Gödel, Escher, Bach: An Eternal Golden Braid by Douglas R. Hofstadter
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Book Reviews of Gödel, Escher, Bach: An Eternal Golden Braid
Book Review: Some more comments that I failed to mention
Summary: 5 Stars
I have read this book twice in my lifetime. The first time, I found it very hard to keep interest in the book towards the end, especially all of the analysis of the human mind and DNA. But I suppose that's excusable because I was pretty young and I lacked the knowlegde, concentration, and stamina to fully comprehend it. I was extremely fortunate to have bought this book for 50 cents! I found it at a book sale at my local library, and, but for a musty smell and the horoscope section of an Egyptian newpaper wedged between the pages, it was as good as if I had boughten it new.But on with this review. I read this book for class. It wasn't a college math class, but, surprise, an 11th grade English class. We weren't assigned to read this particular book, but any non-fiction book, and periodically write entries for these ridiculous "Independent Reading Journals"...the type of thing that teachers like to force on their unsuspecting students. I read this book a second time to be a smart-aleck and confuse my teacher, if you want to know part of the truth. The other part of the truth is that I genuinely wanted to read it again. But it gave me a sense of satisfaction when, at the end of the class period, while my classmates would hand in 3-line summaries, I would produce an increasingly large and detailed analysis on every single detail presented by Dr. Hofstadter (I'm assuming Dr.) himself. Many times my teacher would say, "But you write so MUCH on it...I suppose it really isn't a book that you can sum up.." with growing dread. My friends would scoff at me, telling me I would never meet the page requirement in time(the writing was slow-going!). But I persisted, and in the end I was crushed when it was time to give my private oral report to the teacher and the first thing she said was, "This book sounds so interesting! I'm thinking of reading it myself." Curses, foiled again.
I indubitably urge you to read this book, or at least try! If you can, find it on sale at the library. When you finish, you will be surprised at how differently you approach things. This may sound weird, but "Godel, Escher, Bach" actually makes you more intelligent.
Another note: this book is a way to be easily entertained. Whenever I'm bored now, I think about the sublime paradox, "The following sentence is true. The preceding sentence is false."
Plus, I love the chapter on the art of Renee Margritte (I hope I spelled that right.) Everybody I showed it to thought it was trippy! And I mean that in a good way.
Book Review: Brilliant and thoroughly engaging.
Summary: 5 Stars
I can't add much to the other 5-star reviews presented so far (it's a great book, life-changing, read it again and again, etc.) but I thought the comment by SandGRyan needed some followup. He appears to have misinterpreted Hofstadter's thrust on AI (as presented in GEB). To wit, Hofstadter never claimed that mind arises "simply from self-ref and self-rep", nor that a "formal system complex enough to represent itself [automatically] becomes conscious". Hofstadter's main point about AI is that he believes mind can be represented by symbol-manipulating systems without having to simulate the level of neurons and neurotransmitter molecules. Such symbol-manipulation systems, if they are to approach the complexity of a human mind, must *necessarily* be capable of self-ref and self-rep, just like a human mind; but those abilities are not *sufficient* conditions. Note that Hofstadter has not "distracted from the crucial fact" that self-rep and self-ref must be provided by an external agent, because this "fact" is far from "crucial". A solitary symbol-manipulation system (e.g. a human mind or a complex AI) is perfectly capable of generating and manipulating symbols which are, in fact, references to itself, independent of any other party's judgment. Whether any given symbol refers to the system in which it is being manipulated is a property of the symbol and the system in question, and has nothing to do with the opinions of any outside agencies.SandGRyan's conclusion that GEB:EGB is a "tremendous begging of the question", then, amounts to nothing more than the hand-waving of which he accuses Hofstadter.
SandGRyan's discussion of Godel's Theorem also completely misses both Godel's point and Hofstadter's use of it. Godel's point is that any sufficiently complex system must be *incomplete*, which applies not only to mathematical formal systems but also to minds and brains. Hofstadter explicitly agrees with this, and gives examples of how human minds (and, necessarily, AIs) are just as incomplete with respect to truths about themselves as are mathematical formal systems. Hofstadter has not "reinterpret[ed] Godel's work in favor of strong AI", because Godel's work does not refute strong AI in the first place.
For my own final comment: read the book! Lend it to your friends! Enjoy!
Book Review: Many dialogues make light reading
Summary: 5 Stars
You might have been recommended this by a friend, or come across web recommendations. Almost everyone gives it more than 5 stars! But...
you can think of many reasons why you do NOT want to read this. There is lots of maths (it is a book about maths!?), it is loved by geeks, and it seems to cover too many things (consciousness, intelligence, reductionism, holism, recursion, self and soul!)...
You don't know if you want to start on an epic 700 page book about abstruse stuff right now. Perhaps later.
Hold it! You can enjoy this book just because of the brilliant writing, the puzzles and wordplay that make it a dream of Renaissance-style writing. The Rule of Four, Hypnerotomachia, Name of the Rose etc can't match this brilliance.
