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/sci/ - Science & Math

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6965801 No.6965801 [Reply] [Original]

Just read GEB. Was a really great read.

It tackles philosophical and artistic ideas from a maths perspective, and gives very sophisticated analyses of very elusive topics, such as incompleteness, truth, consciousness etc. But the book itself is written much like the very ideas it deals with, which gives the whole reading experience a peculiar sense of purpose.

Highly recommended reading for anyone in the STEM fields.

The only critique I have is that it's too lengthy. Many explanations are a superfluous for the year 2014. If it had the information density of a maths textbook, it could be summed up to 200 pages.

If the book was summed up and revised, I would make it obligatory reading for every STEM major.

>> No.6965806

Oh and btw, I read up to 150 pages per day, and finished it in two weeks (ofc I didn't have the time to read all-day-erry-day).

Just to dispel the myth that you need two months to read it, you can read it in less than a week if you do nothing else.

>> No.6965819

Great job posting infantile pop-sci that literally an 8-year-old could read and understand.

>> No.6965822

>>6965819
>I'm so insecure that I have to aggressively assert my perceived superiority.

>> No.6965823

>>6965819
Never change /sci/, never change

>> No.6965831

>>6965822
this. accomplished people don't hate

>> No.6965857

>>6965831
Not true, they will instinctively and constantly try to guide people toward the path that made them successfully accomplished and disregard conflicting paths.

>> No.6965861

>>6965801

The God Delusion was a better science textbook in my opinion

>> No.6965976

>>6965857
Wrong again. Accomplished people became accomplished not because they followed what someone else told them, but because they did what they were most talented for.

>>6965861
>implying anybody ever said GEB is a "science textbook"

0/10

>> No.6966019

I am about a hundred pages in so far, it's pretty interesting. the author occasionally sounds like a huge dweeb. I'm not that smart though

>> No.6966086

>>6966019
>author sounds like a dweeb

Yeah, I had the same feeling the first few hundred pages in. In the end however it all makes sense.

>> No.6966163

>>6965976
So you are saying they hate on the conventions and just do what they want?

>> No.6966172
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6966172

>>6965801
Good! Now go enjoy I Am a Strange Loop before you get into Fluid Analogies.

>> No.6966338

Formal logic systems were tough for me to grasp and I enjoyed the dialogue between Achilles and the tortoise. Then again I was 14 when I read it the first time.

>> No.6966372

>>6965801
I did not like it, stopped reading at the point where he said something along the lines of 'meaning must be intrinsic'.

>>6966172
I am a strange loop was even worse. Almost halve of the book was literally listings of stuff, as if he had to publish something.

>> No.6966398
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6966398

>>6965801
>It tackles philosophical

Stopped reading

>> No.6966436

>>6966398
good luck with that

>> No.6966441

>>6966163
Educated people instinctively call others around them stupid in the hopes they will believe them. It creates less competition than educating your rivals. Why do you think every tech help forum on the internet is droves of people spouting false advise and "the problem isn't with X. the problem is with your stupidity"

>> No.6966445

>>6966441
Fuck that had alot of grammatical errors in it. I need to sleep.

>> No.6966461

it took me 6 months to read that book, but found it completely worth it. There isn't much out there quite like it. I think i'm gonna add "i am a strange loop" to my reading list

also, the amount of butthurt in this, supposedly, "science" board about this book is just baffling

>> No.6966523

>>6965822
this whole fucking board mang

>> No.6966547

>>6965857
jesus christ you're spilling fedora all over the place.

you probably think George Box is useless too.

Seriously, if you think that GEB was a pop-sci book and not about model creation, scope, and usage, you completely missed the point.

different guy btw.

>> No.6966549

It's a shitty book. Don't know why it gets so much praise. It's mediocre.

>> No.6966726

>>6965801
1+1= Wow this is really great are, and also the explanation to consciousness, even though I feel incomplete.

>> No.6966973

>ITT: People who missed the point of GEB

I had someone describe it to me as a New Age, spiritual description of consciousness. All my wuts

>> No.6967179

>>6966549
Well, you are either very educated and intelligent, so the book didn't offer you anything new, or you didn't understand it. If the former is the case, kudos to you! I'm a CS grad and math undergrad, and still found it a great read.

>> No.6967216

>>6966973

I suspect that most people who have read it have not, in fact, read it. I lent my copy out to several people and the conclusions they drew from it were so wildly at odds with the books contents that I can only surmise they skimmed a couple of chapters and maybe read a review of it online.

It's a shame, more people should persist with it, the style is off-putting to some and the treatment of art and philosophy alongside math is off-putting to others, but I don;t know anyone who wouldn't find SOMETHING cool in a thorough reading of GEB.