Research Catalog

Title

Gödel, Escher, Bach : an eternal golden braid / Douglas R. Hofstadter.

Author

Hofstadter, Douglas R., 1945-

Publication

New York : Basic Books, ©1999.

Supplementary Content

• Publisher description
• Contributor biographical information

Items in the Library & Off-site

Details

Description

23, vi-xxi, 777 pages : illustrations; 23 cm

Summary

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, Bach is a wonderful exploration of fascinating ideas at the heart of cognitive science: meaning, reduction, recursion, and much more.

Subjects

• Gödel, Kurt
• Escher, M. C (Maurits Cornelis), 1898-1972
• Symmetry
• Artificial intelligence
• Metamathematics
• Bach, Johann Sebastian, 1685-1750

Note

• "With a new preface by the author"--Cover.
• "A metaphorical fugue on minds and machines in the spirit of Lewis Carroll"--Cover.

Bibliography (note)

• Includes bibliographical references (pages 746-756) and index.

Contents

Part I: GEB. Introduction: A musico-logical offering (Three-part invention) ; The MU-puzzle (Two-part invention) ; Meaning and form in mathematics (Sonata for unaccompanied Achilles) ; Figure and ground (Contracrostipunctus) ; Consistency, completeness, and geometry (Little harmonic labyrinth) ; Recursive structures and processes Canon by intervallic augmentation) ; The location of meaning Chromatic fantasy, and feud) ; The propositional calculus Crab canon) ; Typographical number theory (A Mu offering) ; Mumon and Godel -- Part II: EGB. Levels of description and computer systems (... Ant fugue) ; Brains and thoughts (English French German suite) ; Minds and thoughts (Aria with diverse variations) ; BlooP and flooP and glooP (Air on G's string) ; On formally undecidable propositions of TNT and related systems (Birthday cantatatata) ; Jumping out of the system (Edifying thoughts of a tobacco smoker) ; Self-ref and self-rep (The magnificrab, indeed) ; Church, Turing, Tarski, and others (SHRDLU, toy of man's designing) ; Artificial intelligence : retrospects (Contrafactus) ; Artificial intelligence : prospects (Sloth canon) ; Strange loops, or tangled hierarchies (Six-part ricercar).

ISBN

• 0394756827
• 9780394756820
• 0465026567
• 9780465026562

LCCN

99192374

OCLC

40724766

Author

Hofstadter, Douglas R., 1945-

Title

Gödel, Escher, Bach : an eternal golden braid / Douglas R. Hofstadter.

Imprint

New York : Basic Books, ©1999.

Edition

20th anniversary ed.

Type of Content

text

Type of Medium

unmediated

Type of Carrier

volume

Bibliography

Includes bibliographical references (pages 746-756) and index.

Connect to:

Publisher description

Contributor biographical information