Godel, Escher, Bach: An Eternal Golden Braid
by Douglas R. Hofstadter
1979

As stated in the Scientific American, "Every few decades an unknown author brings out a book of such depth, clarity, range, wit, beauty, and originality that it is recognized at once as a major literary event - this is such a work."

Douglas Hofstadter’s book is concerned directly with the nature of “maps” or links between formal systems. However, according to Hofstadter, the formal system that underlies all mental activity transcends the system that supports it. If life can grow out of the formal chemical substrate of the cell, if consciousness can emerge out of a formal system of firing neurons, then so too will computers attain human intelligence. Gödel Escher and Bach is a wonderful exploration of fascinating ideas at the heart of cognitive science: meaning, reduction, recursion, and much more.