 Through illustration and analysis, the book discusses how, through self-reference and formal rules, systems can acquire meaning despite being made of "meaningless" elements.It also discusses what it means to communicate, how knowledge can be represented and stored, the methods and limitations of symbolic representation, and even the fundamental notion of "meaning" itself.In response to confusion over the book's theme, Hofstadter emphasized that "Gödel, Escher, Bach" is not about the relationships of mathematics, art, and music—but rather about how cognition emerges from hidden neurological mechanisms.