Gödel, Escher, Bach:
May 16, 2008 – 7:49 aman Eternal Golden Braid
by Douglas Hofstadter
This is a pretty good book. It does a great job of “continuing” from where my St. John’s liberal education left off into the 20th century. The author’s style is well-suited for introducing extremely complicated ideas in the most copacetic way possible.
However, what the book promises, it does not deliver. Hofstadter is a hard-core materialist, and seems to be heading towards a materialistic creation myth that doesn’t just wave it’s hands at “A Really Long Time” as its god.
It isn’t surprising, however. Materialism at best can offer despair, but at least that despair is not your fault.