I suggest a really easy way to start this book: Read a dialogue. Each chapter has an opening dialogue: Tortoise and Achilles and a few others spar; their verbal wizardry opens up new worlds; each is set to music, imitating the style of a Bach piece so closely you can almsot hear the music while you read. The main chapters discuss the serious stuff seriously. A typical dialogue is less than 5 pages; so give it a quick try NOW.... see if you enjoy the heady mix of literature, puzzles and deep stuff!
My favourite is Crab Canon.. this was the first bit written, the whole book was written around it. Crabs (supposedly) walk backwards; see the illustrations (Escher's art, Bach's score, both called Carb Canon) upside down, and then .. read the dialogue backwards.
Here it is: http://www.barryland.com/canon.html
Or try "Sonata by Unaccompanied Achilles": this has a couple of lovely little puzzles.
http://www.rdegraaf.nl/index.asp?sND_ID=141084
Or, ... oh! there's so many little gems to recommend.
And if you like the first dialogue you read, get the book. Then read the preface, and then read the dialogues - in order - and skip the chapters .. till later.
That makes it a great fun read.. and a short book in itself!
Then having enjoyed yourself, read from the beginning and enjoy the whole thing afresh... at yor own pace. I read the dialogues quickly, and absorbed the book over a year, solving word and logic puzzles, tripping over imagery and more ...
So, have fun with this great book. It might change your life, as it did mine.
Book Review: An epic intellectual journey
Summary: 5 Stars
This book tries to explore several interrelated and complicated questions. These are "what makes a self?", "how is a self related to computers and formal systems?", "how is meaning created?" and "to what extent is self-reference essential for meaning?". To try and answer these questions (and he admits that there are currently no satisfactory answers), the author embarks on a journey touching physics, maths, art, biology, computer science, cognitive science, music, Zen etc etc etc. This is a huge book in terms of length, scope and meaning. That's probably why it's been quite popular for over 20 years.The book starts with an introduction to formal systems as rules for manipulating objects which can be represented as strings. He then links up to mathematical concepts to see how we can examine these systems and attach representation to them. Recursion is also introduced along with TNT (a special system of basic number theory), as well as some non-formal ways of thinking about systems (such as Zen).
In the second part of the book, computers and cognitive science are linked to formal systems. Finally, using TNT as an example, Godel's incompleteness theorem is explained in a manner that's relatively easy for the layman to understand, as well as its implications with respect to meaning. Then, the book talks about self-reference on a more general sense as well as the progresses in AI and what this all has to do with the search for meaning and the investigation of our thinking selves.
This may sound like a huge heap of tpoics and it is - but that's what makes the book special - its ways of connecting things from Godel's incompleteness theorem to Escher's self-referential prints to Bach's finely structured music which gives the "formal system" of musical notes an extra meaning.
One of the enjoyable things about the book is that each chapter has a dialogue before it which introduces the subject in an easy and intuitive matter. The dialogues carry along the Socratic tradition with the main players being Achilles and the Tortoise.
The book has hundreds of tables, diagrams and drawings to allow all readers to ponder at their level.
Even if you don't agree with many of Hofstadter's theories, I hope you will still consider this a great book. It combines humour, philosophy, science and keen observation in an enriching way.
Book Review: This is not a review
Summary: 5 Stars
This is not a review of John Sundman's "Cheap Complex Devices" (CCD). If it were, the first sentence of this paragraph would be false, forming a rather simplistic example of a "strange loop", one of those inherently self-contradictory structures whose existence is postulated by Goedel's theorem to be possible in any "sufficiently complex" system that can represent statements in logic.After the obligatory snippets of glowing reviews, the back cover proudly declares that CCD was awarded the Hofstadter Prize for computer-generated fiction. Douglas Hofstadter is the Pulitzer Prize winning author of one of the seminal literary works related to computer science, "Goedel, Escher, Bach: the Eternal Golden Braid". Goedel, as mentioned above, was a mathematician whose most famous work dealt with self contradiction in logical systems; Escher was an artist who created many famous works that play upon our interpretations of "3 dimensional" drawings done on flat surfaces. Bach, of course, was a 17th century German organist of some repute.
The first key to understanding CCD is to realize that there is, in fact, no Hofstadter prize, and no Society for Analytical Engines to award it. This book was not written by a military surplus AWACS computer with (or without) a faulty floating point unit. Even the review snippets on the back cover are fictional. All of these fictions regarding the book could be described as "meta fiction", which exist on a different conceptual level from the book itself. The clever use of meta-fiction justifies this volume's claim on the Hofstadter Award. Except that, if the award actually existed, the metafiction would not, and this book would no longer merit the award. Strange loops indeed.
Continuing in Hofstadterian fashion, references, contrasts, and comparisons are made repeatedly to Sundman's first novel, "Acts of the Apostles" forming the illusion of a dual with the earlier book. But "Acts" doesn't deul back, and there is no compelling reason to read "Acts" before CCD.
But this is not a review of "Acts of the Apostles", any more than it is of Lewis Carrol's "Through the Looking Glass", Steve Martin's "Pure Drivel", or any other work to which "Cheap Complex Devices" might be reasonably compared. None of those works are prerequisite to this one.
After all, this has actually been a review of "Goedel, Escher, Bach"