Joined: Wed Oct 27, 2004 12:03 am Posts: 18376 Location: outta space Gender: Male
I've just started reading this book. I've never read an 700+ page book, hopefully I'll make it through. Has anyone else read this?
wikipedia wrote:
Gödel, Escher, Bach: an Eternal Golden Braid (commonly GEB) is a Pulitzer Prize-winning book by Douglas Hofstadter, [1] described by the author as "a metaphorical fugue on minds and machines in the spirit of Lewis Carroll".[2] On its surface, GEB examines logician Kurt Gödel, artist M. C. Escher and composer Johann Sebastian Bach, discussing common themes in their work and lives. At a deeper level, the book is a detailed and subtle exposition of concepts fundamental to mathematics, symmetry, and intelligence. Through illustration and analysis, the book discusses how self-reference and formal rules allow systems to acquire meaning despite being made of "meaningless" elements. It also discusses what it means to communicate, how knowledge can be represented and stored, the methods and limitations of symbolic representation, and even the fundamental notion of "meaning" itself. In response to confusion over the book's theme, Hoftstadter has emphasized that GEB is not about mathematics, art, and music but rather about how cognition and thinking emerge from well-hidden neurological mechanisms. In the book, he presents an analogy about how the individual neurons of the brain coordinate to create a unified sense of a coherent mind by comparing it to the social organization displayed in a colony of ants.[3][4]
_________________
thodoks wrote:
Man, they really will give anyone an internet connection these days.
Joined: Sun Oct 17, 2004 12:47 am Posts: 46000 Location: Reasonville
ants are pretty amazing creatures.
_________________ No matter how dark the storm gets overhead They say someone's watching from the calm at the edge What about us when we're down here in it? We gotta watch our backs
Joined: Wed Oct 27, 2004 12:03 am Posts: 18376 Location: outta space Gender: Male
punkdavid wrote:
I didn't read the whole thing, but I own that book. It's pretty great. Bring weed.
i had a feeling you'd have the book (I actually thought you'd be the one RMer to respond in this thread), but i would have expected you to finish it. still *high five*
_________________
thodoks wrote:
Man, they really will give anyone an internet connection these days.
Joined: Sun Oct 17, 2004 12:47 am Posts: 46000 Location: Reasonville
windedsailor wrote:
corduroy_blazer wrote:
ants are pretty amazing creatures.
no they are not
wait, what?
_________________ No matter how dark the storm gets overhead They say someone's watching from the calm at the edge What about us when we're down here in it? We gotta watch our backs
Users browsing this forum: No registered users and 3 guests
You cannot post new topics in this forum You cannot reply to topics in this forum You cannot edit your posts in this forum You cannot delete your posts in this forum You cannot post attachments in this forum