Gödel’s Proof

Masterfully clear and concise introduction to the context and ideas behind Godel’s 1931 theorems. Text and notes are separated so that the core of the message can be discerned from additional (rather technical) subtleties and details. Some of them are from Hofstadter, who also signs a new foreword where he basically speaks of the influence this little and very gentle book had on his life and achievements (with explicit mention to GEB; by the way, this foreword is somehow mirrored into the foreword if GEB’s 20th anniversary edition; in both cases, Hofstadter speaks a lot of himself to himself).
The importance of Godel’s revolutionary achievements echoes till today, and while they cannot probably be overestimated they also need not to be misused nor abused. The book ends with short remarks on this vein, though the authors tended to think that the results would altogether mean that machines could never “think ” as humans — which is probably not correct, as Hofstadter mentions at the beginning.
A jewel of precision and upright kindness of sort.