Ebook Metamagical Themas: Questing For The Essence Of Mind And Pattern, by Douglas Hofstadter
The presented book Metamagical Themas: Questing For The Essence Of Mind And Pattern, By Douglas Hofstadter we offer below is not sort of normal book. You understand, reading now does not imply to deal with the printed book Metamagical Themas: Questing For The Essence Of Mind And Pattern, By Douglas Hofstadter in your hand. You can obtain the soft data of Metamagical Themas: Questing For The Essence Of Mind And Pattern, By Douglas Hofstadter in your gadget. Well, we indicate that guide that we extend is the soft file of the book Metamagical Themas: Questing For The Essence Of Mind And Pattern, By Douglas Hofstadter The material and all points are same. The distinction is only the kinds of the book Metamagical Themas: Questing For The Essence Of Mind And Pattern, By Douglas Hofstadter, whereas, this condition will specifically pay.
Metamagical Themas: Questing For The Essence Of Mind And Pattern, by Douglas Hofstadter
Ebook Metamagical Themas: Questing For The Essence Of Mind And Pattern, by Douglas Hofstadter
Locate much more experiences as well as understanding by reviewing the e-book qualified Metamagical Themas: Questing For The Essence Of Mind And Pattern, By Douglas Hofstadter This is a publication that you are seeking, isn't it? That's right. You have involved the best site, then. We constantly provide you Metamagical Themas: Questing For The Essence Of Mind And Pattern, By Douglas Hofstadter and also one of the most preferred publications around the world to download and install and enjoyed reading. You might not overlook that seeing this set is a function or also by accidental.
Also the rate of an e-book Metamagical Themas: Questing For The Essence Of Mind And Pattern, By Douglas Hofstadter is so affordable; lots of people are really stingy to reserve their money to buy the books. The other factors are that they feel bad and have no time to go to guide store to search the e-book Metamagical Themas: Questing For The Essence Of Mind And Pattern, By Douglas Hofstadter to read. Well, this is modern-day era; so numerous publications could be obtained conveniently. As this Metamagical Themas: Questing For The Essence Of Mind And Pattern, By Douglas Hofstadter as well as a lot more e-books, they could be entered quite fast ways. You will certainly not have to go outside to get this e-book Metamagical Themas: Questing For The Essence Of Mind And Pattern, By Douglas Hofstadter
By visiting this page, you have actually done the ideal staring factor. This is your begin to select the publication Metamagical Themas: Questing For The Essence Of Mind And Pattern, By Douglas Hofstadter that you really want. There are lots of referred e-books to check out. When you intend to obtain this Metamagical Themas: Questing For The Essence Of Mind And Pattern, By Douglas Hofstadter as your publication reading, you could click the link web page to download and install Metamagical Themas: Questing For The Essence Of Mind And Pattern, By Douglas Hofstadter In couple of time, you have actually owned your referred publications as yours.
As a result of this e-book Metamagical Themas: Questing For The Essence Of Mind And Pattern, By Douglas Hofstadter is marketed by online, it will reduce you not to publish it. you could obtain the soft file of this Metamagical Themas: Questing For The Essence Of Mind And Pattern, By Douglas Hofstadter to save money in your computer, gadget, as well as much more tools. It depends on your readiness where as well as where you will review Metamagical Themas: Questing For The Essence Of Mind And Pattern, By Douglas Hofstadter One that you have to always bear in mind is that reading book Metamagical Themas: Questing For The Essence Of Mind And Pattern, By Douglas Hofstadter will certainly endless. You will certainly have going to review various other publication after finishing a book, and also it's constantly.
Hofstadter’s collection of quirky essays is unified by its primary concern: to examine the way people perceive and think.
- Sales Rank: #545769 in Books
- Published on: 1985
- Original language: English
- Number of items: 1
- Dimensions: 8.56" h x 1.89" w x 6.75" l, 2.39 pounds
- Binding: Paperback
- 852 pages
About the Author
Douglas R. Hofstadter directs the Center for Research on Concepts and Cognition at Indiana University, and is the College of Arts and Sciences professor of cognitive science and computer science. He is the author of several highly regarded books, including Gödel, Escher, Bach and Fluid Concepts and Creative Analogies.
Most helpful customer reviews
90 of 93 people found the following review helpful.
