Tag Archives: douglas-hofstadter

Gödel, Escher, Bach Video Lectures

Last year I pointed to MIT’s programme dedicated to Douglas Hofstadter’s Gödel, Escher, Bach—the Pulitzer Prize-winning book on cognition that defies categorisation.

Just to update you on GEB news; MIT have now produced a series of video lectures dedicated to the book. (6 lectures, each approx. 1 hour in length.)

(I have a sort of love-hate relationship with GEB: I know I’m going to love it, but I hate the fact that for the last 18 months the book’s been staring at me, tempting me to pick it up, while I’ve been getting through my book ‘backlog’.)

Gödel, Escher, Bach

On a large number of ‘best of’ or ‘books that changed my life’ lists I always spot Gödel, Escher, Bach (GEB), the Pulitzer Prize-winning book by Douglas Hofstadter.

When my copy arrived at my door recently I was taken aback by this tome and realised that it was going to be a dense read that will need—and hopefully reward—all of my attention. As with similar books, I will undertake background research and reading first so that I can fully appreciate all the concepts contained within.

This is when I found MIT’s ‘special programme’ specifically based on the book. While it doesn’t provide a wealth of useful, supplementary material (much like the Wikipedia entry), it does mention some good Bach pieces to accompany your reading.