Theo Todman's Web Page - Notes Pages
Status Reports
Status: Summary (2020 - June)
(Text as at 03/07/2020 22:09:07)
*** THIS IS NOT THE LATEST VERSION OF THIS NOTE ***
(For the live version and other versions of this Note, see the tables at the end)
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 now 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 two groups always have effort planned, but the final group in general does not, though in the first quarter of the academic year – as this time – they have a token one hour per week each.
- The first group relates to my primary (project) life-goals; the second relates to lesser 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 two projects in this group 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!
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. 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. I’ve expanded my horizons to include three partners and the occasional tournament.
- Chess8: I returned to the chess scene in September 2018 and play regularly for the Billericay first team in the Southend and North Essex Leagues. My ultimate aim is to improve my standard of play so I can perform acceptably, but I’m currently just treading water.
Other Projects
- Consciousness Studies9: A supporting project for both Personal Identity and Philosophy of Religion. An essential element of any critique of transhumanism.
- 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 66 – 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 into 2020, 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, general reading, culture, current affairs, walking the dog and such like.
- However, these “non-project” items continue to be time-consuming. The situation with the house15 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 first two phases of the work have been completed, but we can only afford further significant work if litigation against the surveyor leads to a positive outcome, which looks increasingly unlikely, and “times out” at the end of 2020.
- 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 20Q2 I spent across my various projects 727 hours (2086.75 hours YTD) – where by "YTD" - Year to Date - I mean the academic year commencing in October 2019. "Actual versus plan" was 104.9%, (92.5% YTD).
- Overall, I worked hard in 20Q2 and over-achieved my time-budget by around 5%, despite not playing any bridge, and a new granddaughter – Liliana – arriving a month early at the beginning of June. I’m doubtless being too selfish.
- The balance of the various projects against plan was mostly as I’d like, with the minor projects losing out, though – by listening to Ling Thai while walking Henry the dog – I tripled the amount of time scheduled for languages.
- The tables of actual versus plan are on separate pages, accessible below16:-
- For detailed breakdowns of time spent this year, by month and by study location, follow this link17.
- For a report by sub-project of time expended since my records began, follow this link18.
- For tables of Actual versus Plan, together with the high-level plan for the next quarter, see this page19.
Planning
Given the coronavirus pandemic and the closure of all bridge and chess clubs, I’ve reduced reduced the average weekly total planned to 54 hours (8 hours a day during the week, 7 hours at weekends).
The planned effort for my Thesis is more or less what it ought to be20.
A point of useless regret is that – at 20 hours / week – the time allocated to my relatively unimportant priority 2 & 3 projects is more than half the 34-hours’ effort devoted to my priority 1 projects, though has reduced now that Chess and Bridge are in abeyance.
I’ve increased the time allocated to Web Tools as I want to complete the Cross-Referencing project, which is central to my research.
Unfortunately, time isn’t available at the moment – given my other commitments – to spend as much time on Philosophy of Religion as I would like. I added an hour, but the weekly allocation is still only 2 hours / week.
I’ve decided to continue to try to play the oboe properly, and improve my general musicianship, and have maintained my Music allowance at 7 hours / week. I now have the enthusiasm – and stamina – as an oboist to achieve this, but not the extra 2 hours allocated previously for Theory and Aural.
My intention was always to restrict the effort on Bridge, and focus on Personal Identity. Historically, this resolve has seldom come to anything, except when I’ve stopped playing bridge altogether, though I now believe that for me Bridge is sufficiently enjoyable and relaxing to be self-justifying. As the clubs are shut, and I’m not playing on-line, I’ve slashed the planned effort to 3 hours / week for study and interaction.
Given the above I’ve decided to continue to down-prioritise Chess, and have scheduled only 1 hour / week.
The overall time restriction has been reflected in three of the four “Priority 3” projects having a notional budget of an hour a week, though I’ve bumped up the time allocated to Languages to 6 hours / week to give myself a chance of making some progress with Thai.
So, the weekly plan (retained at 54 hours) for the next quarter is as below:-
- Priority 1: 34 hours
- Personal Identity: 22 hours.
