Godel, Escher, Bach: An Eternal Golden Braid

"A brilliant, creative, and very personal synthesis without precedent or peer in modern literature." - The American Mathematical Monthly

Winner 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.

"A huge, sprawling literary marvel, a philosophy book disguised as a book of entertainment disguised as a book of instruction." - Atlanta Journal-Constitution