The Escher circuits make me think of the 'Mentats' (humans trained to process vast quantities of information like computers) in Frank Herbert's Dune series.

And before that, Dave Langford's 1988 BLIT: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BLIT_%28short_story%29 (includes link to text, only a few pages, and follow-ups).

Besides the original Medusa/basilisk/cockatrice legends.