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kshann33's review
3.0
Holy shit....I feel equal parts smarter and dumber for Bataan death-marching myself through this. My takeaway is that there are tremendously gifted people in the world that I, heretofore and pretentiously, thought I was part of. This book made me realize I am closer to a toddler in intellect to that of the author. My brain cramped on each and every page but I applaud anyone who can get through this and say; “...makes sense.” I’m just happy to be able to finally close the book and tell other people they are missing out.
spitzig's review
4.0
Lots of topics covered here. DNA, programming, the brain, math
The title isn't quite representative of the book. It discusses Bach and Escher a lot, but they are more for the purpose of discussing Godel's Incompleteness Theorem. No powerful system can be both complete and consistent.
Some of the book was a little like a textbook. Those parts had Dialogues(like the Greek Dialogues) between them. These included puzzles. A lot of the puzzles were interesting/funny.
The title isn't quite representative of the book. It discusses Bach and Escher a lot, but they are more for the purpose of discussing Godel's Incompleteness Theorem. No powerful system can be both complete and consistent.
Some of the book was a little like a textbook. Those parts had Dialogues(like the Greek Dialogues) between them. These included puzzles. A lot of the puzzles were interesting/funny.
uhambe_nami's review
5.0
GEB has kept me busy for months, and I am still leafing through it to see whether I have missed anything. The first part, titled GEB, focuses on what Gödel, Escher and Bach had in common: a fascination with paradoxes, loops and self-reference. The second part, titled EGB, goes more into the functioning of the human brain, artificial intelligence, genetics, language, programming, and, well, a lot more. Even though it was written decades ago, the chapters related to computer science and programming languages are still relevant. Clever, fascinating and surprisingly funny, GEB is a book that I would recommend to anyone who likes reading about mathematics, logic and science.
cutearwen's review
challenging
informative
reflective
slow-paced
1) Good book for a book club, one or even 1/2 of a chapter a week, can’t imagine reading it alone
2) Lots of thought-provoking points about intelligence, we had really great discussions with friends
3) The author is super full of himself
4) No way Pulitzer prize committee finished it
2) Lots of thought-provoking points about intelligence, we had really great discussions with friends
3) The author is super full of himself
4) No way Pulitzer prize committee finished it