I read this when I was like 12... I really need to go back over it again
Gödel, Escher, Bach: A Mental Space Odyssey
31–40 of 53 posts
Re: Gödel, Escher, Bach: A Mental Space Odyssey
#32I have to say I'm very surprised at how few people here seem to have liked the book. Going by my experience, I would have expected that HN readers would have thoroughly enjoyed it. I first read it about 25 years ago, and while I didn't understand much of its philosophical arguments, I remember the experience as a sheer delight. Since then, i've read it at least twice more, and enjoyed it every time ( and understood i…
Same here. I got it as a present from a friend. It took me about three years to read it. It's a long time ago and I really should read it again.
Re: Gödel, Escher, Bach: A Mental Space Odyssey
#33That incredibly a propos for me considering I reading this book right now. Thanks for posting.
I'm 150 pages into the book and it's quite interesting but I've seen a lot of the stuff elsewhere. What I find incredibly cool is how he connects different subjects with concepts he's explaining.
Re: Gödel, Escher, Bach: A Mental Space Odyssey
#34How do you know someone has read GEB? Because they tell you.
Re: Gödel, Escher, Bach: A Mental Space Odyssey
#35This is a book which I'm currently reading. On my recessionista budget I found a second hand copy (1980 edition) with a few dodgy falling out pages. My main reasons for wanting to read this were that I say a video a talk by Hofstadter in which he talks about analogy as the basis of cognition, which I quite liked, and also I more recently discovered that his book, GEB, apparently contains steganographic content (i.e. hidden messages), after searching for steganography in the light of the Russian spy story in the media.
Re: Gödel, Escher, Bach: A Mental Space Odyssey
#36mp4 format here http://www.kickasstorrents.com/mit-ocw-godel-escher-bach-bun... Not 100% sure if that torrent is legit, but I've had the mp4 files on my harddisk for a few months now. I also can't imagine why anyone would go through the trouble to fake this particular torrent so enjoy !
just in case somebody is wondering: "These are transcoded files from the RealVideo on the MIT site"
Re: Gödel, Escher, Bach: A Mental Space Odyssey
#37I may be wrong but what-the-heck I am going to first watch all these videos, go through the lecture notes and all other ocw and then "acquire"(because I would not be able to buy it for cheap in my country) the book and read it.
I get a feeling that GEB is about materialism (of philosophy of mind) and I am actually not very impressed by it now (through my limited reading). But may be if I am successful in keeping an open mind (I would try my level best) and digest some of it (by ocw and reading) I may change my mind.
Re: Gödel, Escher, Bach: A Mental Space Odyssey
#38mp4 format here http://www.kickasstorrents.com/mit-ocw-godel-escher-bach-bun... Not 100% sure if that torrent is legit, but I've had the mp4 files on my harddisk for a few months now. I also can't imagine why anyone would go through the trouble to fake this particular torrent so enjoy !
Alternatively, use this script to get the real .rm files: PRE="mplayer -playlist http://mfile.akamai.com/7870/rm/mitstorage.download.akamai.com/7870/hs/godel_escher_bach POST=" -dumpstream -dumpfile " $PRE/OCW_7.01.07_Godel-220k.rm $POST OCW_7.01.07_Godel-220k.rm & $PRE/OCW_7.08.07_Godel-220k.rm $POST OCW_7.08.07_Godel-220k.rm & $PRE/OCW_7.15.07_Godel-220k.rm $POST OCW_7.15.07_Godel-220k.rm & $PRE/OCW_7.22.07_Godel-2…
Any way this could be done using vlc? I am trying to watch it on vlc but cannot forward it.
Re: Gödel, Escher, Bach: A Mental Space Odyssey
#39I really enjoyed reading and re-reading "Gödel, Escher, Bach". Looking at the course/lecture page at MIT, I especially liked the following part :
Grading
There are no grades for this course.
Re: Gödel, Escher, Bach: A Mental Space Odyssey
#40Awesome book. I ran into a friend the other day who told me: "I found a very interesting book that you might like. Godel something. Actually, you've probably read it since it's a legacy book."
I think he meant a book which as "been around".
I've read it twice and found it awesome each time. You get more out of it reading it again. (One wonders: does it continue to be so? :)
What's even more cool is the bibliography in the back. The books are starred according to how useful the book was to the writing of GEB. So it's safe to say that the book and the pointers it has to other books is a treasure trove of wonderful ideas.