Gödel, Escher, Bach (1979) (edit title/settings)

Ridiculously Simplified Synopsis edit see section history

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Characters/People edit see section history

• Godel Escher Bach: Add a description of this character.
• Achilles
• M. C. Escher: Graphic artist know for his "regular divisions of the plane" and other mathematically interesting works of art.
• Mr. Crab: A crab who is a character in several of the dialogues of the book.
• Mr. Tortoise: The central character, together with Achilles, in many of the dialogues of the book.
• Dr. Tony Earrwig: An AI specialist in one of the dialogues; based on Terry Winograd.
• Charles Babbage: The builder of the first programmable computer, the Analytic Engine, in the nineteenth century. He appears in the final dialogue of the book.
• Lucas: A (real) philosopher who uses Gödel and related thinkers as an argument against the possibility of Artificial Intelligence actually approaching human levels. Hofstadter argues against his interpretation.
• M. Bongard: A scientist studying pattern recognition. His work is referred to in one chapter of the book, which features examples of "Bongard puzzles".
• Aunt Hillary: A "character" in one of the dialogues.
• Mumon: Zen Buddhist figure who is referred to in the book.
• Zeno: The 5th century BC Greek philosopher Zeno of Eleas, famous for his paradoxes, especially involving Achilles and the Tortoise.
• Henkin: A mathematician who discovered Henkin sentences, which are sort of an opposite to the Gödel sentences.
• J. S. Bach: The baroque composer, referred to throughout the book.
• Samuel: AI investigator known for a checker playing program.
• Frederick The Great: King of Prussia for whom Bach wrote the Musical Offering.
• Palindromi: Character in one of the dialogues, a football player.
• Lewis Carroll: Author of Alice in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass; a mathematician and logician interested in many of the same questions as Hofstadter, who invented a famous paradox also using the characters of Achilles and the Tortoise.
• Rene Magritte: Artist referred to in the last chapter.
• Dr. Anteater: Character in the dialogue with Aunt Hillary.
• Giuseppe Peano: Late nineteenth century mathematician who axiomatized the natural number system based on five axioms, the Peano Postulates.
• Alan Turing: Computer theoretician, known for the Turing Theorem and the Turing test.
• Ramanujan: Indian mathematician in the early twentieth century.
• Bertrand Russell: British philosopher and mathematician; coauthor with Alfred North Whitehead of the Principia Mathematica, an ambitious attempt to reduce mathematics to logic and set theory.
• Nansen
• Tarski: Polish logician, known among other things for the "semantic theory of truth".
• Terry Winograd: Scientist in the field of Artificial Intelligence
• Hilbert: Mathematician who axiomatized geometry, also known for Hilbert spaces.
• Tedzilliger
• Alfred North Whitehead: Philosopher, coauthor of Principia Mathematica
• Lashley
• Margie
• Salviati
• Willard Van Orman Quine: American logician referred to in discussion of Gödel's theorem.
• John Cage: Musician known for avant-garde and aleatoric music.
• Haynes
• Gutei
• Bodhidharma: Founder of Zen Buddhism
• Vinogradov
• Egbert

Quotes edit see section history

• “Relying on words to lead you to the truth is like relying on an incomplete formal system to lead you to the truth. A formal system will give you some truths, but as we shall soon see, a formal system, no matter how powerful—cannot lead to all truths.”

Setting & Locations edit see section history

• Principia Mathematica
• Simplicio
• Euclid
• India
• New York
• Tumbolia
• Gplot
• Elea
• Typogenetics
• Usa
• Saccheri
• Home Team
• Cambridge
• China
• Formal System
• Sprunk
• Zen Buddhism
• Sagredo
• Leipzig
• Potsdam

First Sentence edit see section history

Table of Contents edit see section history

Series & Lists edit see section history

Authors & Contributors edit see section history

1. Douglas R. Hofstadter (Author)

Other Contributors:

1. Jan Wahlén (Translator) - Translation into Swedish.

First Edition edit see section history

Awards edit see section history

• Pulitzer Prize (1980: General Non-Fiction)
• National Book Critics Circle Award (Finalist, 1979: General Nonfiction)
• National Book Award (1980: Science (Hardcover))

Classification edit see section history

• Library of Congress: Add the Library of Congress Classification.
• Dewey: 510.1

Subjects edit see section history

• Books › Entertainment › Music › Musical Genres › Classical › Composers › Bach, Johann Sebastian
• Books › Professional & Technical › Professional Science › Mathematics › Pure Mathematics › Logic
• Books › Computers & Internet › Computer Science › Artificial Intelligence › Computer Mathematics
• Books › Science › Mathematics › Pure Mathematics › Logic
• Books › Science › Behavioral Sciences
• Books › Science › History & Philosophy
• Books › Health, Mind & Body › Psychology & Counseling
• Books › Nonfiction › Philosophy

Movie Connections edit see section history

• Inception (IMDb): Composer Hans Zimmer said he read "Gödel, Escher, Bach: An Eternal Golden Braid" and used it as an inspiration before writing the score for Inception.

Books with Additional Background Information edit see section history