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Lecture 1: Introduction to Information Theory

Lecture 1: Introduction to Information Theory on HackerTube: recommended by 3 Hacker News commenters across 3 separate months, 2018–2024.

Jakob Foerster

lecture · intro · evergreen

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The first lecture of David MacKay's Cambridge course on information theory, pattern recognition and neural networks. It introduces the core ideas of his book Information Theory, Inference, and Learning Algorithms.

Why Hacker News recommends it

Recommended as an enjoyable, clear introduction to information theory that pairs well with MacKay's free textbook.

people recommended it
3
separate months
3
strong recommendations
0
discussed on HN
2018–2024
“It was very enjoyable for me to learn the material from his lectures.”
— maxov, Jun 2020, in “Ask HN: What, in your opinion, are the greatest and most useful textbooks?”

What HN commenters said

6 Hacker News comments link this video. Each one links back to its thread.

samch93Oct 2021Recommends

It‘s such a tragedy that he died so young. Prof Mackay was a role model who impacted our world in many positive ways (e.g. his work in information theory, Bayesian statistics, environmental science). I recommend his lecture on information theory which is available on youtube [1]. He also documented the progress of his cancer very detailed on his blog [2], which is a very interesting (and sad) read. [1] ▶ this video [2] [link]

in “Sustainable Energy without the Hot Air (Revised, Community Edition)” · View on HN

maxovJun 2020Recommends

Had . Unfortunately Professor MacKay passed away from cancer in 2016. We lost a great soul. I concur that his textbook and sense of humor were fantastic. It was very enjoyable for me to learn the material from his lectures. They are a great supplement to the textbook (or maybe vice versa?) and you can find them here: ▶ this video

in “Ask HN: What, in your opinion, are the greatest and most useful textbooks?” · View on HN

swframe2Feb 2018Recommends

I recommend David MacKay's Intro to Info Theory class: ▶ this video There is a free book for it at: [link] Daphne Koller's 3 coursara classes on Probabilistic Graphical Models are also really good.

in “Probabilistic Programming and Bayesian Methods for Hackers (2013)” · View on HN

teleforceMay 2024Cites it

Thanks for the list. Interesting to see that the book by the late David MacKay made it to the list, it is available to download in several formats from the book's website. Information Theory, Inference, and Learning Algorithms: [link] The lectures based on the book by David MacKay himself: ▶ this video Probably it's not a surprise that the father of information theory Claude Shannon is the earliest one to propose stochastic LLM based on Markov chain.

in “Reading list to join AI field from Hugging Face cofounder” · View on HN

noudFeb 2023Cites it

"Your browser does not support playback of available video formats. Please install Adobe Flash player or upgrade to a more modern browser." ...Okay? I found the videos on youtube as well: ▶ this video

in “David MacKay: Information Theory, Inference, and Learning Algorithms: The Book” · View on HN

scythmic_wavesFeb 2023Cites it

From lecture 1 [1]: > Ok, so, we have an answer of 1000 plus or minus 30 thanks to "Mr. Binomial", the inventor of the distribution that bears his name. Lol, this is great. [1]: ▶ this video

in “David MacKay: Information Theory, Inference, and Learning Algorithms: The Book” · View on HN

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