Douglas Hofstadter

    I've gotta admit, I have a real bias towards Douglas Hofstadter, one of the real Renaissance men of science and literature.  He's truly one of the rare few cutting-edge scientists who can write a damn entertaining book. 

             I'm being a little glib calling his work a "Grand Theory of Everything", because while his theories cover a broad range including cognitive science, philosophy, math, and even humanities, he puts forth perhaps the most modest claims among any of the Grand Theorizers.  His books aim to explain human consciousness, but he readily admits the topic is extremely complicated -- his work seems more designed to illustrate the kinds of difficult problems that will have to be solved, rather than claiming to solve them. 

Further Reading: