Douglas Hofstadter's Gödel, Escher, Bach: An Eternal Golden Braid has been recorded as a series of video lectures for MIT's Open Courseware project.
http://ocw.mit.edu/OcwWeb/hs/geb/VideoLectures/
Excellent.
Now I just need to find the time between school and work to watch these...
Excellent.
awesome!
thanks for the link-o, Cram...
Thanks to this link I found out the latest realmediaplayer adds a 'download' button to all videos online ever.
I'm sorry, but that fact turned out to be more interesting than the video itself. Needs better lecturer, this guy is painful to watch. Is it just me?
I've met Hofstadter. He's a douche. Not as much as Stephen Wolfram, but who is?
yeah? what happened? I've always wanted to meet the guy.
I took a class with one of his collegues
she described him as "a brilliant man with a few queer ideas"
I corresponded with him through the mail, and he was pretty decent fellow, from my experience. (he even did me a hand drawn invertable ambigram of my name, and not even one from an invertible font set)
what did he do to lessen your opinion of him?
Quote from: Iptuous on September 04, 2009, 05:24:25 PM
what did he do to lessen your opinion of him?
I took his "writing structured verse" course. He proved to be rather elitist. He also made one of my classmates cry.
Quote from: Anton on September 04, 2009, 06:34:24 PM
Quote from: Iptuous on September 04, 2009, 05:24:25 PM
what did he do to lessen your opinion of him?
I took his "writing structured verse" course. He proved to be rather elitist. He also made one of my classmates cry.
Was his elitism expressed by assuming everyone you and your classmates to be out of the running for the 'elite'? i can see why that would be annoying. or was it simply an open disdain for a large segment of society?
what did he do to make your classmate cry? from the pictures of him that i've seen, he doesn't look like he could throw a very good punch. :)
Quote from: Iptuous on September 04, 2009, 07:20:56 PM
Was his elitism expressed by assuming everyone you and your classmates to be out of the running for the 'elite'?
When I told him I liked structured verse, he made some statement to the effect that everyone else was out of the running for the elite. He was so zealous about it, I found it obnoxious.
Quotewhat did he do to make your classmate cry? from the pictures of him that i've seen, he doesn't look like he could throw a very good punch. :)
Admittedly the guy (the student) wasn't the brightest... Each day in class we would present a poem we wrote for critique; he chose one that was about his girlfriend, who had apparently committed suicide. Hofstadter ripped it to shreds.
So you think he's a douche because he critiqued a bad, but personal, poem that was submitted for critique, instead of giving the guy platitudes because it was a "heart and soul" poem?
:lulz:
maybe it was all the bad poetry that drove her to it.
Quote from: The Lord and Lady Omnibus Fuck on September 04, 2009, 09:39:55 PM
So you think he's a douche because he critiqued a bad, but personal, poem that was submitted for critique, instead of giving the guy platitudes because it was a "heart and soul" poem?
:lulz:
I guess it's more that I thought he was a douche at the time than I do now, and the association of douche was so strong in my mind.
But no. Not platitudes. Not heart and soul. It was a shitty poem for sure, but he didn't just say that--he tore the kid a new asshole.
Quote from: rong on September 04, 2009, 11:37:47 PM
maybe it was all the bad poetry that drove her to it.
Yeah, if only he understood cadence and meter, she would still be with us today.
Quote from: Anton on September 05, 2009, 07:59:05 AM
Quote from: The Lord and Lady Omnibus Fuck on September 04, 2009, 09:39:55 PM
So you think he's a douche because he critiqued a bad, but personal, poem that was submitted for critique, instead of giving the guy platitudes because it was a "heart and soul" poem?
:lulz:
I guess it's more that I thought he was a douche at the time than I do now, and the association of douche was so strong in my mind.
But no. Not platitudes. Not heart and soul. It was a shitty poem for sure, but he didn't just say that--he tore the kid a new asshole.
Did he tear the
kid a new asshole, or did he... as you originally said... rip the
poem to shreds?
There is a difference. Picking out every flaw in a poem submitted for critique is not the same as slamming the author. Did he personally slam the kid? Or did he just pick apart the poem, which would, in fact, be his
job?
^That^
when i read Hoffstadter's 'I am a strange loop', i thought it was awesome, up to the point that he started talking about the actual interconnectedness of the human soul with other people they were close to, such that one lives on beyond this mortal coil, and he discussed this in the context of his deceased wife. i thought it was stretching things in order to assuage his grieving for the loss of her. if he submitted that to me personally for evaluation, i would have told him so, but i would hope that he wouldn't think me an asshole for saying it. He seems a decent fellow, and from your story it seems like a case of over sensitivity on your and your classmates part.
then again, i didn't hear his tone of voice when critiquing. that counts for a lot...
what does "out of running for the elite" mean?
Quote from: Kai on September 05, 2009, 07:58:23 PM
what does "out of running for the elite" mean?
i also want to know.
Quote from: The Lord and Lady Omnibus Fuck on September 05, 2009, 06:41:17 PM
Did he tear the kid a new asshole, or did he... as you originally said... rip the poem to shreds?
There is a difference. Picking out every flaw in a poem submitted for critique is not the same as slamming the author. Did he personally slam the kid? Or did he just pick apart the poem, which would, in fact, be his job?
