Theo Todman's Web Page - Notes Pages
Status Reports
Status: Summary (2024 - September)
(Text as at 10/10/2024 00:47:31)
Rationale for this Report
- This is a summary report with links to my various on-going projects. Detailed progress is shown on the sub-reports.
- This summary report should highlight whether my focus has become unbalanced or otherwise inappropriate to the achievement of my major goals.
- As these reports are rather a pain to generate, I produce them quarterly, rather than monthly. I’ve also improved the automation and am reducing the amount of narrative comment.
Projects in Progress
- I have ten projects on which I would like to spend my time, which is too many. I currently split them into three groups.
- The first group relates to my primary (project) life-goals; the second relates to things I really want to address; the final group1 relates to those I’d like to look into if I get ahead on the other projects.
Primary Projects
- Personal Identity2: This is the subject that ought to grab most of my attention, as it is the topic of my yet-to-be-completed PhD Thesis3. I need to achieve something in philosophy, as this is the only one of my endeavours that promises a professional outcome (in the sense of being one of more than merely personal interest).
- Web-tools4: This project is intended to assist with the prosecution of philosophical research. It is fundamentally an enabling project, though one I hope will have general metaphilosophical implications. The other projects are test cases of the method, as well as worthwhile studies in their own right.
- Philosophy of Religion5: On and off, this represents the main preoccupation of my adult life (work and family aside). Eventually, I intend to follow up in some detail interesting topics from the Philosophy of Religion module from the MA in Philosophy and Religion at Heythrop College, London University that I tasted at the end of 2010, though nothing much has happened in the last decade or so!
Secondary Projects
- Music6: Improve my competence as an oboist. I have managed regular oboe-practice in my new den for some time now, and recommenced oboe lessons – approximately fortnightly – in September 2018, though these ceased with the pandemic and have not recommenced. I have also purchased an electronic piano – also installed in my den – so hopefully some progress will be made on piano-playing, though there’s little time for it.
- Bridge7: I still want to become an expert player but have recognised that this isn’t going to happen without it becoming my main priority, so I’m effectively just playing for fun.
- Chess8: I returned to the chess scene in September 2018 and played regularly for the Billericay first team in the Southend and North Essex Leagues until Covid put a stop to over-the-board games. My ultimate aim is to improve my standard of play so I can perform acceptably, but I’m currently just treading water, especially as there’s little over-the-board play to be had.
Other Projects
- General Culture9: Engagement with cultural and political issues is an important part of life so it’s worth recording and reflecting on what I do in this regard.
- Languages10: Gain at least a rudimentary understanding of 24 diverse languages – for practical and philosophical purposes.
- Mathematics11: Revive / improve my mathematical competence with a view to the use of mathematics as a tool in my various other projects. Also – now that I’m nearly 71 – useful for keeping various bits of my brain functioning12.
- HiQ13: Enjoy and contribute to the intellectual society of ISPE and Mensa. Mostly in abeyance, though I re-joined ISPE14 in 2017 and have maintained my membership since then, but can spare no time to speak of for taking part.
- These projects are (approximately, in their respective groups) in order of decreasing priority, yet in practise the amount of effort expended on them has failed to respect this.
- I have ignored the various infrastructural elements of my life in these reports – in particular family life (including the grandchildren!), household management, walking the dog and such like.
- However, these “non-project” items – especially the dog15, and (mostly) formerly the house16 – tend to be time-consuming.
- This report and the sub-reports obtained by following the links immediately above show the current status. The report headings show the period the reports are for. Earlier reports can be found by following the links in the “Table of Previous Versions of this Note” further down this report, or in the sub-reports.
Actuals & Planning
- Actuals
- In 24Q3 I spent across my various projects 671.75 hours (2937.5 hours YTD) – where by "YTD" - Year to Date - I mean the academic year commencing in October 2023. "Actual versus plan" was 99.1%, (98.4% YTD).
- I worked hard during 24Q3, and approximately met my somewhat holiday-reduced target hours. I instituted a revolution in my priorities at the end of July 2023, when I finally decided that I need to go all out – or as near all-out as I can cope with psychologically – on my Thesis. There’s still an enormous amount of work to do, and I was 70 in mid-November 2023! So, I decided to greatly reduce the amount of time allocated to two time-consuming projects, namely Languages and Philosophy of Religion, at least until I’m making considerable progress on my Thesis.
- This is the final report for the 2023/24 ‘academic year’ and time for more reflection than is usual for these quarterly reports. As a result of these cogitations, I’ve decided to institute a pause – for as long as it takes this academic year – on ‘all out Thesis’ in order to complete a number of tasks on my Web Tools17 project.
- The tables of actual versus plan are on separate pages, accessible below18:-
- For detailed breakdowns of time spent this year, by month and by study location, follow this link19.
- For a report by sub-project of time expended since my records began, follow this link20.
- For tables of Actual versus Plan, together with the high-level plan for the next quarter, see this page21.
Planning
Despite the ‘revolution in July 2023’ I’ve succumbed to the temptation to proceed on a broad front and to allocate significant time to Bridge and Music, though not as much as often in the past.
I’ve returned my average weekly total plan to 62 hours for 24Q4 and for the rest of the academic year. I may review this allocation in future Quarters. However, I’ve adjusted the way the time is allocated, giving increases to Bridge, Music and – as already noted – Web-Tools.
Consequently, I’ve had to reduce the planned effort for my Thesis to 16 hours a week, which is 9 hours less than I’d schedule as a part-time PhD student22. I hope to return this to what it should be later in the year when I’ve caught up with Web-Tools.
I’ve increased the time allocation for my Web Tools project to 15 hours / week, as there’s a lot of important work to do fairly urgently.
I’ve decided to continue to try to play the oboe properly, and improve my general musicianship, and have returned my Music allowance for the coming quarter to 7 hours / week, which includes my administrative work in support of the Enigma Ensemble and an attempt to engage with Aural work.
I’ve maintained my return to regular Bridge-playing, but only with one regular partner (Albert). However, there are several ECBA competitions in the coming Quarter and consequently have this coming quarter increased my time allocation to 10 hours / week for a regular weekly game, a monthly game and a few ‘extras’ and administration (Secretary of Mayflower DBC).
I don’t really have much time for Chess training using ChessMood, despite it being really enjoyable. However, I want to get to the situation of actually enjoying playing the game. Hence, I’ve increased the time allocation to 4 hours / week to allow for occasional games on Chess.com (or with Tommy).
I’ve retained the time allocated to Philosophy of Religion and Languages at 3 hours / week each. This is to allow me to continue reading through the Bible in the original Hebrew and Greek, and to learn Thai, respectively.
“Fallow” time while walking Bertie will now be taken up with reading philosophy on my Kindle now that I have more time to follow up the reading with writing.
My ‘General Culture’ project has been halved to 2 hours / week, but allocated a notional 1 hour / week to HiQ and Mathematics as is usual for the first Quarter of the academic year.
So, the weekly plan (62 hours) for the next quarter is as below:-
- Priority 1: 34 hours
- Personal Identity: 16 hours.
- Web Tools: 15 hours.
- Philosophy of Religion: 3 hours.
- Priority 2: 21 hours
- Music: 7 hours.
- Bridge: 10 hours.
- Chess: 4 hours.
- Priority 3: 7 hours
- General Culture: 2 hours.
- Languages: 3 hours.
- Mathematics: 1 hours.
- HiQ: 1 hours.
Follow this link for a list of recently23 purchased books.
Detailed Interim Activities
- As these reports are now quarterly, at best, I include a link to a brief uncommented list24 of what I’ve been working on since the last report (ie. this one). It is generated automatically from my time-recording system.
- I’ve recently added a fuller YTD List25, useful for getting a handle on what – if anything – has been happening to the minor projects.
- Their main utility (to me, at any rate) is as a quick jumping-off point for the various writings in progress or recently completed.
- The lists will, in general, be updated every few days.
Plans for the Near Future26
- Below is a sequence of long task-lists broken down by project.
- As a recent innovation, I’ve decided to add a small subset of these as a ‘Top 10’ (or thereabouts) items that have been bugging me and ought to be completed in the coming Quarter. This list is not to include long-term on-going items, so doesn’t necessarily reflect the highest priorities; just things I want to get out of the way. The list is not to get longer and longer, nor are items to sit on it for Quarters on end. Unfortunately, things haven’t quite worked out thus far! I note that almost all of them relate to my Website.
- I also note here that there are rather too many tasks that – at least in principle – I set myself to perform EVERY DAY. Time accruing to them is mostly accounted for in my various projects, but they remain a considerable daily overhead of 4 hours.
