Notes on GEB

Hofstadter's book is a classic, but it is also misunderstood. It is not just about the three guys whose names appear in the title. It is not just about math, art, and music. It is not focused on religion, the occult, new age psychology, or Zen. I'll try to outline it in a way that a reader can appreciate what the author is trying to convey.

What is It About?

Notes on the Text

Introduction

Three-Part Invention / MU-Puzzle

Two-Part Invention / Meaning and Form in Mathematics

Sonata for Unaccompanied Achilles / Figure and Ground

Contracrostipunctus / Consistency, Completeness, and Geometry

Little Harmonic Labyrinth / Recursive Structures and Processes

Canon by Intervallic Augmentation / The Location of Meaning

Chromatic Fantasy, and Feud / The Propositional Calculus

Crab Canon / Typographical Number Theory

A Mu Offering / Mumon and Gödel

Prelude... / Levels of Description, and Computer Systems

...Ant Fugue / Brains and Thoughts

English French German Suite / Minds and Thoughts

Aria with Diverse Variations / BlooP and FlooP and GlooP

Air on G's String / On Formally Undecidable Propositions of TNT and Related Systems

Birthday Cantatatata... / Jumping out of the System

Edifying Thoughts of a Tobacco Smoker / Self-Ref and Self-Rep

The Magnificrab, Indeed / Church, Turing, Tarski, and Others

SHRDLU, Toy of Man's Designing / Artificial Intelligence: Retrospects

Contrafactus / Artificial Intelligence: Prospects

Sloth Canon / Strange Loops, Or Tangled Hierarchies

Six-Part Ricercar

Other Outlines

Also check out Jeff Elhai's MATH 195 course at Virginia Commonwealth University.