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 Post subject: book: gödel escher bach
PostPosted: Tue Sep 09, 2008 9:35 am 
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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]

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 Post subject: Re: book: gödel escher bach
PostPosted: Tue Sep 09, 2008 3:22 pm 
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it won a pulitzer prize, that must be worth something. this better not turn out like the fall thread

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 Post subject: Re: book: gödel escher bach
PostPosted: Tue Sep 09, 2008 8:11 pm 
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ants are pretty amazing creatures.

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 Post subject: Re: book: gödel escher bach
PostPosted: Thu Sep 11, 2008 6:18 am 
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corduroy_blazer wrote:
ants are pretty amazing creatures.

no they are not

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 Post subject: Re: book: gödel escher bach
PostPosted: Thu Sep 11, 2008 7:24 am 
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I didn't read the whole thing, but I own that book. It's pretty great. Bring weed.

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 Post subject: Re: book: gödel escher bach
PostPosted: Thu Sep 11, 2008 8:07 am 
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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*

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 Post subject: Re: book: gödel escher bach
PostPosted: Thu Sep 11, 2008 7:50 pm 
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windedsailor wrote:
corduroy_blazer wrote:
ants are pretty amazing creatures.

no they are not

wait, what?

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 Post subject: Re: book: gödel escher bach
PostPosted: Thu Sep 11, 2008 7:53 pm 
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Really interesting book but my mind melted too before I reached the end.

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 Post subject: Re: book: gödel escher bach
PostPosted: Thu Sep 11, 2008 9:14 pm 
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corduroy_blazer wrote:
windedsailor wrote:
corduroy_blazer wrote:
ants are pretty amazing creatures.

no they are not

wait, what?

blew your mind didn't i

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 Post subject: Re: book: gödel escher bach
PostPosted: Thu Sep 11, 2008 9:14 pm 
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FloydTheBarber wrote:
Really interesting book but my mind melted too before I reached the end.


yeah I sense this beginning.

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