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hrisood 's review for:
Gödel, Escher, Bach: An Eternal Golden Braid
by Douglas R. Hofstadter
It is too difficult in a review to do justice to a book that is so sprawling in topics and ideas, rigorous and yet so creative. I feel the illustration below by the author captures some of the essence of the book though:
"Figure 83 is a picture which can be interpreted on two levels. On one level, it is a sentence pointing at itself; on the other level, it is a picture of Epimenides executing his own death sentence."
This excerpt deals with one of the fundamental concepts of the book, self-referential paradoxes, which are at the centre of Gödel's Incompleteness Theorem, used in discussions of intelligence and consciousness. The illustration and caption also serve as an example of the creativity and humour of Hofstadter. If you find this remotely funny, I believe you will find the dialogues introducing each chapter amusing. However, developing the toolkit for understanding Gödel's Incompleteness Theorem isn't exactly a laugh riot. While needing no formal mathematical background, it is a formal thinking exercise comprising a decent chunk of the book. I think the current top rated review is a fair indicator for whether to invest the time or not. I would add though that regardless of total understanding, there are many interesting (or perhaps not, if you just wanted the central thesis of the book) discussions. Hofstadter loves to expand on examples and tangential points; language, Zen Buddhism, DNA and ant colonies to name several. Though acting as examples to a grander point, they offer interesting ideas to consider even in isolation. GEB is a truly thought provoking book. 5 stars.
"Figure 83 is a picture which can be interpreted on two levels. On one level, it is a sentence pointing at itself; on the other level, it is a picture of Epimenides executing his own death sentence."
This excerpt deals with one of the fundamental concepts of the book, self-referential paradoxes, which are at the centre of Gödel's Incompleteness Theorem, used in discussions of intelligence and consciousness. The illustration and caption also serve as an example of the creativity and humour of Hofstadter. If you find this remotely funny, I believe you will find the dialogues introducing each chapter amusing. However, developing the toolkit for understanding Gödel's Incompleteness Theorem isn't exactly a laugh riot. While needing no formal mathematical background, it is a formal thinking exercise comprising a decent chunk of the book. I think the current top rated review is a fair indicator for whether to invest the time or not. I would add though that regardless of total understanding, there are many interesting (or perhaps not, if you just wanted the central thesis of the book) discussions. Hofstadter loves to expand on examples and tangential points; language, Zen Buddhism, DNA and ant colonies to name several. Though acting as examples to a grander point, they offer interesting ideas to consider even in isolation. GEB is a truly thought provoking book. 5 stars.