He anally raped him and forced us to watch. You done?
Quote from: Kai on September 05, 2009, 07:58:23 PM
what does "out of running for the elite" mean?
as in 'a little person'; not able to ascend to the elite echelons of society, for one reason or another.
at least, that's what i meant when i asked Anton. perhaps he meant something else when he used the phrase?
Oh, I knew what you meant. Also, he didn't use the phrase--you did.
Those who have opinions of people are based on social class are assholes.
Quote from: Kai on September 06, 2009, 01:19:00 PM
Those who have opinions of people are based on social class are assholes.
i think it's directional. i think the "elite" can eat a bag of dicks, but i don't think that makes me an asshole.
Quote from: Anton on September 06, 2009, 02:49:45 AM
Quote from: The Lord and Lady Omnibus Fuck on September 05, 2009, 06:41:17 PM
Did he tear the kid a new asshole, or did he... as you originally said... rip the poem to shreds?
There is a difference. Picking out every flaw in a poem submitted for critique is not the same as slamming the author. Did he personally slam the kid? Or did he just pick apart the poem, which would, in fact, be his job?
He anally raped him and forced us to watch. You done?
You're the one who brought it up- I was just asking you to clarify. Apparently you're not comfortable with that, so I'll just assume you were being as whiny as you sounded and that your opinion is invalid.
:lulz:
Quote from: Anton on September 06, 2009, 07:07:42 AM
Oh, I knew what you meant. Also, he didn't use the phrase--you did.
Quote from: Anton on September 04, 2009, 07:51:45 PM
When I told him I liked structured verse, he made some statement to the effect that everyone else was out of the running for the elite.
Now that we've finished with the Biblical exegesis, shouldn't you get back to your missionary post in Afghanistan?
The more and more I go about life the more I learn out that poetry is, apparently, SRS BSNS.
Quote from: Anton on September 07, 2009, 12:17:42 AM
Now that we've finished with the Biblical exegesis, shouldn't you get back to your missionary post in Afghanistan?
oooh sounds like someone takes themselves
terribly seriously and doesn't like to answer questions! :lulz:
Quote from: Nasturtiums on September 07, 2009, 08:05:48 AM
The more and more I go about life the more I learn out that poetry is, apparently, SRS BSNS.
Of course it is. But the people who take it most seriously are usually the worst at it.
Anton, grow a pair. I've been dogpiled twice as hard more times than I care to admit I deserved.
See, if you had gone into more detail to explain what he meant by "out of the running for the elite" and done it in such a way as to thoroughly portray him as a prick, that would have caused us to be swayed by the Fundamental Attribution Error and interpret his harsh poetry critique as utter dickishness. But you fucked that up and now everyone will hate you forever and there is no salvation from the ever-deepening pit of fail into which you have fallen; your voice shall join the hellish chorus of the wails and gnashing of teeth of a million thin-skinned weenies in that pit.
</facetious interjection into a conversation I had no part in>
Quote from: Cainad on September 07, 2009, 01:50:21 PM
Anton, grow a pair. I've been dogpiled twice as hard more times than I care to admit I deserved.
See, if you had gone into more detail to explain what he meant by "out of the running for the elite" and done it in such a way as to thoroughly portray him as a prick, that would have caused us to be swayed by the Fundamental Attribution Error and interpret his harsh poetry critique as utter dickishness. But you fucked that up and now everyone will hate you forever and there is no salvation from the ever-deepening pit of fail into which you have fallen; your voice shall join the hellish chorus of the wails and gnashing of teeth of a million thin-skinned weenies in that pit.
</facetious interjection into a conversation I had no part in>
[/quote]
lol, you have a point
Quote from: The Lord and Lady Omnibus Fuck on September 07, 2009, 08:30:16 AM
Quote from: Nasturtiums on September 07, 2009, 08:05:48 AM
The more and more I go about life the more I learn out that poetry is, apparently, SRS BSNS.
Of course it is. But the people who take it most seriously are usually the worst at it.
So it's not enough for you to troll me out of hearth and home, you have to imply that I'm a bad poet, too?
BAWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWW!
Quote from: Anton on September 07, 2009, 06:11:11 PM
Quote from: The Lord and Lady Omnibus Fuck on September 07, 2009, 08:30:16 AM
Quote from: Nasturtiums on September 07, 2009, 08:05:48 AM
The more and more I go about life the more I learn out that poetry is, apparently, SRS BSNS.
Of course it is. But the people who take it most seriously are usually the worst at it.
So it's not enough for you to troll me out of hearth and home, you have to imply that I'm a bad poet, too?
BAWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWW!
:|
Now that you have firmly established yourself as a pantywaist, I regret to inform you that I was talking about the other guy... the one who cried over his poem being critiqued harshly. But the same probably applies to you, now that you mention it. And this isn't "trolling", I just had a couple of questions about your comments and you went all douchebag bawwww central instead of answering them.
sooooooo.....
anyways.
Of the people here that have read GEB, what are some of the most enduring images that you have form it?
I would have to say that, for me, one is the anteater talking to the ant colony by means of selectively eating the ants... that one sticks for some reason.
Not for nothing, I can second the opinion that Hofsteader's kind of a prick. Also, he doesn't really know all that much about Escher or Bach, even though he'll pretend he does and get all peevish when you call him on it.