Gödel, Escher, Bach

Author: Douglas R. Hofstadter
Publisher: Penguin Group(CA)
ISBN: 9780140289206
Category : Art and music
Languages : en
Pages : 832

Book Description
'What is a self and how can a self come out of inanimate matter?' This is the riddle that drove Douglas Hofstadter to write this extraordinary book. In order to impart his original and personal view on the core mystery of human existence - our intangible sensation of 'I'-ness - Hofstadter defines the playful yet seemingly paradoxical notion of 'strange loop', and explicates this idea using analogies from many disciplines.

I Am a Strange Loop

Author: Douglas R. Hofstadter
Publisher: Basic Books (AZ)
ISBN: 0465030785
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 544

Book Description
Argues that the key to understanding ourselves and consciousness is the "strange loop," a special kind of abstract feedback loop that inhabits the brain.

Metamagical Themas

Author: Douglas R Hofstadter
Publisher: Basic Books
ISBN: 0786723866
Category : Psychology
Languages : en
Pages : 622

Book Description
Hofstadter's collection of quirky essays is unified by its primary concern: to examine the way people perceive and think.

When Einstein Walked with Gödel

Author: Jim Holt
Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux
ISBN: 0374717842
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 385

Book Description
From Jim Holt, the New York Times bestselling author of Why Does the World Exist?, comes an entertaining and accessible guide to the most profound scientific and mathematical ideas of recent centuries in When Einstein Walked with Gödel: Excursions to the Edge of Thought. Does time exist? What is infinity? Why do mirrors reverse left and right but not up and down? In this scintillating collection, Holt explores the human mind, the cosmos, and the thinkers who’ve tried to encompass the latter with the former. With his trademark clarity and humor, Holt probes the mysteries of quantum mechanics, the quest for the foundations of mathematics, and the nature of logic and truth. Along the way, he offers intimate biographical sketches of celebrated and neglected thinkers, from the physicist Emmy Noether to the computing pioneer Alan Turing and the discoverer of fractals, Benoit Mandelbrot. Holt offers a painless and playful introduction to many of our most beautiful but least understood ideas, from Einsteinian relativity to string theory, and also invites us to consider why the greatest logician of the twentieth century believed the U.S. Constitution contained a terrible contradiction—and whether the universe truly has a future.

Incompleteness

Author: Rebecca Goldstein
Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company
ISBN: 0393327604
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 299

Book Description
"An introduction to the life and thought of Kurt Gödel, who transformed our conception of math forever"--Provided by publisher.

Surfaces and Essences

Author: Douglas Hofstadter
Publisher: Basic Books (AZ)
ISBN: 0465018475
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 594

Book Description
Shows how analogy-making pervades human thought at all levels, influencing the choice of words and phrases in speech, providing guidance in unfamiliar situations, and giving rise to great acts of imagination.

On Formally Undecidable Propositions of Principia Mathematica and Related Systems

Author: Kurt Gödel
Publisher: Courier Corporation
ISBN: 0486158403
Category : Mathematics
Languages : en
Pages : 82

Book Description
First English translation of revolutionary paper (1931) that established that even in elementary parts of arithmetic, there are propositions which cannot be proved or disproved within the system. Introduction by R. B. Braithwaite.

Fluid Concepts and Creative Analogies

Author: Douglas R. Hofstadter
Publisher:
ISBN: 9780140258356
Category : Analogy
Languages : en
Pages : 518

Book Description
Hosftadter and his colleagues at The Fluid Analogies Research Group have developed computer models that help describe and explain human discovery, creation and analogical thought. The key issue of perception is investigated through the exploration of playful anagrams, number puzzles, word play and fanciful alphabetical styles, and the result is a survey of cognitive processes. This text presents the results.

Practical Alchemy

Author: Brian Cotnoir
Publisher: Weiser Books
ISBN: 1633412253
Category : Body, Mind & Spirit
Languages : en
Pages : 162

Book Description
A concise guide to the history, theory, and practice of alchemy (the “great work”)—the art of working with the energies of nature for spiritual development, healing, and transformation. Alchemy is a means of understanding and working in concert with the energies of nature for spiritual development, healing, and transformation. In this book, Brian Cotnoir offers a step-by-step introduction that explores alchemy’s mysteries while illustrating its use as a modern spiritual system of attainment. He provides an overview of the history of alchemy, from the first meldings of Egyptian technology to the Middle Ages—the golden age of alchemy—to contemporary techniques. He demystifies the relationship between alchemy and chemistry, and provides evidence that alchemy is much more than a medieval form of psychotherapy. The guide also includes practical laboratory experiments that safely and intelligently lead readers to an understanding of this ancient art and spiritual practice. Provides step-by-step instruction for beginning a practice in alchemy Explains the theory underlying the art and science of alchemy and how it works Demystifies the relationship between alchemy and chemistry, while going well beyond the “psychological interpretation” advanced by nonscientists Introduces the practice of alchemy to students of the Western magical arts This book was previously published as The Weiser Concise Guide to Alchemy. This new edition includes a foreword by Robert Allen Bartlett, author of Real Alchemy.

The Magician King

Author: Lev Grossman
Publisher: Penguin
ISBN: 0452298016
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 433

Book Description
Lev Grossman’s new novel THE BRIGHT SWORD will be on sale July 2024 Return to Fillory in the riveting sequel to the New York Times bestseller and literary phenomenon, The Magicians, now an original series on SYFY, from the author of the #1 bestselling The Magician’s Land. Quentin Coldwater should be happy. He escaped a miserable Brooklyn childhood, matriculated at a secret college for magic, and graduated to discover that Fillory—a fictional utopia—was actually real. But even as a Fillorian king, Quentin finds little peace. His old restlessness returns, and he longs for the thrills a heroic quest can bring. Accompanied by his oldest friend, Julia, Quentin sets off—only to somehow wind up back in the real world and not in Fillory, as they’d hoped. As the pair struggle to find their way back to their lost kingdom, Quentin is forced to rely on Julia’s illicitly learned sorcery as they face a sinister threat in a world very far from the beloved fantasy novels of their youth.