About this title: First published in 1979, this is a genuine interdisciplinary work of nonfiction, with dozens of historical references and subtexts. Critics and reviewers have summed up its meaning in varying ways, yet consistently with praise. A mixture of art, philosophy, music, math, technology, and cognitive science, the book's title only reflects one aspect ...
read more
Note: This is a general synopsis. Each listing is described below.
Edition: Vintage Books ed.
Binding: Trade paperback
Publisher: Vintage Books, New York
Date Published: 1980
ISBN-13:9780394745022ISBN:0394745027
Description: Very good. No dust jacket as issued. Clean, tight, square, with uncreased spine. Cover edges slightly curled and worn. Text block edges faintly tanned. Glued binding. 777 p. 23 cm. Contains: 152 illustrations. Audience: General/trade. read more
Edition: Vintage Books ed.
Binding: Trade paperback
Publisher: Vintage Books USA
Date Published: 1979
ISBN-13:9780394745022ISBN:0394745027
Description: Very good. No dust jacket as issued. Cover has minor wear, no folds or creases, pages are clean and unmarked. Trade paperback (US). Glued binding. 777 p. Audience: General/trade. read more
Edition: Vintage Books ed.
Binding: Trade paperback
Publisher: Vintage Books USA
Date Published: 1980
ISBN-13:9780394745022ISBN:0394745027
Description: Good. No dust jacket as issued. Softcover book in good condition, cover wear, spots on page deck. Trade paperback (US). Glued binding. 777 p. Audience: General/trade. read more
Binding: Trade paperback
Publisher: Vintage Books USA
Date Published: 1980
ISBN-13:9780394745022ISBN:0394745027
Description: Good. No dust jacket as issued. Highlighting/underlining. Lower outside corner water damage. No odor. Yellow Used sticker on spine. Trade paperback (US). Glued binding. 777 p. Chapter notes; bibliography; index. 6.5x9.25in. B&W photos; diagrams; mathematical formulae. Audience: General/trade. Pulitzer Prize Winner: cover, " A metaphorical fugue on minds and machines in the spirit of Lewis Carroll". Reviewed as innovative, wondrous, a sprawling literary marvel, challenging, valuable, and ... read more
Binding: Paperback
Publisher: Vintage
Date Published: 1980-09-12
ISBN-13:9780394745022ISBN:0394745027
Description: Good. This copy states: Vintage Books Edition, September 1980 which is in very good condition. No visible markings, highlights, underlining, tears to text. Tight spine. Pages are sunned, this is due to age. No Dust Jacket. Top/Bottom of back Soft Cover has a light greyish mark with a crease to top spine. Minimum shelf/edge wear. Good reading copy, worth having at an affordable price. (L13-5) read more
Description: Very good. 613-Definition of conditions: New = Perfect like buying off the shelf at new bookstore; Like New = Very close to perfect; Very Good = Great shape perhaps with mild wear/creasing/bend; Good = Good reading copy with wear/creasing/bend, etc.; Acceptable = Much wear. May have loose binding or tear. Perfectly readable condition, but not pretty. read more
Binding: Softcover
Publisher: New York: Vintage Books, 1979
ISBN-13:9780394745022ISBN:0394745027
Description: Octavo, softcover, large. Corner curl and light edgewear, pages starting to brown else VG. A metaphorical fugue on minds and machines in the spirit of Lewis Carroll. Winner of the PUlitzer Prize. 777 pgs with index. read more
Edition: First edition. Vintage Books edition, V502.
Binding: Trade paperback
Publisher: Vintage Books USA
Date Published: 1980
ISBN-13:9780394745022ISBN:0394745027
Description: Very good. No dust jacket as issued. Single 5-in. back corner cover crease. Age-toning to paper edges. Trade paperback (US), 6x9.25in. Gold and Black glossy paper covers; white titles. Glued binding. 777 p. Bibliography. Index. Audience: General/trade. Pulitzer Prize Award. Metamathematics; Symmetry; Artificial Intelligence. Published first in 1979 by Basic Books, Inc. Overview to each chapter follows Contents. List of Illustrations. Word of Thanks, D.R.H., Bloomington and Stanford, January, ... read more
Description: Very Good. Truly very good large 1980 softcover, as pictured, no marks, no spine creases, clean, bright, square, tight, very reliable shipper(shelf#2223) read more
Binding: Paperback
Publisher: Vintage
Date Published: 1980-09-12
ISBN-13:9780394745022ISBN:0394745027
Description: Great Condition. Softcover, Great Condition, clean/unmarked textblock, tight binding, some edge/cover wear, from a private collection. read more
"This isn't for everyone, but you get some serious nerd credibility for reading this I think. I really enjoyed the first half and would have given that five stars, but the second half seems to me to beat the reader over the head with its point. The book covers a lot of topics in science and math, often with analogies using fugues, Escher's art, and Hofstadter's own dialogues (which are an entertaining supplement to the main text).
