Is your brain actually an anthill? (Godel, Escher, Bach - D. Hofstadter)

Member Name: mpeh

Product:	Godel, Escher, Bach - D. Hofstadter
Date:	01/10/01 (101 review reads)
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Hofstadter is primarily (or was primarily) a researcher in artificial intelligence (he's gone on to do psychology, anthropology and much translating work). He has written a number of books and this was, I believe, his first and is, of the ones I've read, his best. The basic topic of the book is that of consciousness, what defines a consciousness and at what point does a system become conscious? Taking as his first premise Godel's theory of incompleteness Hofstadter proceeds to lead us through a host of complex concepts and ideas working towards his arguments climax. Kurt Godel was a mathematician concerned with logic and logical systems in the 1950's (I think) and Godel's theorem (the one we're concerned with) is that 'any logical system sufficiently sophisticated to talk about itself is incomplete by virtue of being infinite'. It takes Hofstadter a long time to lead up to this and so I cannot explain it here but basically it is a concept about self reference. If you are able to truly refer to yourself then you are conscious forms the basis of Hofstadter's argument.

Hofstadter embraces the concept of strange loops (or Godelian loops) an idea a bit like Escher's continual staircases or never ending waterfalls and also paralleled with Bachs ever rising canon. He argues that consciousness is a system of strange loops and that the two concepts are inseparable.

The book actually starts with J. S. Bach and the way his music was structured. One of the things that makes this book so good is the fact that Hofstadter puts in lots and lots of other information. Everything is presented in an easy to follow way and so the main issues never become confused. So there is a snippet of Bach's life as a kind of introduction and some details about musical structure and composition. The richness of knowledge in this book and the level of detail Hofstadter incorporates makes it a brilliant read. We're taken from Bach and
the way he wrote his music into the realms of logical structure and completeness via teh ancient Greeks and Lewis Carroll.

Each chapter is followed by a mock Carrollian dialogue. Lewis Carroll (Thomas Dodgson) once wrote a whimsical dialogue between Achilles and the Tortoise in his typical flippant and satirical way and here Hofstadter copies the form and also introduces two more characters (well only two usually) Mr Crab and the anteater. He uses each dialogue to explain or emphasise (or both) the points made in the previous chapter. This has two effects, firstly it clarifies many of his points and makes them easier to understand and apply to real thought adn secondly it supplies a break to the relatively hard going of the factual prose. The dialogues are designed to be entertaining and comedic and will definitely make you laugh and think in a different way to the main text, which in itself clarifies things for you.

The book explores many themes, examining the way Escher's pictures have multi level self reference and the complexities of Bach's music as well as gradually explaining Godel's theorem and then applying it to artificial intelligence and consciousness. We learn about eh physical make up of teh brain and the way neurons may work together on different levels, each 'unaware' of what it is doing but as a sytem allowing conscious thought and self reference. The book isn't really about the three people of the title it is more about the way that consciousness affects everything we do and are and then uses the work of these people as examples. You could say that the book is about Hofsadter's argument from Godelian loops to consciousness but this would be doing it a disservice; it is about so much more than that. No matter who you are and whatever your field of 'expertise' this book will teach you something. It will open your mind to a new way of looking at something, if not everything it covers.

Hof
stadter's style is so flowing and gentle that yoy almost feel he is talking to you. This is an author who, almost definitely, writes the same way he talks and as such is easy to understand, sympathise with and to be enthralled by.

After leading us to Godel's theorem in such a gentle way that even I could understand it (and that is saying something this is a complex mathematical logic result) Hofstadter goes on to apply it to consciousness. Then he starts to pull apart his own argument from teh inside adn offers us many examples of artificial intelligence along teh way. This book was written in 1971 I think and as such is slightly out of date. At one point Hofstadter predicts that no machine will ever beat teh world champion at chess- deep blue won that one a few years ago unfortunately. However things like this just don't matter, they offer a view on artificial intelligence research twenty years ago which in itself is an interesting issue. The joy of this book is the way he tackles the topics he talks about. Each is pulled apart and explained in a way that doesn't go too slowly. There are some science books written for the lay person as it were that take things so slowly you get fed up with them but here Hofstadter works so much into his text that you're never going 'yes I've got the point move on'.

There is so much covered by the book that I could make this op go on and on, hopefully what has come voer here is my enthusiasm for the work and the way he imparts knowledge to you the reader. I really think that almopst everyone out there would enjoy this book. It is for teh faint hearted, you don't have to be a maths or computer nerd to enjoy it and it is written in such an elegant way you'll be sorry when it's over. If I've made one of you read this then it's a successful op.

Cheers, Matt.

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