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Gödel, Escher, Bach: A Mental Space Odyssey

ocw.mit.edu

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Re: Gödel, Escher, Bach: A Mental Space Odyssey

#2

Post by Davertron »

This could be really good; I've started reading this book twice now, and gotten about 1/3 of the way through both times before my brain starts to melt.

Also, Douglas Hofstatder's "I Am A Strange Loop" is a little more accessible and is all about consciousness, if that part of Godel, Escher, Bach interests you.

Re: Gödel, Escher, Bach: A Mental Space Odyssey

#3

Post by ojbyrne »

Davertron wrote: post #2

This could be really good; I've started reading this book twice now, and gotten about 1/3 of the way through both times before my brain starts to melt. Also, Douglas Hofstatder's "I Am A Strange Loop" is a little more accessible and is all about consciousness, if that part of Godel, Escher, Bach interests you.

"could be really"? Perhaps I'm misunderstanding your use of those words - this is from 2007, and everything from the course is on that page, including videos of the lectures.

Re: Gödel, Escher, Bach: A Mental Space Odyssey

#5

Post by jacquesm »

ojbyrne wrote: post #3
Davertron wrote: post #2

This could be really good; I've started reading this book twice now, and gotten about 1/3 of the way through both times before my brain starts to melt. Also, Douglas Hofstatder's "I Am A Strange Loop" is a little more accessible and is all about consciousness, if that part of Godel, Escher, Bach interests you.

"could be really"? Perhaps I'm misunderstanding your use of those words - this is from 2007, and everything from the course is on that page, including videos of the lectures.

I interpret that as based on the portion that the GP has consumed. Like eating a 3 course meal, if the starter is great you might say 'this meal could be really good', you can't tell for sure because you haven't eaten all of it, hence the caveat.

Re: Gödel, Escher, Bach: A Mental Space Odyssey

#6

Post by div »

mp4 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 !

Re: Gödel, Escher, Bach: A Mental Space Odyssey

#7

Post by bingaman »

alain94040 wrote: post #4

This is a great book. That being said, why is this on HN? The link is from 2007. The book is even older.

Yes, it's from 2007, but it doesn't seem dated and definitely would be of interest to readers of HN. As far as I know there is no preference for 'new' material here - in fact tried and true is preferred! And if it's a double, it's worthwhile just for the mp4 link above. I wanted to do this but .rm - no.

Re: Gödel, Escher, Bach: A Mental Space Odyssey

#8

Post by ivank »

div wrote: post #6

mp4 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-220k.rm $POST OCW_7.22.07_Godel-220k.rm &
  $PRE/OCW_7.29.07_Godel-220k.rm $POST OCW_7.29.07_Godel-220k.rm &
  $PRE/OCW_8.12.07_Godel-220k.rm $POST OCW_8.12.07_Godel-220k.rm &

Re: Gödel, Escher, Bach: A Mental Space Odyssey

#9

Post by presidentender »

I "read" this book, in that I passed my eyes over the words it contains, and mentally recreated the sounds of those words, parsed the individual sentences, and digested some of the paragraphs. It has had certain effects on my manner of thinking and acting, but it bothers me to know that there's a great deal more information in that hefty tome than I've managed to get out of it.
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