From: ROSSERJB-AT-jmu.edu
Date: Sat, 25 May 1996 17:57:34 -0500 (EST)
Subject: Re: SOKAL/SOCIAL TEXT AFFAIR: INTERDISCIPLINARITY MY ASS


To Ralph Dumain:
     Just for the record, Hofstadter's _Godel, Escher, Bach_
contains some very serious ideas and is well regarded by many
people in computer science and artificial intelligence.  This
is not to say that every single section in it is so.  Some of
it gets pretty woozy.  But the key idea that Godel's Theorem,
much of Escher's art, and the structure of a certain Bach piece
all share the key idea of self-referencing and that this is a
central issue in artificial intelligence is quite valid.
Barkley Rosser


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