I've been planing on staring this soon. Is it important to have a recent edition. How much has changed since the first publishing?
I'm just starting to read the 20th-anniversary edition (from 1999 I think) and he states in the preface that even the typos haven't been corrected.
But the preface is extensive and interesting, and contains his updated thoughts on several aspects of the book.
http://www.reddit.com/r/rational/comments/2z8zm5/geb_discussion_1_introduction_a_musicological/
"Gödel, Escher, Bach" by Douglas R. Hofstadter is the most awesome book that I have ever read. If there is one book that emphasizes the tragedy of Death, it is this book, because it's terrible that so many people have died without reading it."
- Eliezer Yudkowsky
Gödel, Escher, Bach: An Eternal Golden Braid is an excellent primer on subjects related to artificial intelligence, like self-reference, metamathematics, formal rules and cognitive science. Yudkowsky has said about the book that it's "the best and most beautiful book ever written by the human species." It was the book that Yudkowsky said launched his career in artificial intelligence and cognitive science.
That's why we decided to start a read-through of it in reddit.com/r/rational. If you have any interest in analyzing or discussing the book, join us!