"Metamagical Themas: Questing for the Essence of Mind and Pattern" by Douglas Hofstadter

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Filled Star - Denotes One PointFilled Star - Denotes One PointFilled Star - Denotes One PointFilled Star - Denotes One PointFilled Star - Denotes One Point by martinp on 05 Jan 2008


5.0 out of 5 stars A dazzling excursion through science, art and the mind, 5 Jan 2008
By Dr. M. L. Poulter "mlpoulter" (Bristol, UK) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)
When Hofstadter took over Scientific American's "Mathematical Games" column, he not only rearranged the letters of its title but used it to write about anything that attracted his polymathic attention.

Described on the cover as "An Interlocked Collection of Literary, Scientific and Artistic Studies", this book combines those columns with reflective essays that provide follow-up material and bring out the links between all the different subjects. So despite the fact that this book is a compilation covering the music of Chopin, the self-replication of DNA, typeface design and the LISP programming language (amongst many other topics), it feels very integrated.

Links are drawn in the most imaginative and unexpected ways- obvious to a genius like Hofstadter, and which gradually become obvious to the reader thanks to the author's talent for straightforward, enthusiastic explanation. Quantum theory is shown as having a deep connection to Rubik's Cube; game theory to nuclear weapons, sexism to translation.

If there is a single theme (or "thema") connecting the mass of science and art in this book, it is the question of the nature of creativity. Hofstadter's argument is that creativity and insight are in principle mechanisable, but that the attempts so far have underestimated the complexity of the problem by many orders of magnitude. It is from his search for examples of creativity in domains such as nonsense poetry, the design of games and of typefaces and in the workings of DNA that the author can speak with authority on what creativity is.

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