Detailed Plans by Project
- Daily Tasks
- Top 10
- Thesis
- Website
- Religion
- Music
- Bridge
- Chess
- GeneralCulture
- Languages
- Mathematics
- HiQ
Detailed Lists
- Daily Tasks (4 hours) / day
- Bertie: Walk x 2: 90 minutes
- Chess: "Grigoryan (Avetik) - ChessMood" - Openings & Tactics: 15 minutes
- Chess: "Chess - Chess dot Com" - Daily rapidplay game: 15 minutes
- Computer: Read "PC Pro - Computing in the Real World": 5 minutes
- Coxes Farm: Read "LPOC - Listed Heritage: The Listed Property Owners' Club Magazine": 5 minutes
- Music Aural: "Earmaster - Ear Training & Sight-singing": 15 minutes
- Oboe: Practice: 30 minutes
- Piano: Practice ("Faber (Nancey) & Faber (Randall) - Faber Piano Adventures: Adult Piano Adventures All-in-One Lesson Book 1: Spiral Bound"): 0 minutes
- Religion: Read NT in Greek: 15 minutes
- Religion: Read OT (LXX) in Greek: 15 minutes
- Religion: Read OT in Hebrew: 15 minutes
- Rowing Machine: 5 minutes
- Thai: "Juyaso (Arthit) - Read Thai in 10 Days": 10 minutes
- Thai: "Mondly - Learn Thai": 5 minutes
- Top 10 Items
- Nail the Thai script via "Juyaso (Arthit) - Read Thai in 10 Days"
- Complete redevelopment of my Backup27 routines
- Complete documentation of Photos Timeline Software28
- Complete documentation of Coxes Farm Repairs29 (Phase III)
- Complete documentation of Thesis Technology30
- Replace Norton Antivirus by Microsoft Defender on all 3 PCs
- Import all recently-acquired pdfs into my database, Notes reading-lists and Thesis Chapters
- Complete the redevelopment of the ‘Internal Links’ Spider31
- Add timeline photos to my Biography of Henry32
- Create Timeline page for old Family Photos
- Move password management to Bitwarden
- Thesis33 (16 hours per week)
- Continue with my Thesis34; in particular
- Spend at least an hour a day writing something original; namely, essays on:-
→ The difference between Forward and Backward Psychological Continuity35.
→ The persistence of Androids36.
- Continue filling out those sections of my Thesis that I can write something on without further research, using books / papers already analysed.
- Continually review the Note describing my Current Beliefs37 on the topic of Personal Identity.
- Regularly review and update of the Notes I’ve created on Personal Identity, focusing on those directly referenced by my Current Beliefs38.
- Adjust, Create and Complete new PID Notes as seems necessary:-
- Aristotle: Set up
- Connectionism: Set up
- Epistemology / Knowledge: Set up
- Innateness: Set up
- Language of Thought39: Convert to Language (with LOT as a subsection)
- Metaphilosophy40: Complete draft
- Modularity (of Mind): Set up
- Names: Set up
- Panpsychism: Set up (or include under another Note: Mind or Consciousness. See below)
- Paradox: Set up
- Rationality: Set up
- Thought41: Complete draft
- Truth: Set up
- Make progress on specific Chapters of my Thesis, using the tasks outlined in my Thesis Dashboard42, using the materials listed43 in the Chapters and underlying Notes.
- Ensure the following foundational Books44 required for my Thesis are fully annotated45. In particular:-
- "Baker (Lynne Rudder) - Persons and Bodies: A Constitution View",
- "Olson (Eric) - The Human Animal - Personal Identity Without Psychology", and
- "Olson (Eric) - What are We? A Study of Personal Ontology".
- Read / review the following fall-out items from my review of "Baker (Lynne Rudder) - Materialism with a Human Face":-
- "Baker (Lynne Rudder) - Why Constitution is Not Identity"
- "Burke (Michael) - Copper Statues and Pieces of Copper: A Challenge to the Standard Account"
- "Burke (Michael) - Persons and Bodies: How to Avoid the New Dualism"
- "Burke (Michael) - Preserving the Principle of One Object to a Place: A Novel Account of the Relations Amongst Objects, Sorts, Sortals, and Persistence Conditions"
- "Gibbard (Allan) - Contingent Identity"
- "Johnston (Mark) - Constitution is Not Identity"
- "Noonan (Harold) - Constitution Is Identity"
- "Olson (Eric) - Reply to Lynne Rudder Baker"
- "Snowdon (Paul) - Persons, Animals, and Ourselves"
- On human exceptionalism:-
→ "Forsey (Jane) - Humans and Dumb Animals"
→ "Phillips (Patrick) - Talking to the Animals"
→ "Wells (J'aime) - Language-Using Apes"
- Also:-
→ "Hurley (Susan) & Nudds (Matthew) - Rational Animals?"
→ "Savage-Rumbaugh (E.Sue) & Lewin (Roger) - Kanzi: Ape at the Brink of the Human Mind"
- Draw up a further SHORT list of books that MUST be studied in great detail. I'll add them in as they arise in the analysis of the above books.
- "Hawley (Katherine) - How Things Persist",
- "Heller (Mark) - The Ontology of Physical Objects: Four-Dimensional Hunks of Matter",
- "Hoffman (Joshua) & Rosenkrantz (Gary) - Substance: Its Nature and Existence",
- "Hudson (Hud) - A Materialist Metaphysics of the Human Person",
- "Mellor (D.H.) - Real Time II",
- "Noonan (Harold) - Personal Identity",
- "Van Inwagen (Peter) - Material Beings",
- "Sider (Ted) - Four-dimensionalism: An Ontology of Persistence and Time",
- "Wiggins (David) - Sameness and Substance Renewed", and
- "Wilson (Jack) - Biological Individuality - The identity and Persistence of Living Entities"
- Read and comment on46 the following remaining PhD Theses relevant to my own Thesis:-
- "Baggini (Julian) - Psychological Reductionism About Persons: A Critical Development",
- "Eddebo (Johan) - Death and the Self: A Metaphysical Investigation of the Rationality of Afterlife Beliefs in the Contemporary Intellectual Climate",
- "Ferner (Adam) - Metaphysics and biology: a critique of David Wiggins’ account of personal identity",
- "Gendler (Tamar Szabo) - Imaginary Exceptions: On the Powers and Limits of Thought Experiment",
- "Keles (Serap) - Personal identity and persistence over time : the hybrid view with regard to hylomorphism",
- "Kotak (Aakash) - The Hybrid Theory of Personal Identity" (MPhil Thesis)
- "Lechthaler (Manuel) - Composition and Identities",
- "Lybaert (Fauve) - Personal Identity and the Formal Self",
- "Paez (Eze) - Abortion: What We Ought to Believe - An Ontological and Normative Analysis",
- "Parsons (Josh) - Theories of Persistence",
- "Rau (Philipp) - The Author, Not the Tale: Memory, Narrative, and the Self",
- "Skow (Bradford) - Once Upon a Spacetime",
- "Southgate (Susan Jane) - Personal Identity: The Simple View",
- "Trakas (Marina) - Personal Memories", and
- "Woods (Evan Thomas) - The Problems of the Many".
- Apply the issues raised by recently-read PhD Theses relevant to my own Thesis to my various Notes:-
- "Atkinson (Thomas) - Human organisms and the survival of death: a systematic evaluation of the possibility of life after death given animalism", see also the Section on Resurrection below
- "Hodson (Sommer) - A Hybrid View of Personal Identity",
- Follow up on Keith Augustine's comments on my review of "Hershenov (David) - Review of Nancey Murphy's 'Bodies and Souls, or Spirited Bodies?'".
