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4.32 AVERAGE
4.32 AVERAGE
WOW! I finished it. I think I deserve a cookie.
I'll be honest, I struggled with this book. It was a good struggle though, one I hope has improved me. I started out really enjoying playing with the number sets, but that got old after a couple of chapters. I think spending more time on this book and rereading segments would be a good idea.
The point seems to be that if a system becomes sufficiently complex to be self referential and self replicating or at least self editing, then intelligence follows from that. This is way outside of my frame of knowledge, but I guess it makes some sense. I'm willing to consider myself a strange-loop.
The author uses many examples of complexity to illustrate his point. From number theory to DNA and proteins, from an ant colony to the human brain, and ultimately artificial intelligence.
This book is well written and I really enjoyed the humor, but it never fully engaged me. Overall I did enjoy it and I'm glad I read it.
I'll be honest, I struggled with this book. It was a good struggle though, one I hope has improved me. I started out really enjoying playing with the number sets, but that got old after a couple of chapters. I think spending more time on this book and rereading segments would be a good idea.
The point seems to be that if a system becomes sufficiently complex to be self referential and self replicating or at least self editing, then intelligence follows from that. This is way outside of my frame of knowledge, but I guess it makes some sense. I'm willing to consider myself a strange-loop.
The author uses many examples of complexity to illustrate his point. From number theory to DNA and proteins, from an ant colony to the human brain, and ultimately artificial intelligence.
This book is well written and I really enjoyed the humor, but it never fully engaged me. Overall I did enjoy it and I'm glad I read it.
One of the densest books I've ever read. I'd be lying if I said I understood all of it, but the flashes of insight I had were very rewarding. A fun little mental challenge before I inevitably go back to reading Viking fiction.
challenging
funny
informative
inspiring
slow-paced
Someday I will be smart enough to fully understand this book. Until then, I am content with being smart enough to act like I understood this book.
Fascinating book that I've tried to read MANY times, but it boggles my mind and I have to put it aside only to try again after a few years. I think I'm on my fifth attempt.
informative
medium-paced
What must have been through Hofstadter's head:
"Fourth walls are completely unnecessary, I'll just go ahead and smash it to bits.
Indirectly, of course."
So, if you're considering this book, be forewarned that it is long. And slow at many parts. Definitely not easy reading.
But it was brilliant nonetheless.
Being 16 years old, let me say that a great deal of this book went right over my head. I'm probably not even qualified to be writing this review. In fact, after struggling for ages through a particularly difficult chapter in the middle, I asked myself why I was putting myself through all of this and just skipped to the next dialogue (which for me, were the highlights of the story; the sugary treats I could finally have after a week of hard non-fiction). And since everything in the book is intertwined and helps explain other parts of the book, I did end up skipping, er, let's just say more than one part.
Therefore, it's probably a good idea for potential readers to have a working knowledge of at least some of the following: music theory, computer programming, the brain, math/logic terminology, and DNA/genetics. While Hofstadter explains all of it, he throws it at you way too fast for a beginner to absorb it all. (The fact that the only topic on which I am competent is music probably gives you an idea of how much frustration and chapter-skipping I went through.)
GEB is set up in the format of a dialogue (featuring Achilles, Tortoise, and co.) preceding each chapter that helps to illustrate the content of the chapter. This was a format that worked well to help me understand it, while also giving me much giddiness when discovering the hidden parts of the dialogue.
Now, onto the actual review: I loved it. This book covers such a ridiculous range of topics, going off on tangents all the time, and is much more than How Godel Escher and Bach Are Related To Life. If I had to pick a subject, I'd say it was Artificial Intelligence, but, well, it is also about strange loops and self-reference and zen koans and thinking about thinking and translating and Bongard Problems, just to mention a few topics. I learned a lot. The author's enthusiasm for even the most obscure stuff is contagious.
Upon reading some of the other reviews: yes, parts of it were show-off-y, and yes, it could have been 200 pages shorter, yes, his prose can get really dry at points, but I, for one, never got tired of the intricate and clever ways he put things together and tied them up. The very last dialogue was especially excellent and hilarious in terms of what I can only describe as plotting: referencing AI, the Turing Test, the illustrious Ba. Ch., previous dialogues, doing the best job of breaking the fourth wall ever, and tying it up by putting it into the format of the Musical Offering and therefore relating it back to the beginning, giving the wonderful, contented feeling of having returned to the tonic at last.
After lugging this book around for several months...to get to the end was almost sad for me. It's taken so long it's almost become a permanent fixture in my life. So in a way, I'm almost glad I didn't understand parts of the book. It just means that once I've finished my grade 11 bio class' genetics unit, I can flip back to that chapter and understand more of it. Or pick it back up in several years and maybe see it in a new light.
