Friday, November 28, 2008

The Eternal Golden Braid

I first read An Eternal Golden Braid about 14 years ago and thought it was a great book. I still do. If you haven't read it then I would encourage you to do so: it is a wonderful journey through mathematics, computer science, philosophy, art and so much more. (I notice that there's a 20th anniversary edition, so that may be going on my present list to Santa since my original copy is a bit dog-eared.) So it was with some surprise that I noticed a translation of Godel's original work available! However, the reviews indicate that it may not be a good translation. But it may be worth a try anyway!

3 comments:

Thomas Rischbeck said...

Hi Mark,

I've read the German version of the book some years ago. It's called "Gödel, Escher, Bach" and enjoyed it tremendously. Haven't read the Gödel original text though that you're refering to.

Have fun in Sweden -- i'll be there in 2 weeks, too.

Cheers, Thomas.

Tim Fox said...

A recommend this as an excellent guide to Godel's proof:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Godels-Proof-Douglas-R-Hofstadter/dp/0814758169/ref=pd_sim_b_1/276-5253110-1523818

It's somewhat layman-ised (although by no means trivialised) so you don't need to be a maths professor to understand it.

Mark Little said...

Thanks Tim. Just added it to my basket :-)