- Follow up on Wayne Stewart's comments on my Note on Closest Continuers47, including reading and reviewing the following:-
- "Clark (Tom) - Death, Nothingness, and Subjectivity"
- "Clark (Tom) - A Notable Theoretical Convergence",
- "Epstein (Dmitry) - What if We’re Still Here? A Selfish Reason to Care for Future Generations",
- "Stewart (Wayne) - Metaphysics by Default",
- "Stewart (Wayne) - Metaphysics by Default - Chapter 09: Existential Passage",
- "Stewart (Wayne) - Metaphysics by Default - Chapter 17: Application to Other Species",
- "Stewart (Wayne) - Metaphysics by Default - Chapter 20: Proof and Speculation",
- "Stewart (Wayne) - Uzgalis: Accidentally Opening a Transmigration Window by Nixing the Proper Continuer",
- "Robert (David) - The Existential Passage Hypothesis",
- "Uzgalis (William) - Review - Dainton - The Phenomenal Self",
- Teletransportation48 (Update Note using the following):-
- "Science Unbound - Teleporters: The Death Machines You Don't Want": Complete reading / reviewing relevant passages in these follow-up items
- "Hanley (Richard) - The Metaphysics of Star Trek"
- "Gribbin (John) - Schrodinger's Kittens and the Search for Reality"
- "Kaku (Michio) - Physics of the Impossible: A Scientific Exploration of the World of Phasers, Force Fields, Teleportation and Time Travel"
- "Krauss (Lawrence M.) - The Physics of Star Trek"
- "Penrose (Roger) - The Emperor's New Mind"
- "YouTube - Video - The Trouble with Transporters"
- Resurrection49
- "Atkinson (Thomas) - Human organisms and the survival of death: a systematic evaluation of the possibility of life after death given animalism", a PhD Thesis noted above
- "Ayers (Michael R.) - Locke's Theory of Personal Identity",
- "Ayers (Michael R.) - Personal Identity Before the Essay",
- "Gasser (Georg), Ed. - Personal Identity and Resurrection: How Do We Survive Our Death?",
- "Graves (Shawn), Hereth (Blake) & John (Tyler M.) - In Defense of Animal Universalism",
- "O'Connor (Timothy) & Jacobs (Jonathan D.) - Emergent individuals and the resurrection",
- "Locke (John) - Of Identity and Diversity",
- "Loose (Jonathan) - Constitution and the Falling Elevator: The Continuing Incompatibility of Materialism and Resurrection Belief",
- "Loose (Jonathan) - Materialism Most Miserable The Prospects for Dualist and Physicalist Accounts of Resurrection",
- "Mavrodes (George I.) - The Life Everlasting and the Bodily Criterion of Identity",
- "Mooney (Justin) - The possibility of resurrection by reassembly",
- "O'Donnell (Patrick S.) - Death & Dying: A Select bibliography",
→ Also "O'Donnell (Patrick S.) - Human Nature, Personhood, and Personal Identity: A Select bibliography",
- "Olson (Eric) - Immanent Causation and Life After Death",
- "Olson (Eric) - Life After Death and the Devastation of the Grave",
- "Quinn (Philip L.) - Personal Identity, Bodily Continuity and Resurrection",
- "Quinn (Philip L.) - Some Problems about Resurrection",
- "Thompson (Jon W.) - Individuation, Identity, and Resurrection in Thomas Jackson and John Locke",
- "Thompson (Jon W.) - Personal Identity and Resurrection: Early Modern Philosophical Perspectives",
- "Van Inwagen (Peter) - The Possibility of Resurrection",
- "Zimmerman (Dean) - The Compatibility of Materialism and Survival: The “Falling Elevator” Model",
- "Zimmerman (Dean) - Bodily Resurrection: The Falling Elevator Model Revisited"
- BUMP: Follow up on papers from "Kingma (Elselijn) - BUMP: Better Understanding the Metaphysics of Pregnancy":-
- "Baron (Teresa) - A lost cause? Fundamental problems for causal theories of parenthood".
- "Baron (Teresa) - Nobody puts Baby in the container: the foetal container model at work in medicine and commercial surrogacy".
- "Finn (Suki) - Bun or bump?".
- "Finn (Suki) - Methodology for the metaphysics of pregnancy".
- "Finn (Suki) - The Metaphysics of Surrogacy".
- "Geddes (Alexander) - Pregnancy, Parthood and Proper Overlap".
- "Grose (Jonathan) - How many organisms during a pregnancy?".
- "Kingma (Elselijn) - Biological Individuality, Pregnancy, and (Mammalian) Reproduction".
- "Kingma (Elselijn) - BUMP: Better Understanding the Metaphysics of Pregnancy (B1)".
- "Kingma (Elselijn) - BUMP: Better Understanding the Metaphysics of Pregnancy (B2)".
- "Kingma (Elselijn) - Functions and health at the interface of biology and technology".
- "Kingma (Elselijn) - Lady Parts: The Metaphysics of Pregnancy".
- "Kingma (Elselijn) - Nine months".
- "Kingma (Elselijn) - Were You Part of Your Mother?".
- "Kingma (Elselijn) & Finn (Suki) - Neonatal Incubator or Artificial Womb? Distinguishing Ectogestation and Ectogenesis using the Metaphysics of Pregnancy".
- "Meincke (Anne Sophie) - One or two? A Process View of pregnancy".
- "Woollard (Fiona) - Mother Knows Best: Pregnancy, Applied Ethics, and Epistemically Transformative Experiences".
- "Woollard (Fiona) - Philosophy can explain what kind of achievement it is to give birth".
- "Woollard (Fiona) - ‘Utilitarianism for animals: deontology for people’ and the doing/allowing distinction".
- Complete analysing the following papers50:-
- "Cofnas (Nathan) - Research on group differences in intelligence: A defense of free inquiry",
- "Corabi (Joseph) & Schneider (Susan) - The Metaphysics of Uploading",
- "FT, Baggini (Julian), Warburton (Nigel) - Five Books - The Best Books on How To Think (Like a Philosopher)", **New**
- "FT, ChatGPT - Five Books - The Best Books on Artificial Intelligence", **New**
- "FT, Coyne (Jerry A.) - Five Books - The Best Books on Evolution",
- "FT, Dennett (Daniel) & Warburton (Nigel) - Five Favorite Books",
- "Frary (Mark) - Beyond Repair",
- "Galton (Francis) - Visualised Numerals",
- "Giusti (Elena) & Derbew (Sarah) - Decolonizing Blackness, alongside the Classics Curriculum: A conversation with Dr Sarah Derbew",
- "Gradesaver - The Satanic Verses by Salman Rushdie: Study Guide - Introduction", Etc.
- "Harari (Yuval Noah) - Disruption, Democracy & the Global Order" (update in the light of YouTube video and CSER summary),
- "Hume (David) - Treatise I.IV.VI: Of Personal Identity",
- "Kobie (Nicole) - Neuralink: an old idea that could be the future of medicine",
- "Korhonen (Anna), Woodward (Sarah) - This idea must die: 'AI will outsmart the human race'",
- "Middleton (Anna), Welford (Megan) - The Ethics of Genomics"
- "Moreno Figueroa (Monica), Jolin (Lucy) - A world without oppression to you",
- "Mulhall (Stephen), LRB - Non-Identity Crisis", **New**
- "Olson (Eric) - The Central Dogma Of Transhumanism",
- "Paris (J.J.) & Elias-Jones (A.C.) - Do we murder Mary to save Jodie?",
- "Peckham (Jeremy) - AI, humanity and Christian ministry",
- "Putnam (Hilary) - Brains in a Vat",
- "Stenger (Victor J.), Lindsay (James A.) & Boghossian (Paul) - Physicists Are Philosophers, Too", **New**
- "Van Inwagen (Peter) - Materialism and the Psychological-continuity Account of Personal Identity",
- "Velleman (David) - Beyond Price", **New**
- "Walker (Robert) - Mary And Jodie – The Case Of The Conjoined Twins",
- "Watkin (Christopher) - Christianity and critical race theory",
- "Wikipedia - Large language model", and
- "Zangwill (Nick) - Our Moral Duty to Eat Meat"
- Consciousness51
- Dismantle the above report
- Transfer historic Actuals to Thesis
- Transfer text to:-
→ This Status Report,
→ My Note on Consciousness52.
- Aeon53: Read & annotate papers as they arise, especially ...
- "Chittka (Lars) & Wilson (Catherine) - Bee-brained": Write-up
- "Frankish (Keith) - The Consciousness Illusion": Write-up
- "Frohlich (Joel) - Frames of consciousness": Read & write-up
- "Parks (Tim) & Manzotti (Riccardo) - You are the world": Read & write-up
- "Pigliucci (Massimo) - Consciousness is real": Read & write-up
- "Seth (Anil Kumar) - The real problem": Read & write-up
- "Seth (Anil Kumar) - How we build perception from the inside out": Write-up
- Panpsychism:-
- Set up Note on Panpsychism (as above)
- "BBC, Bragg (Melvyn) - In Our Time - Panpsychism": Review / revise.
- "Goff (Philip) - A Change of Heart on Fine-Tuning": Re-read & comment
- "Goff (Philip) - Galileo's Error: Foundations for a New Science of Consciousness": Book. Read.
- "Goff (Philip) - Is the Universe a conscious mind?": Re-read & comment
- "Goff (Philip) - Panpsychism is crazy, but it’s also most probably true": Re-read & comment
- "Goff (Philip) - Purposeful universe": Re-read & comment
- "Goff (Philip) - Why? The Purpose of the Universe": Book. Read.
- "JCS - Journal of Consciousness Studies, Volume 13, Issue 10-11 (2006)": Book. Read.
- Modularity, Connectionism & Innateness: update Note54 using the following:-
- "Clark (Andy) - Microcognition – Philosophy Cognitive Science & Parallel Distributed Processing",
- "Fodor (Jerry) - There and Back Again: A Review of Annette Karmiloff-Smith's Beyond Modularity",
- "Fodor (Jerry) & Pylyshyn (Zenon) - Connectionism and Cognitive Architecture: A Critical Analysis",
- "Elman (Jeffrey), Bates (Elizabeth), Johnson (Mark), Karmiloff-Smith (Annette), Parisi (Domenico) & Plunkett (Kim) - Rethinking Innateness",
- "Karmiloff-Smith (Annette) - Beyond Modularity",
- "Plunkett (Kim) & Elman (Jeffrey) - Exercises in Rethinking Innateness - A Handbook for Connectionist Simulations",
- "Pylyshyn (Zenon) - Computation and Cognition: Toward a Foundation of Cognitive Science",
- "Rowlands (Mark) - Connectionism and the Language of Thought",
- Action the following Books and Papers:-
- "Birch (Jonathan) - The Edge of Sentience: Risk and Precaution in Humans, Other Animals, and AI": Burst out Papers; Read
- "Bonhomme (Vincent), Etc. - General Anesthesia: A Probe to Explore Consciousness": Read & write-up
- "Crane (Tim) - Elements of Mind - An Introduction to the Philosophy of Mind": Re-read and review notes.
