Victim of The Brain

April 11, 2007 5:44 AM

Victim of the Brain A 'docudrama' about Godel, Escher and Bach author, Douglas Hofstadter, and philosopher Dan Dennett produced in 1988. I'm not sure how to describe it, other than incredibly strange and fascinating.
posted by empath (19 comments total)

I don't know if you can tell from recent fpps, but my new internet addiction is searching Google Video for "Documentary", filtering by duration=long. There's a ton of great stuff there.
posted by empath at 5:45 AM on April 11, 2007 [1 favorite]

And i botched the link:

Here's the correct link.
posted by empath at 5:46 AM on April 11, 2007

awesome, now i know what to do when i get to work today. are you a strange loop too?
posted by Mach5 at 6:15 AM on April 11, 2007

I've always wondered what Hofstadter looked like. Another mystery solved by Metafilter.
posted by Jofus at 6:29 AM on April 11, 2007

little bit frustrated that I can't watch the video at work. little bit more frustrated that people post links that they "are not sure how to describe".

little bit unacceptable.
posted by ewkpates at 6:30 AM on April 11, 2007

Um, if you watched it, you would probably understand. I think if you read the wiki articles about Hofstadter and Dennett and the GEB link, you'd get the gist of what the subject matter will be. But the movie itself is really weird.
posted by empath at 6:31 AM on April 11, 2007

"Godel, Escher and Bach" is my favorite brain exercise.
If I feel like I am getting stagnant or to set in my ways of thinking I go back to trying to read it. I love it, but I will admit that much of what Hofstadter says is way out of my league.
posted by BeerGrin at 6:33 AM on April 11, 2007

Hah, I've seen this before and it's great and totally weird. I got I Am a Strange Loop in the mail from Amazon yesterday, and I'm going to see Hofstadter give a talk in a couple of weeks. Looking forward to it.
posted by painquale at 6:41 AM on April 11, 2007

Hofstadter is my hero. I'd love to meet him, but I'd probably get cold feet just like I did with Murray Gell-Mann. I like Dennett quite a bit, too, but I wasn't nervous talking with him.
posted by Ethereal Bligh at 6:52 AM on April 11, 2007

Hofstadter is awesome. He was probably the only person quirky enough to replace Martin Gardner at SciAm. GEB is my personal philosophical touchstone.
posted by notsnot at 7:13 AM on April 11, 2007

Wonderful!. Thanks a lot.
posted by elmono at 8:17 AM on April 11, 2007

"He was probably the only person quirky enough to replace Martin Gardner at SciAm."

Yes, but he was controversial because of his political/social activism in his columns. Which I thought was great. But I think that's why his tenure was so short.
posted by Ethereal Bligh at 8:30 AM on April 11, 2007

Awesome, I'll have to fave this to watch it when I actually finish GEB. Great book.
posted by BlackLeotardFront at 1:06 PM on April 11, 2007

GEB is the only book I have ever not been able to finish. It still mocks me on the shelf. The issue is I just can't skip over parts I don't get. DAMN!
posted by stormygrey at 2:34 PM on April 11, 2007

I like the idea of a discussion of Hofstadter taking place within this hive mind. Reading I Am a Strange Loop now, and it's exhilarating, even if much of it flies leagues above my little pointy head.
posted by BitterOldPunk at 2:43 PM on April 11, 2007

This will sound like a troll, but it's not. I've somehow managed not to read a word by Hofstadter, despite being in the target demographic. Can someone clue me in why I should read his books?
posted by lukemeister at 8:38 PM on April 11, 2007

This will sound like a troll, but it's not. I've somehow managed not to read a word by Hofstadter, despite being in the target demographic. Can someone clue me in why I should read his books?

I blame him for inspiring me to leave a gainful career in software engineering to return to school and do a degree in linguistics. I still write software, but women think I'm a lot more interesting now. Maybe you'd like to be more interesting to women, is that a good enough reason?
posted by litfit at 2:09 AM on April 12, 2007 [1 favorite]

litfit: That's a great answer. I'll try Goedel, Escher, Bach and then see what my wife thinks :-)
posted by lukemeister at 5:33 AM on April 12, 2007

Stormygrey, I've got the background to understand it, mostly, but occasionally skipped small bits. Push Forward - read it!
posted by notsnot at 5:45 AM on April 12, 2007