 |
|
You are not logged in! F.A.Q Log in Register |
 |
|
 |
 Now online (1)big ...and 446 guests Last 5 registered Oplandisks nothingstar N_loop yipe foxtrotromeo Browse members... |
 |
Members 8025Messages 2614212 Today 16 Topics 127548 |
|
|||||||||
| |||||||||
|
|
Anyone read this? What might I expect to get out of it? |
||||||||
|
|
|||||||||
| |||||||||
|
|
I read about 1/4 of it as it was suggested to me by redivider as his favorite book (i think).... I don't like it really, and might not ever finish it. From what I remember, he mostly writes about "recursive" stuff... I don't remember reading anything mind blowing, or ideas I hadn't read in other books... He does weird things like spice it up with little stories about anthropomorphic animals ala aesop or something between each chapter. I read it too long ago to recall correctly actually. |
||||||||
|
|
|||||||||
| |||||||||
|
|
what book would you suggest to enlighten me? thanks |
||||||||
|
|
|||||||||
| |||||||||
|
|
i read a book he co "authored" called Mind's Eye. they compiled short stories/essays of other authors and commented on these works. they tried to make sense of the "brain mind problem" but ended up sounding like a couple of blind western minds. the concept of the eternal golden braid intruiged me, though i have a hard time imagining it lives up to the title (which suggests it reveals some profound esoteric something or other). |
||||||||
|
|
|||||||||
| |||||||||
|
|
...that is, it was coauthored by hofstadter, the guy who did the eternal golden braid |
||||||||
|
|
|||||||||
| |||||||||
|
|
It's a wicked book. One of my very favourites. |
||||||||
|
|
|||||||||
| |||||||||
|
|
The picture on the cover is awesome though. I forget how it works, but somehow he fashioned 3 d cubes so that the actual cubes say GEB (godel escher bach) but the *shadows* say EGB (eternal golden braid). I found an interesting site www.edge.org I havn't checked it out thoroughly yet, but there was interesting stuff, like a guy suggesting time doesn't exist, etc. |
||||||||
|
|
|||||||||
| |||||||||
|
|
why is that? why might i want to read it? |
||||||||
|
|
|||||||||
| |||||||||
|
|
Oh yeah, he talked about bach's melody... he basically is interested in symmetry. For example he seems really interested in the concept that often bach makes a melody, then makes the exact same melody, only reversed in time, or twice as spaced out etc... symmetry. I didn't really remember or get the godel parts.. and he put in pictures of escher's work such as the stairs that go up forever, so he's interested in paradoxes and stuff I guess. |
||||||||
|
|
|||||||||
| |||||||||
|
|
yes its dead tidy. if you want to get into AI, the 'mechanics of meaning' (for want of a better gay phrase, there are lots of things on self-reproduction/modification and DNA etc. in the book), or just give yourself panic attacks at the enormity and complexity of existence and conciousness, and/or perhaps even go some way toward overcoming its incomprehensibility, READT IT! |
||||||||
|
|
|||||||||
| |||||||||
|
|
it's a must read for people who study cybernetics. it makes all the complicated algorythm sorting routines very easy to get into, indirectly, but very efficiently. |
||||||||
|
|
|||||||||
| |||||||||
|
|
yeah, read about a 1/4, maybe a 1/5 ... it is very interesting, but dunno, the stuff is just a bit too dry for me to get stuck into - the anthropomorphic animal parts are quite clever, and do provide relief from the dry formalism that occupies most of the book. Hofstader wrote the book when he was 21 (apparently). But I'd suggest perhaps reading Wittgensteins Tracatus Philisophicus-Logico ... very short book, but incredibly dense. |
||||||||
|
|
|||||||||
| |||||||||
|
|
what is the concept of the golden braid? |
||||||||
|
|
|||||||||
| |||||||||
|
|
i tried reading geb when i was in my late teens, it started out very fascinating but then i was lost, and lost interest. maybe one day i'll try again... |
||||||||
|
|
|||||||||
| |||||||||
|
|
that's what i want to know. is there a theme to the book? how does he relate the three? i get the feeling that this book doesn't go anywhere, much like the mind's eye. i think i'll stay away from hofstadter. |
||||||||
|
|
|||||||||
| |||||||||
|
|
You should read the reviews at amazon.com... some of those reviews are as good as reading books :)... plus you can often read about 5-10 sample pages. |
||||||||
|
|
|||||||||
| |||||||||
|
|
good idea :) |
||||||||
|
|
|||||||||
| |||||||||
|
|
while you're at it, look up "the pattern on the stone" by daniel hillis. Actually if you already know lots about computers, it might not be as interesting as it was to me who knew nothing about them. |
||||||||
|
|
|||||||||
| |||||||||
|
|
this one guy, steve jones, who did a really great bit (about evolution) on "big thinkers' a show on tech tv, has a top 10 book list: http://www.simonsingh.net/Steve_Jones_List.html I'll probably eventually check out most/all of these |
||||||||
|
|
|||||||||
| |||||||||
|
|
see, look what someone wrote: (first he quoted what someone else said in order to reply to it) 'Anyone who disagrees with the contents of this book must be distraught because Hofstatder stepped on someone's philosophical toes.' This sort of sophomoric argumentum ad hominem (and perhaps ad baculum as well) is innuendo, not a defence of the ideas contained in this volume. Such nonsensical remarks about the *motives* of those who disagree with Hofstadter are more worthy of cultism than of genuine philosophical enquiry. Ha! How well said. |
||||||||
|
|
|||||||||
| |||||||||
|
|
for a free online book published by one of my lecturers, a selection of articles on artificial intelligence from several leader in different fields. including one article by douglas hofstader. |
||||||||
|
|
|||||||||
| |||||||||
|
|
where did i come across this: www.edge.org it just appeared on my screen and i wonder how that happened |
||||||||
|
|
|||||||||
|
Messageboard index
|
|||||||||