- "Dehaene (Stanislas) - Consciousness and the Brain: Deciphering How the Brain Codes Our Thoughts": Read.
- "Dennett (Daniel) - Illusionism as the Obvious Default Theory of Consciousness": Read.
- "Donald (Merlin) - A Mind So Rare: The Evolution of Human Consciousness": Read.
- "Eliot (Lise) - What's Going On in There?: How the Brain And Mind Develop in the First Five Years of Life": Read.
- "Kammerer (Francois) - The Hardest Aspect of the Illusion Problem - and How to Solve it": Read.
- "Metzinger (Thomas), Ed. - Conscious Experience": Burst out Papers and add Metzinger's Abstracts
- "Seth (Anil Kumar) - Being You: A New Science of Consciousness": Read.
- "Shapiro (Lawrence) - The Mind Incarnate": Read.
- "Strawson (Galen) - The Consciousness Deniers": Read & write-up
- "Tegmark (Max) - Life 3.0: Being Human in the Age of Artificial Intelligence": Write up Chapter 8: Consciousness
- Ensure the annotations from recently-read Papers are added to the relevant Notes:-
- "Ayers (Michael R.) - Locke on Living Things"
- "Baker (Lynne Rudder) - Materialism with a Human Face"
- "Baker (Lynne Rudder) - Review of 'What Are We? A Study in Personal Ontology' by Eric T. Olson"
- As background tasks:-
- Ensure all items in:-
- "Various - Papers on Desktop", and
- "Various - Papers in Desk Drawer"
are either addressed or re-filed.
- Maintain "Various - Papers & Books Yet To Be Logged", and log papers therein if they become important.
- Convert old PDFs to Notes:-
- Review the two reports:-
- PDF-précis,
- PDF-essays55.
- Determine how the first is produced, and why the pdfs aren't highlighted, and compare with Write-ups Notes Jump Table
- Convert outstanding Essays & Précises.
- Complete cataloguing the books downloaded from Springer,
- Continue / complete reading / annotating various books56 that have landed in my in-tray:-
- "Barash (David P.) - Through a Glass Brightly: Using Science to See Our Species as We Really Are",
- "Blatti (Stephan) & Snowdon (Paul), Eds. - Animalism: New Essays on Persons, Animals, and Identity",
- "Bostrom (Nick) - Superintelligence: Paths, Dangers, Strategies",
- "Bradley (Ben), Feldman (Fred) & Johansson (Jens) - The Oxford Handbook of Philosophy of Death",
- "Clark (Andy) - The Experience Machine: How Our Minds Predict and Shape Reality",
- "Dennett (Daniel) - Intuition Pumps and Other Tools for Thinking",
- "Edmonds (David) - Would You Kill the Fat Man? The Trolley Problem and What Your Answer Tells Us about Right and Wrong",
- "Erber (Joan T.) & Szuchman (Lenore T.) - Great Myths of Aging",
- "Green (Joel B.) - Body, Soul, and Human Life: The Nature of Humanity in the Bible",
- "Heyam (Kit) - Before We Were Trans: A New History of Gender",
- "Hofstadter (Douglas) & Dennett (Daniel), Eds. - The Mind's I - Fantasies and Reflections on Self and Soul",
- "Kagan (Shelly) - How to Count Animals, more or less",
- "Korsgaard (Christine) - Fellow Creatures: Our Obligations to the Other Animals",
- "Lawrance (John) - Hosting Andrew",
- "Loke (Andrew Ter Ern) - The Origin of Humanity and Evolution: Science and Scripture in Conversation",
- "Levitin (Daniel) - The Changing Mind: A Neuroscientist's Guide to Ageing Well",
- "Lyons (Siobhan) - Death and the Machine: Intersections of Mortality and Robotics",
- "Martin (L. Michael) & Augustine (Keith) - The Myth of an Afterlife: The Case against Life After Death",
- "Miller (Kristie) - Issues in Theoretical Diversity: Persistence, Composition, and Time",
- "Peckham (Jeremy) - Masters or Slaves?: AI And The Future Of Humanity",
- "Price (Huw) - Time's Arrow and Archimedes' Point: New Directions for the Physics of Time",
- "Ricard (Matthieu) - A Plea for the Animals: The Moral, Philosophical, and Evolutionary Imperative to Treat All Beings with Compassion",
- "Rowlands (Mark) - The Philosopher and the Wolf",
- "Schneider (Susan) - Artificial You",
- "Shermer (Michael), Gould (Stephen Jay) - Why People Believe Weird Things: Pseudoscience, Superstition, and Other Confusions of Our Time",
- "Seung (Sebastian) - Connectome: How the Brain's Wiring Makes Us Who We Are",
- "Singer (Peter) - The Life You Can Save: How to Do Your Part to End World Poverty",
- "Vonnegut (Kurt) - Slaughterhouse 5, or The Children's Crusade - A Duty-dance with Death",
- "Walker (Matthew P.) - Why We Sleep: The New Science of Sleep and Dreams",
- "Wasserman (Ryan) - The Paradoxes of Time Travel", and
- "Wyatt (John) - Matters of Life and Death".
- Continue reading and reviewing papers issued by Aeon57 (and the occasional spin-off). In particular, complete write-ups58 for the following 117 items: Follow this Link59.
- Keep up with the Journals via JSTOR & Cambridge Core.
- Update my Journals Note60: Review the journals I have access to; more are available as a Cambridge Alumnus.
- Keep up with the philosophical world by regular reviews of "Interaction - Philos-List", but only seriously pursue items relevant to my research.
- Website61 (15 hours per week)
- Own Website: Priority 1 Items By Category:-
- Architecture
- Complete XRef-re-engineering project:-
- Ensure all links and link-pages use the new XRef table, and pension off the old tables where appropriate.
- Check all link-types still work and fix any errors.
- Complete the auto-triggering of regeneration of “associated” link pages.
- Fix Bug whereby PaperSummary pages seem to have “Works-” and “Books/Papers-” Citings that refer to the same link-pages.
- Complete Documenting62 the process!
- Backups
- Determine why flag on directories "not to be backed up" gets reset
- Document and enable regular running of the de-duplication function ('pruning') of the backup disk. Keep a full record of deleted duplicates.
- Enable Backups to be undertaken on both my PC & Laptop and write reconciliation software.
- Incorporate new 5Tb WD Backup Drive
- Investigate historic error messages
- Investigate Record-count discrepancies:-
- How do website files work as far as counts are concerned?
- Why aren't they recorded in Backup_History, nor the fact that the website was backed up?
- Different counts depending on whether new or old laptop is backed up. Investigate 63k discrepancy - lower on new laptop.
- Review architecture to improve performance; Need to document63 first
- Sort out the contents of my C:Drives, OneDrive and Emails as documented in my Backup Documentation
- Books/Papers
- For Books and Papers - add link pages - analogous to:-
→ BooksToNotes_
→ BookCitings_
→ PapersToNotes_
→ PaperCitings_
linked to from:-
→ BookSummaries_
→ PaperSummary_
and (maybe) from:-
→ BookPaperAbstracts_
→ Abstract_
But, the links are FROM the Book / Paper, rather than TO
For Books, ensure that all the links from all the Book's Papers are also included
- Sub-Topic ID has reached 996: What happens after 999? Research and Fix
- Bridge
- Bridge Results Export: Correct residual problems following code changes to work around the ‘Cannot open any more databases: Run-time error 3048’ bug.
- After run, while the database closes OK, MS Access remains active and has to be crashed via Task Manager.
- If the Export is run a second time, as is required for Partner's calculated NGS to show correctly, without closing the database first, we get 'permision denied' when trying to create Bridge_Results_Theo.htm.
- Small Systems: Correct residual problems following code changes to work around the ‘Cannot open any more databases: Run-time error 3048’ bug.
- After importing results via 'Joint Project Conversion', while the database closes OK, MS Access remains active and has to be crashed via Task Manager.
- After running the Mini-Wedsite Generator, while the database closes OK, MS Access remains active as a ghost Background Process and has to be crashed via Task Manager. Until this is done, MS Access won't open.
- Longer term - correct the fudge that simply re-creates Small Systems for the current year (hard coded to 2024).
