will take you on a trip down a dizzying intellectual high-wire, throwing off insights and important realizations left-and-right like sparks. When you finish you can't wait to get back on and read it again.

At the very least, this book will change your life!

Rating:
Summary: Very good book but a bit wordy
Review: I admire what hofstader has to say in GEB, but think he often becoms wrapped up in his own ideas and rambles on for too long on a given subject. Nontheless, it is a well-written and insightful book. Well worth aread.

Rating:
Summary: Deep.
Review: I have to give this book an '8' because, how do I put this politely without looking like a complete dork....I cannot finish it. This book demands some serious and what I think I mean is, REAL SERIOUS attention by the reader. I usually get a third of the way through the book, get distracted and put it down. This is a very big mistake. When I pick it up again, I have to start from the beginning because all the subtle stuff has leaked out of my memory. But this is a book that makes you think, it makes you get a pencil and a pad and try to figure out stuff. The third I am familiar with, I highly recommend. I think, I'll take the book off the shelf and give it another shot. Maybe there can be no higher recommendation of a complex book than that - it draws you back for another try. Please note that this review is somewhat vague as to the subject matter of this book. I think it's about puzzles and conundrums and art and music and math and artificial intelligence and lots of other cool things.