Hofstadter suggests that "strange loops" or "tangled hierarchies" are at the root of all intelligence. He gives several examples: the interrelationships between DNA and proteins, variations on the Epimenides paradox ("This sentence is false"), and pretty much everything M.C. Escher ever did. He ties these things together, and spends a lot of the latter half of the book focusing on artificial intelligence (which he researches).
Overall, I'd say Hofstadter is a skillful and entertaining writer. There is a lot of wordplay, especially in his dialogues, that is unbelievably clever. I literally looked up a few of the names and facts that he uses because I didn't think they could be set up that perfectly to work for him, and they all checked out. Between the writing style and the variety of topics, which were mostly interesting to me, I found the 700 pages went by pretty quickly."
"GEB: EGB is basically an exploration of the idea of intelligence, artificial and otherwise. Hofstader's goal is to shed some light on how intelligence / consciousness / self-awareness happens. Hofstader believes that self-awareness -- the "I" -- ultimately arises from recursion. To put it very simply, at the highest levels the brain is a system that deals with symbols, and the "I" is the symbol for the system itself.
There is much, much more to this book. There are lengthy tangents into mathematics, philosophy, biology (the section about the recursion that takes place in the copying of DNA is particularly fascination), etc.
Thankfully the book is organized into sections that alternate between straight exposition of some concept and a fictional dialogue that illustrates the concept. Still, it's not light reading, and I did wish at points that there was a Reader's Digest version that would just give me the main points without going off on a tangent for 30 pages about wasps or something.
Godel, Escher, Bach made me rethink a lot of my preconceptions about consciousness and artificial intelligence, and is well worth reading the next time you have three months to spare."
"This book took me over 6 months to read. Not because I'm a slow reader, but because this book warrents that kind of time and devotion. I found my self going back and re-reading sections, sometimes whole chapters. The book builds on itself, making it nesissary to understand and absorb all the material fully before moving on.
That being said, Hofstadter is such a good writer and teacher, and has such a good understanding of just how difficult the subject matter in GEB is, that the book doesn't seem to feel like a burden. The deeper you get, the more and more you want to see where it is all going, and it's well worth the effort.
A lot of people ask what this book is about? My answer, is.. what isn't it about? GEB touches on everything from music, art, science, mathmatics, artificial intelegence, etc. In the end, it ties all these things together with what it means to be a conscious being observing and manipulating the world around us. It's analytical, philosophical, and spiritual all in one book. Whichever angle you choose to approach GEB, you are bound to learn something and come away with new and exciting ideas."
"This book offers substantial insight into formal systems and gives an overview of how they have manifested themselves in various disciplines in Western history. The reason I am still reading it is that it is pretty long. I find myself constantly wondering if it could have been shortened.
One issue I am having is that the approach doesn't work as well for art as it does for music and mathematics. I don't think Escher will ever have the status in art history that Bach did in music and Goedel did in logic. For all his technical skill and trippiness, his work has a certain coldness to it and it did not really engage any issues in art history that I am aware of. It would be interesting if the author had chosen something like mathematical perspective in the art department. It is possible, however, that art just doesn't lend itself to the same kind of abstraction that music and math do.
Nonetheless, I got a lot out of the sections on math and music. The TNT thing is pretty cool. And I started to really appreciate Bach along the way. I could have done without the sections with Achilles, Tortoise, and Co. It was clever, but awkward."
We guarantee every item's condition, as described on Alibris. If you are not satisfied that an item is as described, return your purchase for a refund.
rating