- Documentation
- Website Generator Documentation - Audio64: Review & Complete Documentation
- Website Generator Documentation - Author Narratives65: Complete Documentation
- Website Generator Documentation - Citations66: Complete Documentation
- Website Generator Documentation - Code Documenter67: Complete Documentation
- Website Generator Documentation - Create Notes Web Pages68: Complete Documentation
- Website Generator Documentation - Cross-Referencing69: Complete Documentation
- Website Generator Documentation - Functional Overview70: Review & Complete Documentation
- Website Generator Documentation - Language / Ling Pages71: Complete Documentation
- Website Generator Documentation - Links & Link-Pages72: Complete Documentation
- Website Generator Documentation - Monthly Reporting73: Complete Documentation
- Website Generator Documentation - New Items74: Complete Documentation
- Website Generator Documentation - Note References & Reading List75: Complete Documentation
- Website Generator Documentation - PID Note, Book & Paper Usage76: Complete Documentation
- Website Generator Documentation - Precis Export77: Complete Documentation
- Website Generator Documentation - Prune Website78: Complete Documentation
- Website Generator Documentation - Spider & System Backups79: Complete Documentation
- Website Generator Documentation - Thesis Dashboard80: Complete Documentation
- Website Generator Documentation - Thesis Technology81: Complete Documentation
- Website Generator Documentation - Time Recording82: Complete Documentation
- Website Generator Documentation - Timelines (Photos & Blog)83: Complete Documentation
- Education
- Read "PC Pro - Computing in the Real World".
- Read "White (Ron) & Downs (Timothy Edward) - How Computers Work: The Evolution of Technology".
- Infrastructure
- Fatal Database Errors: ‘Cannot open any more databases: Run-time error 3048’.
- When I then try to compact and repair the database - the first port of call when there's a strange problem - it complains that it is locked by the Administrator. Then the database won’t close and has to be zapped by Task Manager. Only then can I delete the lock file, but this doesn't resolve anything as the problem recurs. I think the 'too many databases' error message is misleading.
- This started on Tuesday 27th August 2024 with Bridge_Web_Generator.accdb on Desktop. I stopped running it thereon and it was fine for a day on my Laptop, then the problem recurred.
- Looking on-line, this seems to be a known Microsoft bug for which a fix is awaited. It looks like the garbage dispoal routines (after set db = nothing) aren't working. It's not just where you're sloppy and don't do this and rely on the system to do garbage collection: I did changes to 'Small Systems' processing, but it made no difference.
- My main 'Thesis' database is working fine - I managed a full Regeneration starting late on 31st August. It may be that the bug was fixed under Windows 11 but not Windows 10. However, I'm not taking the risk of running my Bridge database on my Desktop in case it mucks up my Thesis database. The failure of Compact / Repair of my Bridge database is particularly worrying, but my Thesis databse C/Rs fine on my Laptop (and Desktop). This is a relief, as this database becomes unusable after a few days otherwise as it reaches the 2Gb limit
- Currently I'm waiting and seeing. Re-importing all the elements into a new Bridge database made no difference.
- However, so that I can continue running my Bridge processing, I've raised a couple of Development Items to enable
→ Small Systems
→ Bridge Statistics
- Migrate 2 x Laptop + Desktop from Norton AV to Microsoft Defender: Norton non-renews 13/11/24
- Migrate from Chrome to Bitwarden for password management
- Notes
- Active Note Groups with Notes Updated in the last 7, 14, 28 days: seem to be producing random results. Important as there are links from my Home Page.
- Allow the option to embed blocks of re-usable text in Notes (ie. linearly embed them essay-style) rather than using hyperlinking. Slightly analogous to Note_Snippets or Sub_Notes, but more flexible.
- For use as "disclaimers".
- The identical block of text in the Dashboard84 to that in the Note Thesis - Method & Form85 that describes the Thesis.
- For Thesis / essays: the difficulty here is the need for linking passages to make the text run smoothly.
- As a more controllable alternative to 'Printable Notes'.
- Correct processing for 'References & Reading List' section in Thesis - References86. There are over 7,000 but only 7 items appear!
- Determine why all my Status Reports from September 2021 are missing from Notes_Archive. Seek to recover them from backups.
- Develop method for (manually) deleting otiose Archived Notes: ie. ensure links work for remaining Notes!
- Enhance PID Note, Book & Paper Usage87 to include a section listing works cited in my Thesis but not read
- Investigate Note_Links: Section references seem to be incorrect
- Notes_Links: Segment & Provide Jump Table (Eg. For Thought88)
- PID Thesis References - De-duplicate / suppress and / or change sort order / aggregation for non-anthology book chapters
- Update Personal Page89 & Home Page
- Upgrade Auto_Reference_Notes to reference Sub-Notes: Used to only affect one note - Somerset Maugham - but now may be urgent
- When using the '#' reference to Notes, allow the omission of the Note ID for links within the same Note.
- Papers
- Split PDFs Available on Local Website90 page into alphabetical sub-pages
- Photos
- Timeline software91: Add photos for Bakers' Coxes Farm Development Phase III
- Timeline software92: Add photos for Henry's Biography
- Process
- Determine why Recalculation & Changed Book/Papers produce unneeded regeneration.
- Spider
- Investigate reduction in size of Web_Generator_Performance database that holds Raw_Links.
- Suppress MsgBox for 'Near to 2Gb' database size check (just use Debug).
- One-off deletion of rather useless links: EMail, TheosStyle.css, TT_ICO.png, #Top, ...
- Remove code that generates these links, and check them.
- Investigate removal of website 'root' (C:\Theo's Files\Websites\Theo's Website\) from Raw_Link and Full_Link. This would save 200Mb, but needs careful checking - especially against the Directory_Structure and related tables and code.
- If the above 'root' change is to go ahead - one-off updates + code changes required.
- Use Edge rather than Internet Explorer for External Links Spider (use Bing AI)
- Status
- Reorganise Status Reporting:-
- Merge Consciousness Project93 with Thesis94 (as a sub-project).
→ Merge historic plan & actuals
→ Adjust current Thesis plan, actuals & task list.
- Create a new Project: Culture & Politics
→ Move 'Thesis background reading / writing and 'Aeon' to this new project.
→ Create project plan and move historic actuals to it.
→ Adjust 'Thesis' historic actuals and task list: move relevant items to new project.
- Make sure the Status reports - both manual and automatic - still work
- WebRefs
- Create a page showing the use of WebRefs more clearly. The pages accessed via Theo Todman's Web-Links Test Webpages are of little use other than as an audit. Also, there are many broken links not picked up by the Spider. Need pages that use meaningful names.
- Documentation & Bug-fixes: Phase 2
- Re-document the procedures in the light of recent changes.
- Resolve issues generated / revealed by the spider.
- Investigate - and fix where possible - broken links.
- Find a way of recording Missing / Unknown Webrefs (eg. Webrefs 8395 and 8342 in Archived Notes 1292 and 1317) other than debug.print: create table, then suppress message for known problems
- Investigate items flagged as defunct. Populate Defunct_Explanation in WebRefs_Table. Consider use of FairUse (Link (Fair Use)) for documents no longer available that I'd downloaded.
- Investigate WebRefs with Issue = 'URL Translated OK': does the translation really work? How?
- Visitor Stats - cmdVisitorStats_Click (and following) - loops and requires 'DAO.DBEngine.SetOption dbmaxlocksperfile,1000000' to be typed in the Immediate window. Re-engineer.
- Other Websites: Priority 1 Items By Category:-
- Religion95 (3 hours per week)
- Philosophy of Religion:
- "Antony (Louise M.) - Philosophers without Gods: Meditations on Atheism and the Secular Life": Continue reading,
- "Davis (Stephen T.) - The Mad/Bad/God Trilemma: A Reply to Daniel Howard-Snyder": Annotate,
- "Ginn (Roy) - According to the Scriptures": Complete write-up
- "Howard-Snyder (Daniel) - Does Faith Entail Belief": Read,
- "Howard-Snyder (Daniel) - The Skeptical Christian": Read,
- "Howard-Snyder (Daniel) - Was Jesus Mad, Bad, Or God?…Or Merely Mistaken?": Annotate,
- "Hume (David) - Of Miracles": Annotate,
- "Insole (Christopher J.) - Realism and Anti-Realism": Read,
- "YouTube - Video - Atheists deny reality": Annotate,
- "YouTube - Video - 'It’s impossible for atheists to do this!' …but It’s Not": Annotate.
- Science & the Bible:
- "Plantinga (Alvin) & Dennett (Daniel) - Science and Religion: Are They Compatible?",
- "Instone-Brewer (David) - Science and the Bible: Modern Insights for an Ancient Text", and
- "Loke (Andrew Ter Ern) - The Origin of Humanity and Evolution: Science and Scripture in Conversation"
- Middle East:
- "Chapman (Colin) - The Israel-Hamas war and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict", and
- "Chapman (Colin) - Whose Promised Land?" (when re-issued)
- Bible:
- "Bibleworks - Bibleworks: OT & NT", and
- "Lanier (Gregory R.) & Ros (William A.) - Septuaginta: A Reader's Edition - Volume 1".
