3 ms·
>there is indeed a huge logical error at the heart of the whole enterprise but it was not discovered until much later by Kurt Gödel. Which leads us to our next
by voxadam 3mo ago
>there is indeed a huge logical error at the heart of the whole enterprise but it was not discovered until much later by Kurt Gödel.
Which leads us to our next borderline impenetrable book, Gödel, Escher, Bach by Douglas Hofstadter.
- analog31 3mo agoGEB was one of the books that inspired me to study math in college. It made math come to life in way that my high school courses didn't.
- black_knight 3mo agoI showed up to first day at university and an older student talked to me for like two minutes before declaring that I needed to read GEB. I dutifully went ahead and bought it, and I still work in logic today.
- m-hodges 3mo agoI read GEB cover to cover and haven’t stopped thinking about it for years. Not a brag, a nudge that it’s not impenetrable and more people should read it.
- voxadam 3mo agoIt's been years since I cracked open a copy, maybe I should give it another shot.
- floxy 3mo agoIf you want to get to the meat of the issue, without the extraneous stuff, you might also tackle: Godel's Theorem Simplified. https://www.amazon.com/Godels-Theorem-Simplified-Harry-Gensler/dp/081913869X https://www.amazon.com/Godels-Theorem-Simplified-Harry-Gensl...
- lanstin 3mo agoThe extraneous stuff is honestly fabulous, IMO of course. Just being able to listen to a four part fugue sensibly is a rare but accessible pleasure. And amusing dialogs as an instantiated dialectic for showing the truth synthesized from apparent opposites, is a great pedagogical learning.
- m-hodges 3mo agoExtremely agree. The extraneous stuff is what makes the book magical.
- anthonygd 3mo agoI read it on my honeymoon 25 years ago. That book sticks with you.
- debo_ 3mo agoAre you still married?
- bryanrasmussen 3mo agofinally we shall be able to answer the age old question - does Gödel, Escher, Bach: an Eternal Golden Braid stick with you better than a spouse!
- debo_ 3mo agoGodel, Escher, Bachelor?
- wwweston 3mo agoI thought the recommended honeymoon reading was Knuth’s _Surreal Numbers_
- buildsjets 3mo agoI’m working on it every day during lunch break. Good old hardcopy.
- eru 3mo agoI read it cover to cove back in the day and enjoyed it. But I'm not sure more people should read it today. If they do and enjoy it, good for them! But many parts haven't aged all that well. However, I can still very warmly recommend 'The Pleasures of Counting' to this very day.
- jstanley 3mo agoWhat hasn't aged well? I don't think any of it is dated to any particular time period.
- black_knight 3mo agoGEB is not a difficult read. It is delightful! It is a popular science book which catches the vibe of mathematical logic in an excellent way. It is not a textbook, nor a piece of research. It's all vibes, but high-quality vibes. If you are in the right headspace it can be really inspiring!
- lanstin 3mo agoI had my copy signed by Prof Hofstadter; a treasure to this day. Led to a maths degree, years of organ playing classes, a career in software, and a Zen practice going on 20 years. And I'm pescatarian. I even wrote a few haiku when my babies were little. Hmm, time for another listen to a Tocatta and Fugue.
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- scubbo 3mo agoI'm surprised to hear that that was your perspective! I felt that it dealt with otherwise-opaque topics in a very approachable way.
- annzabelle 3mo agoMy brother's favorite book in 6th grade was Godel, Escher, Bach. Why, yes, he works as a compiler engineer.
- suslik 3mo ago> Gödel, Escher, Bach by Douglas Hofstadter. I gave that book to my mathematician grandma, and she found it so boring she couldn’t finish it - “All this stuff was known for decades”. True anecdote.
- eru 3mo agoWell, it's a pop-sci tome, not a research article. However, it is pretty dated these days.
- taybin 3mo agoHow is it dated?
- jcranmer 3mo agoA large chunk of the book is philosophizing about AI and the nature of the mind and intelligence. And when it's betting on the AI that existed pre-AI winter... yeah, that part is quite dated.
- taybin 3mo agoYou should see his book "Fluid Concepts and Creative Analogies, which is entirely about his experiments with AI in The Fluid Analogies Research Group with his grad students. Although I wonder if those techniques could be paired with LLMs somehow.
- eru 3mo agoEh, that's just a pop-science tome. Nothing impenetrable about it.
- onraglanroad 3mo agoI'd have thought so too, but when I went looking for a copy in Waterstones and failed to find it under popsci section, or in maths, I tried the enquiry desk. After a few attempts where I eventually tried "goddle s-chair batch" we found it. It was under Western Philosophy.
- sorokod 3mo agoTo each their own, I read GEB several times and enjoyed the intellectual challenge and the humour. Hofstadter wrote a followup book: I am a strange loop. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/I_Am_a_Strange_Loop https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/I_Am_a_Strange_Loop
- taybin 3mo agoHe wrote a number of follow-up books. I love GEB, but the follow ups were often disappointing in surprising ways. He has another book about the beauty and challenges of translating poetry, but it’s actually about the sudden death of his wife and it's been too sad for me to finish.