Godel, Escher, Bach: An Eternal Golden Braid.

Abstract

By exploring common themes in the lives and works of logician Kurt Gödel , artist M. C. Escher and composer Johann Sebastian Bach , GEB expounds concepts fundamental to mathematics , symmetry, and intelligence. Through illustration and analysis, the book discusses how self-reference and formal rules allow systems to acquire meaning despite being made of "meaningless" elements. It also discusses what it means to communicate, how knowledge can be represented and stored, the methods and limitations of symbolic representation, and even the fundamental notion of "meaning" itself.