Winner of the Pulitzer Prize
A metaphorical fugue on minds and machines in the spirit of Lewis
Carroll
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.