Goedel, Escher, Bach: An Eternal Golden Braid, Essay

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Goedel, Escher, Bach: An Eternal Golden Braid, Douglas Hofstadter unleashes a multifaceted theory of mind and consciousness. One of the central motifs or metaphors the author uses in Goedel, Escher, Bach is music. The Bach component of the book begins in depth starting on page 607, when the author presents the question, "Who Composes Computer Music?" The author claims, "There are various levels of autonomy which a program may seem to have in the act of composition," (Hofstadter 607). However, the computer-generated compositions follow predictable algorithms. The songs, riffs, and sounds computers generate are qualitatively different from those that are created by human beings.

Computers and brains are different, Hofstadter points out, in that computers cannot experience self-consciousness. Self-consciousness remains one of the core barriers to artificial intelligence. Given there is no "who" in a computer, a computer program cannot create music any more than it can write novels.

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A computer can generate sounds and riffs according to what Hofstadter calls the "grammar of music," (626). Musical rules and syntax govern computer-generated music. On the other hand, human-generated music adds an extra dimension that comes not from mastery of an instrument or command of musical structure. Hofstadter states that human-generated music is "expressive to some strange subconscious regions of our minds," (626). Music comes from the soul, which computers do not have. The subtle nuances underlying notes, tension, and imperceptible differences between human-generated and computer-generated music show that a computer program can never write beautiful music so much as it can write technically precise music.

Hofstadter claims that when human beings compose music, a fuller, more comprehensive grammar is being used, too, one that transcends musical notation (627). While the computer only operates within the specific parameters of….....

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