Tal Cohen's Bookshelf: A Collection of Personal Opinions about Books

Sam Scoville writes:

I found a bit of it Google-ing Hofstadter himself,
included in ''Presidential Lectures.''

It makes sense that he didn't change a jot,
tiddle, or iota in the text itself.
It would have upset the balance,
an excrescence. The work is
''perfect'' as is: complete
[116] Posted on Tuesday, 01 May 2007 at 19:51 GMT [Reply to this] [Permalink]


John Cowan writes in reply to Sam Scoville:
It's absurd to say that GEB is perfect
Of course GEB is not perfect. Indeed, it contains many factual errors that have not been corrected because Hofstadter is (increasingly) obsessed with subordinating truth to typography. In the name of perfectly justified lines, he randomly alters the form of people's names in _Strange Loop_. It's getting to be a real tic.
[364] Posted on Thursday, 12 February 2009 at 21:35 GMT [Reply to this] [Permalink]

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