Book Review: Gödel, Escher, Bach: an Eternal Golden Braid

 

I recently re-read Gödel, Escher, Bach: an Eternal Golden Braid, an epic book weaving the similar patterns found in mathematics, art/design, and music. First published in 1979, just a few years after the author, Douglas Hofstadter earned his PhD from the University of Oregon in 1975. I first read the Pulitzer Prize-winning book in 1983 while I was earning my PhD from the University of Illinois. So, I found it very inspiring that someone could produce such a great work early in his career.

In addition to the math of Gödel, the designs of Escher, and the music of Bach, Hofstadter includes dialogues between Tortoise and Achilles in the style of Lewis Carrol to reinforce the ideas he puts forward. He also includes a number of puzzles, discussions on computer coding, recursion (on many levels), and most interesting, artificial intelligence.