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- Godel,Escher,Bach:
- An Eternal Golden Braid
-
- Bill Weil
- San Francisco
-
- Personal Computer Users Group
-
- Product: Godel, Escher, Bach:
- an Eternal Golden Braid
- Description: Book, 777 pages,
- 152 illustrations
- Written by: Douglas R. Hofstadter
- Published by: Basic Books, Inc.
- (cloth) and Vintage
- Books (paper)
- Retail Price: $9.95 (paper)
-
- This is a change of pace for reviews
- in Exchange -- a book review.
- Furthermore, An Eternal Golden Braid
- is not about the IBM PC or computers
- at all. However, I think it will
- probably appeal to those of you who
- are interested in computers.
-
- Early in the book, Hofstadter states
- that at its core is an explanation of
- the development and implications of
- Kurt Godel's Incompleteness Theorem.
- Godel, a German mathematician,
- formulated a theorem in 1931 stating,
- in essence, that all formal
- mathematical systems are incomplete
- because it is always possible to
- introduce paradoxical statements
- (following the constructs of the
- system) that are self-contradicting.
-
- Paradoxes - logical, mathematical,
- artistic and even musical - are the
- heart of the book. Hofstadter
- explores the classic logical
- paradoxes such as "This statement is
- false.", "The following sentence is
- true." and "The preceding sentence is
- false." Self references and paradoxes
- in the art of Escher and the music of
- Bach are used as examples and
- illustrations throughout the book.
-
- Your reaction at this point may be,
- "so what", which was my initial
- reaction. Well, let me clue you into
- a little secret: this compelling book
- actually is about the questions and
- the concepts of consciousness and
- intelligence, natural and artificial.
- The reader discovers the true nature
- of Godel, Escher, Bach only after
- completing the first one-third of the
- book.
-
- The value of this book is not found
- in the theme or the conclusions, but
- in the journey through it. Before
- every serious chapter is a dialogue
- that introduces and illustrates the
- concepts to come. These dialogues,
- usually with Achilles and the
- Tortoise, are reminiscent of Lewis
- Carroll; in fact, two of them are
- written by him. They are full of
- whimsey and contain puns, acrostics,
- fugue-like structures, nested
- stories, multi-levels of meaning and
- even an excursion into a real
- dialogue with an artificial
- intelligence program at MIT.
-
- The concepts Hofstadter deals with
- involve a rich tapestry of science,
- art, music and philosophy. Imagine a
- single book that weaves together the
- thoughts behind Bach fugues, Escher's
- drawings, formal mathematical
- systems, paradoxes and self
- reference, DNA and the genetic code,
- interactions of sub-atomic particles,
- Zen Buddhism, communications theory,
- holism versus reductionism, minds,
- brains, thoughts and consciousness,
- computer programs and languages, and
- artificial intelligence. Perhaps the
- point of all this is that complexity
- leads to paradox, and the
- complexities of consciousness can
- best be explained by indirect self
- reference and paradox.
-
- This is a fascinating book that works
- on many different levels. No prior
- mathematical background is assumed,
- but it does get somewhat bogged down
- in the middle with formal mathematics
- as it gets closer to Godel's Theorem.
- If you are intrigued by Hofstadter's
- synthesis of these various
- intellectual concepts and can work
- your way through some of the deeper
- mathematical sections (which can be
- skimmed) I think you'll find this
- book a unique pleasure.