"Fourth walls are completely unnecessary, I'll just go ahead and smash it to bits.
Indirectly, of course."
So, if you're considering this book, be forewarned that it is long. And slow at many parts. Definitely not easy reading.
But it was brilliant nonetheless.
Being 16 years old, let me say that a great deal of this book went right over my head. I'm probably not even qualified to be writing this review. In fact, after struggling for ages through a particularly difficult chapter in the middle, I asked myself why I was putting myself through all of this and just skipped to the next dialogue (which for me, were the highlights of the story; the sugary treats I could finally have after a week of hard non-fiction). And since everything in the book is intertwined and helps explain other parts of the book, I did end up skipping, er, let's just say more than one part.
Therefore, it's probably a good idea for potential readers to have a working knowledge of at least some of the following: music theory, computer programming, the brain, math/logic terminology, and DNA/genetics. While Hofstadter explains all of it, he throws it at you way too fast for a beginner to absorb it all. (The fact that the only topic on which I am competent is music probably gives you an idea of how much frustration and chapter-skipping I went through.)
GEB is set up in the format of a dialogue (featuring Achilles, Tortoise, and co.) preceding each chapter that helps to illustrate the content of the chapter. This was a format that worked well to help me understand it, while also giving me much giddiness when discovering the hidden parts of the dialogue.
Now, onto the actual review: I loved it. This book covers such a ridiculous range of topics, going off on tangents all the time, and is much more than How Godel Escher and Bach Are Related To Life. If I had to pick a subject, I'd say it was Artificial Intelligence, but, well, it is also about strange loops and self-reference and zen koans and thinking about thinking and translating and Bongard Problems, just to mention a few topics. I learned a lot. The author's enthusiasm for even the most obscure stuff is contagious.
Upon reading some of the other reviews: yes, parts of it were show-off-y, and yes, it could have been 200 pages shorter, yes, his prose can get really dry at points, but I, for one, never got tired of the intricate and clever ways he put things together and tied them up. The very last dialogue was especially excellent and hilarious in terms of what I can only describe as plotting: referencing AI, the Turing Test, the illustrious Ba. Ch., previous dialogues, doing the best job of breaking the fourth wall ever, and tying it up by putting it into the format of the Musical Offering and therefore relating it back to the beginning, giving the wonderful, contented feeling of having returned to the tonic at last.
After lugging this book around for several months...to get to the end was almost sad for me. It's taken so long it's almost become a permanent fixture in my life. So in a way, I'm almost glad I didn't understand parts of the book. It just means that once I've finished my grade 11 bio class' genetics unit, I can flip back to that chapter and understand more of it. Or pick it back up in several years and maybe see it in a new light.
Kind of meandering, actually, but a brilliant book in the end. Talks about some really universal truths and mindbenders.
Wow, this book is a work of art. It might as well be my bible. I like reading through and reciting my favorite passages, thinking about the profundity of its strange ideas and Hofstadter's clever writing – but Jesus, I'm probably never going to read it front to back ever again. It's super long and winding and a bit dated. But I still really enjoyed it, and I'll keep looking back at it in chunks. I highly recommend this if you're interested in cognitive science, computing, philosophy, math, puzzles, and Lewis Carroll. I also think you'll enjoy GEB if you like reading the same page over and over again until it makes sense. The only things that really bug me: the misinterpretation of John Cage's work, the out-of-place inclusion of Zen philosophy, the longwinded and confusing explanations of every mathematical concept, the fact that Hofstadter had to explicitly explain what the book was about 20 years later in the anniversary edition preface,.....
For future reference, my favorite chapters were Recursive Structures and Processes, Levels of Description and Computer Systems, Brains and Thoughts, Minds and Thoughts, BlooP and FlooP and GlooP, and Artificial Intelligence: Retrospects. And my favorite dialogues were Prelude and Ant Fugue (these two are absolutely genius), Contracrostipunctus, Little Harmonic Labyrinth, and Six-Part Ricercar.
For future reference, my favorite chapters were Recursive Structures and Processes, Levels of Description and Computer Systems, Brains and Thoughts, Minds and Thoughts, BlooP and FlooP and GlooP, and Artificial Intelligence: Retrospects. And my favorite dialogues were Prelude and Ant Fugue (these two are absolutely genius), Contracrostipunctus, Little Harmonic Labyrinth, and Six-Part Ricercar.
This is one of the most gleefully inventive and insightful things I've ever read. It's a complete mind fuck through and through. Words fail me here... if you're interested in consciousness, please read this.