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Godel, Escher, Bach: An Eternal Golden Braid (20th anniversary edition with a new preface by the author) | 
 enlarge | Author: Douglas R Hofstadter
Publisher: Penguin
Category: Book
List Price: £18.99
Buy New: £13.29
You Save: £5.70 (30%)
New (12) Used (6) from £11.91
Rating:  22 reviews
Sales Rank: 3793
Media: Paperback
Edition: 20Anniversary Ed
Pages: 824
Shipping Weight (lbs): 2.4
Dimensions (in): 9.1 x 6.1 x 1.6
ISBN: 0140289208
Dewey Decimal Number: 153
EAN: 9780140289206
ASIN: 0140289208
Publication Date: March 30, 2000
Availability: Usually dispatched within 24 hours
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Amazon.co.uk Review
Twenty years after it topped the bestseller charts, Douglas R Hofstadter's Gödel, Escher, Bach: An Eternal Golden Braid is still something of a marvel. Besides being a profound and entertaining meditation on human thought and creativity, this book looks at the surprising points of contact between the music of Bach, the artwork of Escher, and the mathematics of Gödel. It also looks at the prospects for computers and artificial intelligence (AI) for mimicking human thought. For the general reader and the computer techie alike, this book still sets a standard for thinking about the future of computers and their relation to the way we think. Hofstadter's great achievement in Gödel, Escher, Bach was making abstruse mathematical topics (such as undecidability, recursion, and "strange loops") accessible and remarkably entertaining. Borrowing a page from Lewis Carroll (who might well have been a fan of this book), each chapter presents dialogue between the Tortoise and Achilles, as well as other characters who dramatise concepts discussed later in more detail. Allusions to Bach's music (centring on his Musical Offering) and Escher's continually paradoxical artwork are plentiful here. This more approachable material lets the author delve into serious number theory (concentrating on the ramifications of Gödel's Theorem of Incompleteness) while stopping along the way to ponder the work of a host of other mathematicians, artists, and thinkers. The world has moved on since 1979, of course. The book predicted that computers probably won't ever beat humans in chess, though Deep Blue beat Garry Kasparov in 1997. And the vinyl record, which serves for some of Hofstadter's best analogies, is now left to collectors. Sections on recursion and the graphs of certain functions from physics look tantalising, like the fractals of recent chaos theory. And AI has moved on, of course, with mixed results. Yet Gödel, Escher, Bach remains a remarkable achievement. Its intellectual range and ability to let us visualise difficult mathematical concepts help make it one of this century's best for anyone who's interested in computers and their potential for real intelligence. --Richard Dragan
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| Customer Reviews: Read 17 more reviews...
 Fantastically in-depth, whilst still light enough to enjoy reading if you don't understand it all! October 13, 2008
T. Gregory (England)
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
I have to admit that this book was sitting on my bookshelf for a while before I started reading it. In fact, I think it was about three years (I hadn't heard of the book's reputation, and so wasn't aware that I shouldn't have been intimidated). Once I got going, however, it was immensely enjoyable. The book covers a wide range of topics (number theory, art, consciousness and so on...), all of which are beautifully intertwined, as the title suggests. Some of the maths is pretty heavy going, I can't claim to have fully understood it on a single read, and I didn't do as the book suggested and worked through some of the examples (which would undoubtedly have made later ideas easier to understand), but even so, there is so much else in the book that it really doesn't matter. Different chapters tend to deal with different themes, so maths doesn't enter them all, and all are preceded by a dialogue which sets up the theme and keeps the mood light. These are beautifully crafted, with many hidden meanings, and, once again, probably require several reads to spot all the layers of meaning (however, a single read will illuminate several of these). The dialogues are so well-written, in fact, that they really kept me reading, as I was determined to plow through some of the heavier stuff to get to the next one.
Overall, I thoroughly enjoyed reading this book and look forward to coming back to it at some point in the future to see what else I can get out of it.
 This will make you think August 29, 2008
BillyM (London)
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
Like no other book I've read before, Godel, Escher, Bach really made me think. An incredibly clever author, dealing with hard to explain issues (- consciousness and identity primarily), Hofstadter still manages to keep the reader interested and entertained (mostly) throughout. Having said that, it's not an easy read or a relaxing read- I felt like I'd been put through a gruelling mental workout after most chapters. But... no pain, no gain I suppose, as the rewards are well worth it in the end.
Engaging and mind bending December 30, 2007
Theis Egeberg (Denmark)
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
Even though it is old, it still holds all its qualities intact. To me it is the bible of everything that begins with "meta". It hovers elegantly around so many subjects and still ties them together into self-reference and I doubt anyone can help but be charmed. The challenges are put forward in such a playful manner that only the crankiest stick in the stickiest mud could not help but swaying their way. But be warned - it does take an effort - and all other books will feel both easy, shallow and... well... literally light by comparison.
A great intro to some profound mathematics August 1, 2007
Matthew Ives (UK, London)
2 out of 2 found this review helpful
I read this when it was published back in '79 and it helped inspire me to more fully understand the massive achievments of Kurt Godel and his quite astonishing incompletness theorem.
For the casual reader, this is a wonderful book that will inspire you and give you a glimpse into the unsettling world of axiomatic set theory and it's uncany relationship to the music of Bach and the artistry of Esher.
Do buy this edition! June 19, 2007
Mr. G. Sexton (UK)
4 out of 4 found this review helpful
A wonderful book well worth reading.
I feel obliged to note that, contrary to a previous review, the book supplied to me had not lost '...the aesthetic appeal the previous editions had'. In fact, the paper quality was not '...really bad', but rather good, and the pages were certainly not '...almost transparent'. The book's size is very similar to a previous edition I have encountered and the margins are not smaller than they should be. I really cannot find fault with this edition of the book and strongly recommend that you buy a copy.
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