Hofstadter's approachable collection
By A Williams
When I was in high school I discovered the joys of reading Martin Gardner's "Mathematical Games" column in Scientific American. After a few years of pleasure he was replaced by someone else who (among other things) wrote on the joys of Rubik's cube and I found myself wasting weeks of time and filling notebooks with my quest to explore and solve the cube.
That columnist was Douglas Hofstadter, who brought the same skill at sharing his enthusiam for his topic that created the amazing, mind shattering 'Godel, Escher, Bach'. His column, that occupied the same place as "Mathemetical Games", was called "Metamagical Themas" (looking closely at those two names will tell you a lot about Douglas Hofstadter) and lasted for 13 issues.
This book is a compilation of those columns, each with a new endnote by Hofstadter and some letters received by the magazine and his reply.
Together they cover a large range of topics while keeping to the central concerns of most of Hofstadter's work; consciousness, patterns, music, language and computer systems.
The combination works superbly. This volume is much more easily approached than 'Godel, Escher, Bach' while raising similar questions in the mind of the reader. For those that have read the earlier work there is not just the joy of more of Hofstadter's writing on diverse topics but the sheer pleasure of discovering another dialogue involving Achilles and the Tortoise.
I find it hard to define the set of people who would enjoy this book, but it would be a large and varied one.
130 of 137 people found the following review helpful.
Better than GEB?
By A Customer
Perhaps it is sacrilege, or stretching things a bit, but in my view this book tops GEB. Admittedly, I have read GEB several times, so maybe somebody who hasn't read GEB won't get the full benefit of Metamagical Themas. Here are my reasons for my opinion:
1) Hofstadter doesn't spend so much time being cute. Sure, all the jokes in GEB were funny, but they can get old, especially when you're going through the book a second time trying to delve deeper into an idea.
2) The variety of topics. Everything from Chopin to self reference to nuclear proliferation. Yet as the title might suggest, a common thread runs through all the topics. Hofstadter emphasizes this with his addendums to the original articles; he also has several new essays.
3) A great summary of Hofstadter's views on AI. If you read GEB and weren't really sure what he's about, reading the new Achilles and Tortoise dialogue, "Who shoves whom around in the careenium?", will clear things up. It did for me. Also, there's an article on Hofstadter's criticisms of the approaches that have been taken by AI experts (up to 1985, when the book was written).
In summary, GEB was an amazing work that was diluted to make it more palatable to non-technical people. Metamagical Themas is Hofstadter at full strength.
38 of 38 people found the following review helpful.
Serious Thinking about Thinking.
By A Customer
Douglas Hofstadter is obsessed with the meaning of meaning and has been thinking about thinking for most of his life. His first book won a Pulitzer Prize, but for those of us who share his obsession with thought, meaning, pattern, and creativity, this one is even better.
The words in this book could be read in a week. The concepts Hofstadter explores will keep your mind busy for months. You will find yourself reading for fifteen minutes, and then thinking and speculating for hours. I have never seen a book that does so much to spark the creativity and curiosity of the reader.
The focus of the book is broad, almost maddeningly so -- Hofstadter jumps from Art to Logic to Science to Pattern with a speed and grace that leaves most people gasping. But as you read it, you will begin to see a common thread -- It is about how people think, and what the fundamental processes of thought and creativity might be, explored through as many manifestations of thought and creativity as Hofstadter can manage. And Hofstadter, lucky for us, can manage quite a lot.
If you are interested in thought and creativity, in mind, soul, and pattern -- if "effing the ineffable" is one of your hobbies, as it is mine -- and you are going to buy one book this decade, then buy this one.
Metamagical Themas: Questing For The Essence Of Mind And Pattern, by Douglas Hofstadter PDF
Metamagical Themas: Questing For The Essence Of Mind And Pattern, by Douglas Hofstadter EPub
Metamagical Themas: Questing For The Essence Of Mind And Pattern, by Douglas Hofstadter Doc
Metamagical Themas: Questing For The Essence Of Mind And Pattern, by Douglas Hofstadter iBooks
Metamagical Themas: Questing For The Essence Of Mind And Pattern, by Douglas Hofstadter rtf
Metamagical Themas: Questing For The Essence Of Mind And Pattern, by Douglas Hofstadter Mobipocket
Metamagical Themas: Questing For The Essence Of Mind And Pattern, by Douglas Hofstadter Kindle