Gödel, Escher, Bach: An Eternal Golden Braid

Description

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. Preface to 20th-anniversary Edition Contents I Contents II Overview List of Illustrations Words of Thanks Part I: GEB Introduction: A Musico-Logical Offering Three-Part Invention Chapter I: The MU-puzzle Two-Part Invention Chapter II: Meaning and Form in Mathematics Sonata for Unaccompanied Achilles Chapter III: Figure and Ground Contracrostipunctus Chapter IV: Consistency, Completeness, and Geometry Little Harmonic Labyrinth Chapter V: Recursive Structures and Processes Canonby Intervallic Augmentation Chapter VI: The Location of Meaning Chromatic Fantasy, And Feud Chapter VII: The Propositional Calculus Crab Canon Chapter VIII: Typographical Number Theory A Mu Offering Chapter IX: Mumon and Godel Part II: EGB Prelude ... Chapter X: Levels of Description, and Computer Systems ... Ant Fugue Chapter XI: Brains and Thoughts English French German Suite Chapter XII: Minds and Thoughts Aria with Diverse Variations Chapter XIII: BlooP and FlooP and GlooP Air on G's String Chapter XIV: On Formally Undecidable Propositions of TNT and Related Systems Birthday Cantatatata ... Chapter XV: Jumping out of the System Edifying Thoughts of a Tobacco Smoker Chapter XVI: Self-Ref and Self-Rep The Magnificrab, Indeed Chapter XVII: Church, Turing, Tarski, and Others SHRDLU, Toy of Man’s Designing Chapter XVIII: Artificial Intelligence: Retrospects Contrafactus Chapter XIX: Artificial Intelligence: Prospects Sloth Canon Chapter XX: Strange Loops, Or Tangled Hierarchies Six-Part Ricercar Notes Bibliography Credits Index