Godel, Escher, Bach (Paperback) - An Eternal Golden Braid

A scientist and mathematician explores the mystery and complexity of human thought processes from an interdisciplinary point of viewAn exploration of the patterns and symbols in the thinking of mathematician Kurt Godel, artist M. C. Escher, and composer Johann Sebastian Bach explores the nature of the links between informal systems that underlie all human cognitive activity. Reprint.G(del, Escher, Bach is a Pulitzer Prize–winning treatise exploring patterns and symbols in the thinking of mathematician Kurt G(del, artist M. C. Escher and composer Johann Sebastian Bach. A groundbreaking book that has set the standard for interdisciplinary writing. A book every thinking reader must have.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 and Bach is a wonderful exploration of fascinating ideas at the heart of cognitive science: meaning, reduction, recursion, and much more.