New Releases by Douglas R. Hofstadter

On the history and creation of ambigrams, by a pioneer of the practice In the 1960s and 1970s, a trio of creative individuals independently discovered that ordinary words and phrases could be given double readings by playfully distorting the letters composing them. These doubly readable words and phrases, if designed by an artistic eye and hand, could be things of great visual beauty. Douglas R. Hofstadter named these calligraphic illustrations "ambigrams" in 1983, and over the decades he has designed thousands, as have his friends Scott Kim and John Langdon, the other pioneers of the subtle art form he calls ambigrammia. This book presents a collection of hundreds of Hofstadter''s ambigrams, along with a few dozen by Kim, Langdon, and others. With deep links to cognitive science, Ambigrammia provides examples of many types of ambigrams and shows how the art form can be extended in surprising directions. Along the way, Hofstadter discusses the nature of creativity and its alter ego, "discoverativity," and shows how the "pocket-sized creativity puzzles" that make up ambigrammia are pervaded by these complementary qualities. The text is also notable for its autobiographical character: Hofstadter recounts how his own life has been intimately intertwined with his creation/discovery of ambigrams in many countries and in many languages.

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

Puede un sistema comprenderse a sí mismo ? Si esta pregunta se refiere a la mente humana, entonces nos encontramos ante una cuestión clave del pensamiento científico. Y de la filosofía. Y del arte. Investigar este misterio es una aventura que recorre la matemática, la física, la biología, la psicología y muy especialmente, el lenguaje. Douglas R. Hofstadter, joven y ya célebre científico, nos abre la puerta del enigma con la belleza y la alegría creadora de su estilo. Sorprendentes paralelismos ocultos entre los grabados de Escher y la música de Bach nos remiten a las paradojas clásicas de los antiguos griegos y a un teorema de la lógica matemática moderna que ha estremecido el pensamiento del siglo XX : el de Kurt Gödel. Todo lenguaje, todo sistema formal, todo programa de ordenador, todo proceso de pensamiento, llegan, tarde o temprano, a la situación límite de la autorreferencia : de querer expresarse sobre sí mismos. Surge entonces la emoción del infinito, como dos espejos enfrentados y obligados a reflejarse mutua e indefinidamente. Gödel, Escher, Bach : un Eterno y Grácil Bucle, es una obra de arte escrita por un sabio. Versa sobre los misterios del pensamiento e incluye, ella misma, sus propios misterios. Por ello su traducción ha supuesto también una larga, azarosa y laboriosa aventura que el propio autor ha vivido y que relata en un prólogo especialmente escrito para esta versión española.

One of our greatest philosophers and scientists of the mind asks, where does the self come from -- and how our selves can exist in the minds of others. Can thought arise out of matter? Can self, soul, consciousness, "I" arise out of mere matter? If it cannot, then how can you or I be here? I Am a Strange Loop argues that the key to understanding selves and consciousness is the "strange loop"-a special kind of abstract feedback loop inhabiting our brains. The most central and complex symbol in your brain is the one called "I." The "I" is the nexus in our brain, one of many symbols seeming to have free will and to have gained the paradoxical ability to push particles around, rather than the reverse. How can a mysterious abstraction be real-or is our "I" merely a convenient fiction? Does an "I" exert genuine power over the particles in our brain, or is it helplessly pushed around by the laws of physics? These are the mysteries tackled in I Am a Strange Loop, Douglas Hofstadter''s first book-length journey into philosophy since Gödel, Escher, Bach. Compulsively readable and endlessly thought-provoking, this is a moving and profound inquiry into the nature of mind.

An accessible explanation of Kurt Gödel''s groundbreaking work in mathematical logic In 1931 Kurt Gödel published his fundamental paper, "On Formally Undecidable Propositions of Principia Mathematica and Related Systems." This revolutionary paper challenged certain basic assumptions underlying much research in mathematics and logic. Gödel received public recognition of his work in 1951 when he was awarded the first Albert Einstein Award for achievement in the natural sciences—perhaps the highest award of its kind in the United States. The award committee described his work in mathematical logic as "one of the greatest contributions to the sciences in recent times." However, few mathematicians of the time were equipped to understand the young scholar''s complex proof. Ernest Nagel and James Newman provide a readable and accessible explanation to both scholars and non-specialists of the main ideas and broad implications of Gödel''s discovery. It offers every educated person with a taste for logic and philosophy the chance to understand a previously difficult and inaccessible subject. New York University Press is proud to publish this special edition of one of its bestselling books. With a new introduction by Douglas R. Hofstadter, this book will appeal students, scholars, and professionals in the fields of mathematics, computer science, logic and philosophy, and science.

Winner of the Pulitzer Prize A metaphorical fugue on minds and machines in the spirit of Lewis Carroll Douglas Hofstadter''s book is concerned directly with the nature of "maps" or links between formal systems. However, according to Hofstadter, the formal system that underlies all mental activity transcends the system that supports it. If life can grow out of the formal chemical substrate of the cell, if consciousness can emerge out of a formal system of firing neurons, then so too will computers attain human intelligence. Gödel, Escher, Bach is a wonderful exploration of fascinating ideas at the heart of cognitive science: meaning, reduction, recursion, and much more.

A celebration of mankind which illustrates how no artificial intelligence will ever be capable of the complexity, grace and subtlety of human thought.

Hofstadter has developed a sophisticated vision of the mind in which perception, at an abstract level, is the key.

Essays from some of the 20th century''s greatest thinkers explore topics as diverse as artificial intelligence, evolution, science fiction, philosophy, reductionism, and consciousness, presenting a variety of conflicting visions of the self and the soul. Illustrations.