Skip to content
You are not logged in |Login  
     
Limit search to available items
Book Cover
book
BookBook
Author Hofstadter, Douglas R., 1945-

Title Metamagical themas : questing for the essence of mind and pattern / Douglas R. Hofstadter.

Imprint New York : Basic Books, ©1985.

Copies

Location Call No. Status
 Bristol, Main Library - Non Fiction  510 H677    Check Shelf
 South Windsor Public Library - Non Fiction  001.535 HOFSTADTER    Check Shelf
Description xxviii, 852 pages : illustrations ; 24 cm
Bibliography Includes bibliographical references (pages 802-819) and index.
Contents pt. 1. Snags and snarls -- 1. On self-referential sentences -- 2. Self-referential sentences: a follow-up -- 3. On viral sentences and self-replicating structures -- 4. Nomic: a self-modifying game based on reflexivity in law.
pt. 2. Sense and society -- 5. World views in collision: the "Skeptical Inquirer" versus the "National Enquirer" -- 6. On number numbness -- 7. Changes in default words and images, engendered by rising consciousness -- 8. A person paper on purity in language.
pt. 3. Sparking and slipping -- 9. Pattern, poetry and power in the music of Frederic Chopin -- 10. Parquet deformations: a subtle, intricate art form -- 11. Stuff and nonsense -- 12. Variations on a theme as the crux of creativity -- 13. Metafont, metamathematics, and metaphysics.
pt. 4. Structure and strangeness -- 14. Magic cubology -- 15. On crossing the rubicon -- 16. Mathematical chaos and strange attractors -- 17. Lisp: atoms and lists -- 18. Lisp: Lists and recursion -- 19. Lisp: recursion and generality -- 20. Heisenberg's uncertainty principle and the many-worlds interpretation of quantum mechanics.
pt. 5. Spirit and substrate -- 21. Review of "Alan Turing: The enigma" -- 22. A coffeehouse conversation on the Turing test -- 23. On the seeming paradox of mechanizing creativity -- 24. Analogies and roles in human and machine thinking -- 25. Who shoves whom around inside the careenium? -- 26. Waking up from the Boolean dream, or, Subcognition as computation.
pt. 6. Selection and stability -- 27. The genetic code: arbitrary? -- 28. Undercut, flaunt, pounce, and mediocrity: psychological games with numbers -- 29. The prisoner's dilemma computer tournaments and the evolution of cooperation.
pt. 7. Sanity and survival -- 30. Dilemmas for supperrational thinkers, leading up to a luring lottery -- 31. Irrationality is the square root of all evil -- 32. The tale of Happiton -- 33. The tumult of inner voices, or, What is the meaning of the word "I"?
Summary Includes articles, many of which originally appeared in Scientific American, on memes, innumeracy, William Safire, Frederic Chopin, Rubik's Cube, strange attractors, Lisp, Heisenburg's uncertainty principle, quantum mechanics, Alan Turing, sphexishness, Prisoner's dilemma, and other topics.
Subject Artificial intelligence.
Intellect.
Science -- Philosophy.
Metamathematics.
Self (Philosophy)
Amusements.
Amusements. (OCoLC)fst00808105
Artificial intelligence. (OCoLC)fst00817247
Intellect. (OCoLC)fst00975732
Metamathematics. (OCoLC)fst01018261
Science -- Philosophy. (OCoLC)fst01108336
Self (Philosophy) (OCoLC)fst01111454
Denken.
Waarneming.
Kunstmatige intelligentie.
Notatie.
Künstliche Intelligenz (DE-588)4033447-8
Verstand (DE-588)4188037-7
Wissenschaftsphilosophie (DE-588)4202787-1
Aufsatzsammlung (DE-588)4143413-4
Artificial intelligence.
Intellect.
Science -- Philosophy.
Mathematics -- Philosophy.
Self.
Amusements.
Aufsatzsammlung.
Künstliche Intelligenz.
Verstand.
Wissenschaftsphilosophie.
Creativity. (DNLM)D003405
Mathematics. (DNLM)D008433
Mental Processes. (DNLM)D008606
Philosophy. (DNLM)D010684
Genre/Form Aufsatzsammlung.
Essays.
Other Form: Online version: Hofstadter, Douglas R., 1945- Metamagical themas. New York : Basic Books, ©1985 (OCoLC)563123886
Online version: Hofstadter, Douglas R., 1945- Metamagical themas. New York : Basic Books, ©1985 (OCoLC)607741948
ISBN 0465045405
9780465045402
0140085343
9780140085341
0465045669
9780465045662
-->
Add a Review