- Qur'an / Islam:
- "Asad ( Muhammad), Qur'an - The Message of the Quran: The Full Account of the Revealed Arabic Text Accompanied by Parallel Transliteration",
- "Burton (John), Qur'an - The Collection of the Qur'an".
- "Jones (Alan), Qur'an - Arabic Through the Qur'an", Note96
- "Omar (Abdul Mannan), Qur'an - The Dictionary of the Holy Quran: Arabic Words - English Meanings",
- "Qur'an - Easy Quran: Arabic Text With Word For Word English Translation",
- "Wansbrough (John), Rippin (Andrew), Qur'an - Quranic Studies: Sources and Methods of Scriptural Interpretation".
- Background:
- Aeon: Read & annotate papers as they arise
- "Finkelstein (Israel) & Silberman (Neil Asher) - The Bible Unearthed": Continue reading
- "Instone-Brewer (David) - Techniques and Assumptions in Jewish Exegesis before 70 CE": Read
- "Taylor (Joan E.) - Jesus and Brian: Exploring the Historical Jesus and His Times Via Monty Python's Life of Brian": Review KCL Conference videos
- Incorporate downloaded David Instone-Brewer papers into my database.
- Music97 (7 hours per week)
- Administration
- Organise the Enigma Ensemble: dates, music & finances.
- Complete my feasibility study Music Score OCR & Editing Software98. Outstanding actions:-
- Review MuseScore Editing documentation.
- Investigate MuseScore Scores database.
- Bach Minuet: Use MuseScore to add consistent dynamics to parts for Enigma Ensemble.
- Miller of Dee: Use MuseScore to combine individual scores into orchestral score. Create Midi file for distribution.
- Use MuseScore to tidy up scans for:-
→ Orchestral Exercises
→ Bach Difficult Passages
→ Mike Mower pieces
→ Grade VI, VII & VIII piano-accompanied pieces: also extract piano accompaniments
→ Enigma Clarinet transpositions: transpose any requested
- Oboe:-
- Practice the oboe for one 30-minute session each and every day99 – focussing on the items below and …
- Occasionally add an extra half-hour session to help build up stamina further.
- Enigma Ensemble: attend the fortnightly sessions and practice any difficult pieces, especially Bach Organ Sonata No. 4.II (Andante).
- Continue to try to get a grip on the oboe's high notes, especially above high D. Use:-
→ YouTube: Oboe Files - How to play high notes; 2nd/3rd octave with Fingerings!, and
→ Oboe Files - How to: high notes on the oboe (Fingerings and tips for the 2nd/3rd octave with video tutorial)
- Work through, and perfect, scales & arpeggios100 for Grades I-VIII, using
→ "Trinity Guildhall - Trinity Guildhall Scales & Arpeggios for Oboe (Grades 1–8)",
→ "ABRSM - Scales and Arpeggios for Oboe, Grades 1-8 (ABRSM Scales & Arpeggios)", and ... more entertaining ...
→ "Hinke (Gustav Adolf) - Elementary Method For Oboe".
- Improve sight-reading by playing through
→ "Trinity Guildhall - Sound at Sight Oboe Grades 1-8", and
→ "Davies (John) & Harris (Paul) - 80 Graded Studies for Oboe: Book 1".
- Occasionally review Grade VI pieces, in particular
→ "Boni (Giovanni) - Sonata in G" (Prelude, but also 2nd, 3rd & 4th movements for interest),
→ "Davies (John) & Harris (Paul) - 80 Graded Studies for Oboe: Book 2" (Blatt - Study No. 52),
→ "Morricone (Ennio) - Gabriel's Oboe (Piano Solo Or Oboe/Piano)"
→ "Miller (Vojislav) & Liebermann (Winfried), Eds. - Test Pieces for Orchestral Auditions (Orchester Probespiel) - Oboe" (Eroica, Aida, Der Freischutz),
→ "Nielsen (Carl) - Two Fantasy Pieces, Op. 2" (Romanze only)
- Prepare Grade VII pieces, in particular101
→ "Albinoni (Tomaso) - Concerto in D Minor Op. 9/2 for Oboe & Piano", 1st movement (but also 2nd & 3rd for interest)
→ "Bach (J.S.) - 105 Difficult Passages from the Works of J. S. Bach. For oboe", Items 49 & 70
→ "Cimarosa (Domenico) - Oboe Concerto in C minor", All, but particularly 1st & 4th movements
→ "Davies (John) & Harris (Paul) - 80 Graded Studies for Oboe: Book 2" (Ferling - Study No. 62)
→ "Fiocco (J.H.) - Arioso - Oboe + Piano",
→ "Head (Michael) - Presto for Oboe & Piano",
→ "Hinke (Gustav Adolf) - Elementary Method For Oboe", Items 14 & 18
→ "Miller (Vojislav) & Liebermann (Winfried), Eds. - Test Pieces for Orchestral Auditions (Orchester Probespiel) - Oboe" (Mozart Jupiter, Tchaikovsky Pathetique, Stravinsky Pucinella),
→ "Mower (Mike) - The Good Tempered Oboe" (Nos. 28 & 35: 'Jauntless Jig' & 'May The Fourth Be With You'; also No. 30: 'Answer the Question'),
→ "Nielsen (Carl) - Two Fantasy Pieces, Op. 2" (Humoresque),
→ "Saint-Saens (Camille) - Sonata Op.166 in D Major for Oboe & Piano" (1st Movement),
→ "Schumann (Robert) - 3 Romances, Op. 94 for Oboe and Piano" (1st & 3rd Movements; 2nd for interest).
- Prepare Grade VIII pieces, in particular102
→ "Bach (J.S.) - 105 Difficult Passages from the Works of J. S. Bach. For oboe", Items 62, 66 and 28
→ "Davies (John) & Harris (Paul) - 80 Graded Studies for Oboe: Book 2" (Harris - Study No. 74; Luft - Study No. 77)
→ "Miller (Vojislav) & Liebermann (Winfried), Eds. - Test Pieces for Orchestral Auditions (Orchester Probespiel) - Oboe" (try various),
→ "Mower (Mike) - The Good Tempered Oboe" (No. 44 - 'Dop Dop Doobah'; also No. 45: 'Enlightenment'),
→ "Saint-Saens (Camille) - Sonata Op.166 in D Major for Oboe & Piano" (2nd & 3rd Movements),
- Read and apply oboe practice techniques recommended by:-
→ Martin Schuring, and
→ "Benedetti (Nicola) - My five tips for learning an instrument".
- Read "Caplan (Stephen) - Oboe: The Breathing Book".
- Piano: Try to develop some minimal competence as an aid to theory, so:-
- Continue practicing "Rhodes (James) - How to Play the Piano" (Bach's Prelude #1),
- Work through "Faber (Nancey) & Faber (Randall) - Faber Piano Adventures: Adult Piano Adventures All-in-One Lesson Book 1: Spiral Bound",
- Work through "ABRSM - Selected Piano Exam Pieces 2009-2010: Grade 1", and
- Try to play by ear, using for inspiration:-
→ "Cannel (Ward) & Marx (Fred) - How to Play the Piano Despite Years of Lessons: What Music Is and How to Make It at Home".
- Theory: Prepare for Grade 5 Theory, so:-
- Study
→ "Taylor (Eric) - The AB Guide to Music Theory - Part 1", and
→ "Taylor (Eric) - The AB Guide to Music Theory - Part 2",
- Whiz through103 the exercises in
→ "Taylor (Eric) - Music Theory in Practice: Grade 1",
→ "Taylor (Eric) - Music Theory in Practice: Grade 2",
→ "Taylor (Eric) - Music Theory in Practice: Grade 3",
→ "Taylor (Eric) - Music Theory in Practice: Grade 4", and
→ "Taylor (Eric) - Music Theory in Practice: Grade 5",
- Aural:
- Run through:-
→ "Trinity Guildhall - Trinity College London Aural Tests Book 1 (Initial to Grade 5) 2017", and
→ "Trinity Guildhall - Trinity College London Aural Tests Book 2 (Grades 6 to 8) 2017".
- Get a grip on the process of ear-training by
→ Reading "Deutsch (Diana) - Absolute Pitch", and related material104, and
→ Seriously engage with "Earmaster - Ear Training & Sight-singing".
- Also follow up items in:-
→ "Various - Music - Aural - Various On-line Training".
- Bridge105 (10 hours per week)
- Play:-
→ Mayflower: Weekly on Tuesday, with Albert
→ Chelmsford: Monthly on second Friday, with Albert
→ ECBA Club Teams (Barleylands) - Sunday 27th October 2024 - with Albert
→ Social event (John's): All-play-all (December 2024)
→ NICKO: awaiting the draw, but the first round match for Mayflower - which I'll need to organise and play in, possibly on-line - has to be completed by 10th December 2024.
- Bridge Admin:
→ Website and Secretarial duties for Mayflower Bridge Club.
→ Maintain website for Hutton Union.
→ Maintain my Bridge Page106.
