Outstanding, 10. September 2002

I read this book first at age of 17; being a teenager at the time, interested in Mathematics, Computer Science, Biology, Philosophy, and playing the piano and Baroque music.

What can I say? This is one of the very few books which really influenced my life, my thinking.

It is a wonderful masterpiece, written by a brilliant and witty mind. It combines a lot of fields like mathematics, computer science, biology, genetics, music, art and philosophy and more.

It centers around Gödels incompleteness theorem, and in a consequence, it discusses the limits of formal systems and our brain - and therefore, of course, if and how it will be possible to create artificial intelligence. It was written in the 70's which was "High Noon Time" in research of artifical intelligence.

If you plan to read it at a whole, don't expect it to be easy lecture. It took me years to really completely understand the book (stating that I read it in parts).

However, every chapter is introduced by a "prelude", a dialoge between different characters. Even if you don't read the chapters, you will enjoy the book just by reading these dialogues.

I think this is a must-read for all people interested in science and art, especially students.

      Nice read if you share the urge to get rid of your "soul", 14. November 2001

If you read this book, and find the energy to follow the author through his entirely left-brained labyrinth of somewhat fascinating but entirely cynical thoughts, you might end up being a believer... He's conjuring all that he understands of arts, music and sciences to convince you that science actually can explain everything that makes us human, at least in so far as your silly little wishes for transcendence, life after death, to have a "soul" or a "self" or something, and all the other subjective crap that no one can explain anyway is just an illusion, and something we would be much happier without, hailing to the "Endsieg" of science.Of course he's putting in at the beginning what he's getting out in the end, but because the book is so long, it takes a while to understand what he's really trying to say, and exhausts your will to disagree on the way with endless mindgames of recursive processes.His treatment of artwork and music is fascinating, but a little ignorant of what music and art are about generally. Of course, it's a nice try at connecting arts and science, but always with the big transcendence-defying message in the background... as if he were a kind of self-announced pope in a computer religion, in which life is devoid of all sense and "complexity" is the new Jesus and tao. So, if someone you love dies, and you strongly feel that this person is still with you somehow, he's just loughing in your face at your naivity.This book has made me really angry at how ignorant of the very basic essences of being alife, of "being" you can become.Nothing of the substances of my imagination and perception can ever be "seen" or experienced by simulating or looking in to my brain. There is always the subjective perspective, and it always stays the subjective perspective, even if Mr Hofstadter is, for what reason over, ignoring it so powerfully.

      Nice read if you share the urge to get rid of your "soul", 14. November 2001

If you read this book, and find the energy to follow the author through his entirely left-brained labyrinth of somewhat fascinating but entirely cynical thoughts, you might end up being a believer... He's conjuring all that he understands of arts, music and sciences to convince you that science actually can explain everything that makes us human, at least in so far as your silly little wishes for transcendence, life after death, to have a "soul" or a "self" or something, and all the other subjective crap that no one can explain anyway is just an illusion, and something we would be much happier without, hailing to the "Endsieg" of science.Of course he's putting in at the beginning what he's getting out in the end, but because the book is so long, it takes a while to understand what he's really trying to say, and exhausts your will to disagree on the way with endless mindgames of recursive processes.His treatment of artwork and music is fascinating, but a little ignorant of what music and art are about generally. Of course, it's a nice try at connecting arts and science, but always with the big transcendence-defying message in the background... as if he were a kind of self-announced pope in a computer religion, in which life is devoid of all sense and "complexity" is the new Jesus and tao. So, if someone you love dies, and you strongly feel that this person is still with you somehow, he's just loughing in your face at your naivity.This book has made me really angry at how ignorant of the very basic essences of being alife, of "being" you can become.Nothing of the substances of my imagination and perception can ever be "seen" or experienced by simulating or looking in to my brain. There is always the subjective perspective, and it always stays the subjective perspective, even if Mr Hofstadter is, for what reason over, ignoring it so powerfully.

       Two kinds of readers, 31. Juli 2000

I was once told there are two kinds of people: those who get past chapter 7 in GEB, and those who don't. It saddens me to be in the second group, but the part I did read has left an intangible pattern weaving somewhere back there in my mind.

       Captivating, 26. Juli 2000

This book will snare you, captivate you and turn you into a geek, even if you don't want to be a geek.