Godel, Escher, Bach: An Eternal Golden Braid |
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List Price: $22.95
Our Price: $15.61
Your Save: $ 7.34 ( 32% )
Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours
Manufacturer: Basic Books
Average Customer Rating:  
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PRODUCT DESCRIPTION
Binding: Paperback
Dewey Decimal Number: 510.1
EAN: 9780465026562
ISBN: 0465026567
Label: Basic Books
Manufacturer: Basic Books
Number Of Items: 1
Number Of Pages: 832
Publication Date: 1999-02-04
Publisher: Basic Books
Studio: Basic Books
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Editorial Reviews:
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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.
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Spotlight customer reviews:
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Customer Rating:
Summary: An Incredible Intellectual Romp
Comment: Early this summer at a computer programming conference I found myself with a group of programmers of different ages and nationalities. The one thing we all had in common is that we'd read this book while in high school or college and found it fascinating. For some of us the book was life changing. Most of us rediscovered a love of math that our high school education had nearly destroyed. Many of us became programmers because of it. The book may seem to be dated in some respects after 20 plus years, but on the whole it is as relevant and exciting today as it was when it was first published.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Literate, Facinating, Readable
Comment: This is a work of incredible depth and scope. From number theory to cognition to genetics, Hofstadter offers some incredible insights about the way we and the world work. One word of advice: don't worry if you can't understand all of his ideas. This book is so chock-full of content that most readers could spend a decade plowing through it, only to find that they've missed something important. Just read it. You'll get some of it, and that's enough.
Customer Rating:
Summary: My favourite book - ever!
Comment: This is one of my favourite book of all time. I first read it twenty years ago as an undergraduate on my computer science degree. The nice thing about getting older, but still remaining young, is that you can go back and revistit master works - and lets make no bones about it, this is a master work. As such, it requires time, effort and mastery of the ideas.
This is not a book that you can just pick up and read in a couple of days. Of course you can delve into it and loose yourself for a few hours, but to obtain mastery will take serious time and effort. Using Howard Gardener's terminology, Hofstadter synthesises across the domains of music, maths and art. This is no mean feat.
Buy it, only if you have the time for it. Treasure it, enjot it and love it as much as I do.
Customer Rating: 
Summary: Abstruse and over-rated
Comment: The author complains in the new preface that a vast majority of the reviewers, including those who have rated this book very highly, seem to have no idea of what he has been trying to say. In my opinion, this is a self-indictment that does not leave much for others to say. If the author cannot get his ideas across in 700 pages, perhaps people should not waste their time on him. I have learnt it the hard way: after buying this book, five years ago, on high recommendations of friends, only to find it so boring and confused that I could never go beyond a few pages even though I gave it innumerable attempts.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Magnum Opus on Intelligence
Comment: I realized after recommending this to a friend that I've never reviewed it. Strange, since it's one of the dozen most important books I've ever read in my nearly half-century on this planet. I first read it over 20 years ago, and continue to refer to its literate and well-crafted pages frequently.
This book is Doug Hofstadter's religion. Since it's so good and so right about so many things, people run off into strange places with Hofstadter's words, sort of like the Bible. GEB (the shorthand name for the book) is, for me, a meta-level examination of what it is to be human. Some people see the shadows of the gods in there. I'm not trying to be melodramatic, nor do I believe I'm overstating the value of this book.
Hofstadter takes the reader along on a Carrollian trip using metaphor and fable. Then he employs pedagogical, practical exercises, and good old-fashion lecture. Rinse and repeat, again and again. When he tells you to get pen and paper, please do it. Take your time with this book. I tried and failed on my first attempt. When I finally settled into it, it took me three months to joyously work my way through it. Take a year if you need it.
Reception, analysis, recursion, reapplication. Hofstadter examines the basic evidences of intelligence, forms sensible, fundamental meta-rules, and builds from there. This book - as others have said - is hard work, like climbing a mountain. But at the end of the endeavor, the view is dazzling.
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