- Study: Re-read Hand-counting papers, focussing on
→ Papers in Counting the Hands107,
→ "Bourke (Tim) & Smith (Marc), Bird (David) - Countdown to Winning Bridge"
→ "Lawrence (Mike) - How to read your opponents' cards: The bridge expert's way to locate missing high cards", and
→ "Lawrence (Mike) - How to Play Card Combinations"
- Read "Kelsey (Hugh) & Glauert (Michael) - Bridge Odds for Practical Players".
- "Reading - Bridge - Magazines".
- Chess108 (4 hours per week)
- "Grigoryan (Avetik) - ChessMood", focusing on - in priority sequence:-
- "Grigoryan (Avetik) - ChessMood - Courses: Openings",
- "Grigoryan (Avetik) - ChessMood - Courses: Tactics": Puzzles
- "Grigoryan (Avetik) - ChessMood - Courses: End Game",
- "Grigoryan (Avetik) - ChessMood - Improvement Plans", and
- "Grigoryan (Avetik) - ChessMood - General Reading"
- Chess Training - Play & Review:-
- Chess.com: Game analysis & On-line play,
- LiChess: Investigate and consider migrating from Chess.com. LiChess is the platform recommended by ChessMood.
- "Studer (Noel) - Next Level Chess": Read new articles as they arise weekly, and catch up on the older ones.
- Complete review of 2018/19 season's games,
- Complete review of 2019/20 season's games,
- Train Tommy as opportunity arises.
- Chess Study / Reading109: Focus on ChessMood but hold the following in reserve:-
- "Hansen (Carsten) - Back to Basics: Chess Openings: A comprehensive guide to chess openings and opening play",
- "Kuljasevic (Davorin) - How to Study Chess on Your Own: Creating a Plan that Works… and Sticking to it!",
- "Ris (Robert) - Crucial Chess Skills for the Club Player: Volume 1",
- "Ris (Robert) - Crucial Chess Skills for the Club Player: Volume 2", and
- "Willemze (Thomas) - The Chess Toolbox: Practical Techniques Everyone Should Know".
- Update my Chess Page110.
- Why Play Chess?:
- Seriously consider the issues raised by "Ramon y Cajal (Santiago) - On Chess".
- Counter this with responsibiity to the local chess scene, now I've made contact, and with training Tommy
- GeneralCulture111 (2 hours per week)
- Continue / complete reading various books that have landed in my in-tray112:-
- "Doyle (Andrew) - The New Puritans: How the Religion of Social Justice Captured the Western World",
- "Freedman (Sam) - Failed State: Why Nothing Works and How We Fix It",
- "Ryback (Timoth W.) - Takeover",
- "Seldon (Anthony) - The Conservative Effect, 2010–2024: 14 Wasted Years?", and
- "Toner (Jerry) - A Grand Tour of the Roman Empire by Marcus Sidonius Falx".
- Aeon113
- Continue collecting, reading and reviewing papers issued by Aeon & Psyche (and the occasional spin-off).
- In particular, complete write-ups for:-
→ "Neumeyer (Joy) - The discontent of Russia"
- Five Books ("FT - Five Books - Various Subjects not covered elsewhere", Etc)
- Continue collecting, reading and reviewing relevant books.
- "FT, Figes (Orlando) - Five Books - The Best Russian Novels": Review
- "FT, Wiseman (Peter) - Five Books - The Best Books on Augustus": Review
- Coxes Farm: Read:-
- "LPOC - Listed Heritage: The Listed Property Owners' Club Magazine",
- "Yorke (Trevor) - Timber-Framed Building Explained",
- "Yorke (Trevor) - Tudor Houses Explained",
- "Barratt (Nick) - Tracing the History of Your House: The Building, the People, the Past", and
- "Brunskill (R.W.) - Vernacular Architecture: An Illustrated Handbook"
- Languages114 (3 hours per week)
- General:
- Brief Thoughts on Language & Languages115
- Thai
- "Juyaso (Arthit) - Read Thai in 10 Days": Complete
- "Mondly - Learn Thai": Continue
- "Baidun (Alex) - Mastering Thai in Just One Month: My 155-Hour Journey": Further review in the light of the above.
- Brush up on Biblical Hebrew & Greek and learn Qur'anic Arabic:-
- "Lambdin (Thomas) - Introduction to Biblical Hebrew", and
- "Williamson (H.G.M.) - Annotated Key to Lambdin's Introduction to Biblical Hebrew"
- "Wenham (John) - The Elements of New Testament Greek", and
- "Wenham (John) - Key to the Elements of New Testament Greek", and
- "Jones (Alan), Qur'an - Arabic Through the Qur'an"
- Other Scripts: Thoroughly get to grips with:-
- Armenian: "Andonian (Hagop) - Beginner's Armenian",
- Hindi: "Snell (Rupert) - Beginner's Hindi Script",
- Khmer: "Hok (Dara) - Cambodian Alphabet"
- Korean: "Go (Billy) - Korean Made Simple: A beginner's guide to learning the Korean language: 1",
- Lao: "Lao Lessons - How to Write in Lao: Lao writing workbook"
- Persian: "Farzad (Narguess) - Complete Modern Persian",
- Urdu: "Delacy (Richard) - Read and Write Urdu Script".
- Priority 1
- French:
→ "Ling - Learn French"
- German:
→ "Tenberg (Reinhard) & Ainslie (Susan) - Deutsch Plus",
→ "Ling - Learn German"
- Greek (Modern):
→ "Matsukas (Aristarhos) - Complete Greek Course",
→ "Ling - Learn Greek"
- Italian:
→ "Freeth (Mariolina) & Checketts (Giuliana) - Contatti 1: A First Course in Italian",
→ "Ling - Learn Italian"
- Portuguese:
→ "Whitlam (John) - Modern Brazilian Portuguese Grammar: A Practical Guide",
→ "Ling - Learn Portuguese"
- Spanish:
→ "Gordon (Ronni L.) & Stillman (David M.) - The Ultimate Spanish Review and Practice",
→ "Ling - Learn Spanish"
- Thai:
→ "Mondly - Learn Thai",
→ "Ling - Learn Thai",
→ "Becker (Benjawan Poomsan) - Thai for Beginners",
→ "Juyaso (Arthit) - Read Thai in 10 Days"
- Ukrainian:
→ "Bekh (Olena) & Dingley (James) - Complete Ukrainian Beginner to Intermediate Course",
→ "Lonely Planet, Pavlyshyn (Marko) - Lonely Planet Ukrainian Phrasebook & Dictionary",
→ "Ling - Learn Ukrainian",
→ "Wikipedia - Ukrainian Alphabet",
→ "Wikipedia - Ukrainian Language"
- Priority 2
- Arabic (Modern):
→ "Ling - Learn Arabic"
- Chinese:
→ "Ling - Learn Chinese"
- Hebrew (Modern):
→ "Raizen (Esther) - Modern Hebrew for Beginners: A Multimedia Program for Students at the Beginning and Intermediate Levels",
→ "Ling - Learn Hebrew"
- Hindi:
→ "Ling - Learn Hindi"
- Japanese:
→ "Lammers (W.P.) - Japanese the Manga Way: An Illustrated Guide to Grammar and Structure",
→ "Ling - Learn Japanese"
- Turkish:
→ "Celen-Pollard (Asuman) & Pollard (David) - Turkish (Teach Yourself Complete Courses)",
→ "Ling - Learn Turkish"
- Urdu:
→ "Ling - Learn Urdu"
- Priority 3
- Amharic:
→ "Halcomb (T. Michael W.) - Introducing Amharic: An Interactive Workbook",
→ "Ling - Learn Amharic"
- Armenian:
→ "Schumann (Johannes) - Armenian for beginners",
→ "Ling - Learn Armenian"
- Danish:
→ "Koefoed (H.A.) - Teach Yourself Danish",
→ "Ling - Learn Danish"
- Dutch:
→ "Shetter (William) - Introduction to Dutch - A Practical Grammar",
→ "Ling - Learn Dutch"
- Khmer:
→ "Hok (Dara) - Cambodian Alphabet"
→ "Wikipedia - Khmer Script"
→ "Wikipedia - Khmer Language"
- Korean:
→ "Ling - Learn Korean"
- Lao:
→ "Lao Lessons - How to Write in Lao: Lao writing workbook"
→ "Wikipedia - Lao Script"
→ "Wikipedia - Lao Language"
- Persian:
→ "Ling - Learn Persian"
- Polish:
→ "Ling - Learn Polish",
→ "Lonely Planet, Czajkowski (Piotr) - Lonely Planet Polish Phrasebook & Dictionary",
→ "Wikipedia - Polish language"
- Russian:
→ "West (Daphne) - Russian",
→ "Ling - Learn Russian"
- Swahili:
→ "Wood (Laurence) & Shadrack (Jaba Tumaini) - Learn Swahili Quickly and Easily: The theory made simple",
→ "Ling - Learn Swahili"
- Swedish:
→ "McClean (R.J.) - Swedish: A Grammar of the Modern Language",
→ "Ling - Learn Swedish"
- Priority 4
- Coptic:
→ "Layton (Bentley) - Coptic in 20 Lessons: Introduction to Sahidic Coptic with Exercises and Vocabularies"
- Egyptian:
→ "Collier (Mark) & Manley (Bill) - How to Read Egyptian Hieroglyphs: A Step-by-step Guide to Teach Yourself Hieroglyphs"
- Latin:
→ "Duolingo - Duolingo Latin"
- Syriac:
→ "Robinson (Theodore) - Paradigms and Exercises in Syriac Grammar"
- Mathematics116 (1 hour per week)
- "Admin - Math Trainer": Try out117
- Aeon118: Read papers as they arise.
