Godel, Escher, Bach: An Eternal Golden Braid

Douglas Hofstadters 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. Gdel Escher and Bach is a wonderful exploration of fascinating ideas at the heart of cognitive science: meaning reduction recursion and much more.