2G5529 ...... Godel, Escher, Bach: An Eternal Golden Braid ...... 4p

Examiner: Faron Moller (fm@sics.se)

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

KTH Campus, Room P12 (Drottning Kristinas väg 31).

Course Schedule: (All meetings start at 19:00 precisely and last 2 hours, with a break.)

• Week 3: Monday 15 January
  • Introduction (Faron Moller)
  • Unit 1 (Faron Moller)
• Week 4: Monday 22 January
  • Unit 2 (Faron Moller)
  • Unit 3 (???)
• Week 5: Monday 29 January
  • Unit 4 (???)
  • Unit 5 (???)
• Week 6: Monday 5 February
  • Unit 6 (???)
  • Unit 7 (???)
• Week 7: Monday 12 February
  • Unit 8 (???)
  • Unit 9 (???)
• Week 8: Monday 19 February
  • Unit 10 (???)
  • Unit 11 (???)
• Week 9: Monday 26 February
  • Unit 12 (???)
  • Unit 13 (???)
• Week 10: Monday 4 March
  • Unit 14 (???)
  • Unit 15 (???)
• Week 11: Monday 11 March
  • Unit 16 (???)
  • Unit 17 (???)
• Week 12: Monday 18 March
  • Unit 18 (???)
  • Unit 19 (???)
• Week 13: Monday 25 March
  • Unit 20 (???)
  • Six-Part Ricercar (???)

NOTE: This course is limited to 18, so if you are interested in taking the course, send me email ASAP.

This seminar series is open to students in any discipline.

There are no formal prerequisites beyond a firm interest.

Participation in the seminar series will be worth 4 points.

The topics covered include:

• logic and set theory;
• self-reference and paradoxes;
• formal systems and metamathematical reasoning;
• propositional and predicate logic;
• truth, proof, and meaning;
• Euclidean and non-Euclidean geometry;
• consistency and completeness;
• mechanical vs human reasoning;
• natural vs artificial intelligence;
• recursion and recursive function theory;
• Godel's Incompleteness Theorems;
• abstractions, translations and isomorphisms;
• holism vs reductionism;
• mechanisms for self-reproduction;
• Church-Turing thesis.

Details of the seminar series are as follows:

• There will be 11 double seminars, one per week over 11 weeks. These will take place on Monday evenings in weeks 3 to 13.
• Enrollment is limited to 18 (one per chapter beyond Chapter 2).
• Students are required to attend all seminars.
• Each seminar will be directed by a different student. The course director will direct the first 2 seminars on the first day.
• Directing a seminar involves presenting a 20-30 minute report on a reading unit (dialogue + associated chapter), and directing the subsequent discussion (by having specific questions ready dealing with difficulties or interesting aspects encountered in reading the unit).
• Each student will be required to compile questions for each reading unit prior to each seminar. These are to help drive the discussion, and are also to be submitted to the director of the seminar (as well as the course director) before the seminar to help the director with the following.
• By the end of the course, each student will have to submit a report on their given reading unit.