- "Cummings (Jay) - Proofs: A Long-Form Mathematics Textbook": Read.
- "Gowers (Timothy), Barrow-Green (June) & Leader (Imre), Eds. - The Princeton Companion to Mathematics": Browse.
- "Polya (George), Stewart (Ian) - How to Solve IT: A New Aspect of Mathematical Method": Read.
- "Shapiro (Stewart) - Thinking about Mathematics - The Philosophy of Mathematics": Complete reading.
- "Smith (Martin) - Why Throwing 92 Heads in a Row Is Not Surprising": Analyze.
- "UKMT, du Sautoy (Marcus) - The Ultimate Mathematical Challenge": Try the puzzles.
- "Wikipedia - Normal Distribution",
- "Wikipedia - Cauchy Distribution", and
- "Wikipedia - Prosecutor's fallacy"
- HiQ119 (1 hour per week)
- ISPE
- Investigate & take part in ISPE Ning. There's recently been some advertising of Zoom meetings.
- Read "ISPE - The Thousander",
- Read "ISPE - Telicom",
- Consider submitting articles on my research to Telicom as a way of getting feedback.
- Mensa
- General IQ Investigation
- Review biography of William James Sidis and related topics:-
→ "YouTube - Video - The Sad Story of the Smartest Man Who Ever Lived",
→ "Wallace (Amy) - The Prodigy: A Biography of William James Sidis", and
→ "Towers (Grady M.) - The Outsiders"
- Read the autobiography of Norbert Wiener:-
→ "Wiener (Norbert) - Ex-Prodigy: My Childhood and Youth", and
→ "Wiener (Norbert) - I am a Mathematician: The Later Life of a Prodigy"
- Investigate the work in the IQ area of Devin Sanchez Curry (see web references in "Curry (Devin Sanchez) - Why academia should embrace ‘Grandma’s metaphysics’").
- Investigate the controversies over IQ-testing, in particular read and review:-
→ "Gould (Stephen Jay) - The Mismeasure of Man",
→ "Herrnstein (Richard J.) & Murray (Charles) - The Bell Curve - Intelligence and Class Structure in American Life", and
→ "Devlin (Bernie), Fienberg (Stephen E.), Resnick (Daniel P.) & Roeder (Kathryn) - Intelligence, Genes & Success - Scientists Respond to The Bell Curve"
- "Grove (Greg A.) - Dicey 1, Dicey 2, and Dicey 3 — Verbal Analogies IQ Tests": Do quiz
In-Page Footnotes:
Footnote 1:
- Since the contents of the groups changes over time, this justification for their segregation isn’t entirely accurate.
Footnote 12:
- Mind you, the mathematical bits didn’t function very well in my youth, so what hope is there now?
Footnote 14:
- Due to administrative confusion, I needlessly took their latest entrance test. After chasing them up I was told I “passed with flying colours”, but could get no more information.
Footnote 15:
- As it has turned out, once the dogs – initially Henry and now Bertie – grew out of puppyhood they haven’t been that much of a drain on my time in one respect, in that I can utilise my time when out walking for project-related matters.
- Initially this was languages on my iPhone, but latterly it’s been Aeon papers (or more serious philosophy papers or even books) on my Kindle.
- What I have found, though, is that this distorts what would otherwise be my priorities.
- Languages required grammatical follow-up, and Aeon papers also require writing up. This can be time consuming and – though rewarding – takes me away from the central concerns of my Thesis.
Footnote 16:
- The situation with the house turned out to be much worse than we first thought and we appointed Bakers of Danbury to sort it out. Things have gone well, and the three phases of the work have been completed. We’ve given up seeking redress from the surveyor.
- Coxes Farm hails from the start of the 16th century, or possibly earlier, and is very “wonky”, requiring continual maintenance.
- In December 2017, a base to roof crack appeared in the render at the front.
- Subsequent investigations revealed that the frame at the front – which had been added in the 17th century – has rotted away, so the front façade was held up by the brick infill and an impervious cement render, the cause of the rot.
- The front of the house has now been rebuilt, as has ¾ of the rear.
- A third project was to rebuild the lower part of two side walls.
- I’ve written a Blog Item on this saga, with some theoretical thoughts, which I hope to have published in the Listed property Owners Club Magazine due course. Documentation of Phase 3 is awaiting completion.
- The main outstanding issues are with the roof. I don’t seem to be able to find anyone to fix them. There are continual maintenance issues, and – regrettably – various problems with people using my address.
Footnote 18:
- If these link to the wrong version, ie. the current one, you’ll need to go the “previous versions” and select the correct one.
Footnote 22:
- 25 hours / week represents the amount of time that I’d need to spend if I were pursuing my research part-time at Birkbeck – which would be something like 5 hours / day, 5 days a week.
Footnote 23:
- Or at least those recently added to my database, in the case of electronic items that sometimes arrive too fast to be catalogued immediately.
- As my purchasing has now dropped to a relative trickle, I’ve extended the selection range to cover the last 6 months.
- Some of these are random purchases from charity shops, or presents. Others are selectively purchased in support of my various projects.
- Poverty and lack of space is severely curtailing my purchasing power.
- The categorisation of my books has got out of hand, but follow this link for an alternative – categorised – list of recent acquisitions.
Footnote 26:
- In the light of the segregation of my projects into three tiers, items for tertiary projects are only to be addressed if everything of higher priority is in shape.
- If there are any changes to this list between quarters, they will appear in the Priority Task List.
Footnote 43:
- I used to itemise in this Note an ever-growing list of items accummulated over time, broken down by Chapter and Note.
- However, now both Chapters and Notes are getting into shape, there is no need to list these items again here, so they have been cut after checking they are covered in their place elsewhere.
Footnote 44:
- This list could get very long, so restrict it to 3 books!
- I'll replace these with new ones when completed.
Footnote 45:
- This is extremely time-consuming, and will not be possible for all books and papers of interest.
Footnote 46:
- There are rather a lot of these, so some will have to be skimmed.
- There were a few more on less central topics.
- I hope to whittle these down as time goes by!
Footnote 50:
- This list used to get inordinately long and has been culled.
- Ensure this doesn't happen again!
Footnote 56:
- This list is getting ludicrously long, and either needs addressing or pruning!
Footnote 58:
- I've managed to reduce the backlog of 'Priority 1' items on my Aeon page to the required 10 items.
- To achieve this in an acceptable timeframe, as well as restricting the new additions, I've been either downgrading the priorities or reading the papers on my Kindle and then adding brief comments and logging them to my database.
- Consequently, most of them then get added to this list for more detailed investigation.
- I'll now - hopefully - start whittling down this list of 117 items, but there's a risk that it'll continue to grow.
- To help with the 'whittling' I've added both the date the item was added to this list and its current status, which is to progress down the following list:-
→ 1. Read, or ...
→ 2. Re-read
→ 3. Draft 'Paper' Notes
→ 4. Read Aeon Comments
→ 5. Update 'Paper' Notes
→ 6. Apply to PID Notes
- Above '2. Re-read' is a little directionless. It usually means 'Re-read with the intention of performing one or more of actions 3, 5 and 6.'
Footnote 96: Footnote 99:
- Well, maybe with the occasional holiday, and excluding days on which I have the Enigma Ensemble.
Footnote 100:
- I don't intend to present these for the Trinity exams, as I can present Orchestral Audition pieces instead; but they are essential for technique.
Footnote 101:
- I've yet to decide which to present for the Exam, so this long list will get whittled down in due course.
Footnote 102:
- These are just the ones from the Trinity schedule that I happen to have. Some look rather fearsome.
- The only one I've had assigned is the Second Movement of the Saint-Saens.
Footnote 103:
- The earlier grades are very elementary, but I need practice writing musical notation.
Footnote 104: Ie. The following:- Footnote 109:
- I have a lot of chess books, but there's no point listing them here as they aren't going to get read any time soon, if ever.
Footnote 112:
- This list had started to grow, so I've given it a severe pruning.
- I may add culled books back in as and when.
Footnote 117:
- Trying out Math Trainer ("Admin - Math Trainer") seems a bit eccentric, but I’ve found that – as the time has passed – I’ve got lazier and lazier with mental arithmetic, and could do with perking up a bit. The App seems of some use.
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