Metamagical Themas

Metamagical Themasan eclectic collectionarticles writtenScientific American duringearly 1980s by Douglas Hofstadter,published together asbook1985 by Basic Books.

The subject matter ofarticlesloosely woven about themesphilosophy, artificial intelligenceimportant social issues. This volumesubstantialsizecontains extensive notes concerning responses toarticlesother information relevanttheir content.

Major themes include self-referentialismlanguage, artlogic; discussionsphilosophical issues importantcognitive science/AIlengthy discussions ofworkRobert Axelrod onprisoner's dilemma andideasuperrationality.

The conceptsuperrationalityits relevance toCold War, environmental issuessuchaccompanied by some amusingrather stimulating notes on experiments conducted byauthor attime.

Many other topicsalso mentioned, allHofstadter's usual easy, approachable style. Another feature isinclusiontwo dialogues instylethose appearingGödel, Escher, Bach.

Metamagical Themas was also publishedFrench, undertitle Ma Themagie (InterEditions, 1988),translators being Jean-Baptiste Berthelin, Jean-Luc Bonnetain,Lise Rosenbaum.

The titlean examplewordplay: itan anagramMathematical Games,titleMartin Gardner's column that Hofstadter's column succeededScientific American.

Unfortunately,wordplay was lost inFrench title,replaced withmuch weaker one, about MathMagic. The translators had contemplated Le matin des metamagiciens, which would have beenplay on Jeux malins des mathematiciens (respectively, The DawnMetamagicians,Clever TricksMathematicians). However,publisher foundtoo elaborated, so weleft withsimpler one.