As a warm-up, and to indicate how I intend to prompt discussion (subject to the group's feedback) I have posted a summary of the Preface. (ETA: for instance, implications of this method are that it's up to participants to check back on the post from time to time to see if new summaries have been posted; then after reading the parts summarized, come back and answer this comment. Does that work?)

I will start work today on a summary of as much of Chapter 1 as might make for a nice bite-sized chunk to discuss, and post that in a few days, or sooner if the discussion on the Preface dies down quickly.

Discussion question for the Preface: can you think of further examples of the type of "old ideas" Jaynes refers to?