'What is a self, and how can a self come out of inaminate matter?' This book examines this riddle. Linking together the music of J S Bach, the graphic art of Escher and the mathematical theorems of Godel, as well as ideas drawn from logic, biology, psychology, physics and linguistics, it reveals the mysteries of human thought processes.

Contains rings of seahorses that seem to rotate on the page, and butterflies that transform right before your eyes into two warriors with their horses. This work includes playful artistic creations, such as Shigeo Fukuda's Mary Poppins, where a heap of bottles, glasses, shakers, and openers somehow turn into the image of a Belle Epoque woman.

Lucile, a sensitive but immature young woman finds herself caught between her carefree, tranquil love for fifty-year-old Charles, a gentle, reflective and well-off banker, and her impetuous passion for thirty-year-old Antoine, a hot-blooded, impulsive and struggling publisher. She goes back and forth but in the end must choose.

In 1931 Kurt Godel published his paper, On Formally Undecidable Propositions of Principia Mathematica and Related Systems. This paper challenged certain basic assumptions underlying much research in mathematics and logic. This title offers an explanation of the main ideas and broad implications of Godel's discovery.

Douglas R. Hofstadter's long-awaited return to the themes of Godel, Escher, Bach - an original and controversial view of the nature of consciousness and identity.

The author deals with one powerful motif in Escher's work - the puzzlelike interlocking of birds, fish and other natural forms in continuous patterns. His methods are examined through a meticulous analysis of his notebooks and an an epilogue reveals new information about Escher's inspiration.

Can thought arise out of matter? Can self, a soul, a consciousness, an I arise out of mere matter? If it cannot, then how can you or I be here? This title argues that the key to understanding selves and consciousness is the 'strange loop' - a special kind of abstract feedback loop inhabiting our brains.

This text presents a translation of a short poem by 16th-century French poet Clement Marot.

From some of the 20th century's greatest thinkers, this work contains essays on topics as diverse as artificial intelligence, evolution, science fiction, philosophy, reductionism, and consciousness.