bWinner of the Pulitzer PrizebbA metaphorical fugue on minds and machines in the spirit of Lewis CarrollbbrDouglas 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.i Godel, Escher, Bachi is a wonderful exploration of fascinating ideas at the heart of cognitive science meaning, reduction, recursion, and much more.