Godel, Escher, Bach: An Eternal Golden BraidWinner of the Pulitzer Prize A metaphorical fugue on minds and machines in the spirit of Lewis Carroll 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, Bach is a wonderful exploration of fascinating ideas at the heart of cognitive science: meaning, reduction, recursion, and much more. |
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Achilles answer Anteater axiom Babbage Bach BlooP Bongard problem brain Buddha-nature called cell Chapter chess chunked Church-Turing Thesis complex concepts course Crab Canon Dialogue enzyme Epimenides paradox Eta Oin example fact FIGURE FlooP formal system formula fugue geometry Gödel number Gödel's Theorem happens human idea infinite inside instance intelligence interpretation involves isomorphism kind kōan look M. C. Escher machine language mathematicians mathematics meaning mind MIU-system Musical Offering natural numbers neurons notion number theory paradox patterns perhaps piece play pq-system procedure proof Propositional Calculus proteins question reason record player recursive ribosome rules seems self-reference self-rep sense sentence SHRDLU simple smart-stupid statement Strange Loops string structure symbols tell theme things thought tion Tony Earrwig Tortoise translation triggering true Turing Typogenetics typographical understand words