- Web Tools: 10 hours.
- Philosophy of Religion: 2 hours.
- Priority 2: 11 hours
- Music: 7 hours.
- Bridge: 3 hours.
- Chess: 1 hour.
- Priority 3: 9 hours
- Consciousness Studies: 1 hour.
- Languages: 6 hours.
- Mathematics: 1 hour.
- HiQ: 1 hour.
Follow this link for a categorised list of recently21 purchased books. As the categorisation has got out of hand, follow this link for an alternative list of recent acquisitions22.
Detailed Interim Activities
- As these reports are now quarterly, at best, I’m including a link to a brief uncommented list23 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 List24, 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 Future25
- Thesis
- Religion
- Website
- Music
- Bridge
- Chess
- Consciousness
- Languages
- Mathematics
- HiQ
- Thesis26
- Continue with my Thesis27; in particular
- Spend at least an hour a day writing something original.
- Fill out those sections that I can write something on without further research.
- Rework the structure so that Level-1 or -2 print produces the thesis with the correct reading-list.
- Continually review the Note describing my Current Beliefs28 on the topic of Personal Identity.
- Complete a full review and update of the Notes I’ve created on Personal Identity, focusing on:-
- Those directly referenced by my Current Beliefs29,
- Those without a reading list: Evolution30, Person31, Physicalism32, Psychological View33, Psychology34, Religion35, Semantics36, Soul Criterion37, Souls38, Unity of the Person39.
- Those not yet in the latest standard format.
- Make progress on specific Chapters of my Thesis, using the materials below →
- Chapter 140 (Introduction). Focussing on:-
- Locke41
→ "Duncan (Matt) - I Think, Therefore I Persist", Complete Write-up
→ "Maurer (Nicholas) - Too Many Persons, or None At All?", Write-up
→ "Strawson (Galen) - 'The Secrets of All Hearts': Locke on Personal Identity", Read
→ "Strawson (Galen) - 'Where our responsibility lies': Locke on personal identity", Read
- Introductory and General Works
→ "Unger (Peter) - Identity, Consciousness and Value", Re-read and write up comments
→ "Unger (Peter) - Precis of 'Identity, Consciousness and Value'", Re-read ... also other items from the symposium
- Chapter 242 (What Are We?). Focussing on:-
- General: "Olson (Eric) - What are We? A Study of Personal Ontology", a core text!
- Brains43: "Mitchell (Kevin J.) - Innate: How the Wiring of Our Brains Shapes Who We Are", Read & review
- Human Beings44: Review the Symposium between:-
→ "Robinson (Denis) - Human Beings, Human Animals, and Mentalistic Survival", Read and Write-up
→ "Johnston (Mark) - 'Human Beings' Revisited: My Body is Not an Animal", Complete Write-up
- Persons45: "Cottingham (John) - Why we are not 'persons'", Complete Write-up
- Selves46:-
- "Arikha (Noga) - The Interoceptive Turn", Read and Write-up
- "Dainton (Barry) - Self: Philosophy In Transit", Read and Write-up
- "Dainton (Barry) - The Phenomenal Self", Read and Write-up47
- "O'Hear (Anthony), Ed. - Mind, Self and Person", Complete Reading and Write-ups
- Chapter 348 (What Is A Person49?).
- General:-
→ "Noller (Jorg) - A Transformative Account of Personal Identity", Read and write-up
→ "Noller (Jorg) - Person", Read and write-up
- Free Will50
→ "Ellis (George F.R.), Etc - From Chaos to Free Will": Complete review & analysis
→ "Gazzaniga (Michael S.) - Who's in Charge? Free Will and the Science of the Brain", Read
→ "Murphy (Nancey), O'Connor (Timothy) & Ellis (George F.R.) - Downward Causation and the Neurobiology of Free Will": Quick review & analysis
→ "Murphy (Nancey) & Brown (Warren) - Did My Neurons Make Me Do It?": Quick review & analysis
→ "Nanay (Bence) - Catching Desires": Complete write-up
- Personites51, develop Note, using:-
→ "Olson (Eric) - Ethics and the Generous Ontology", Write-up, then …
→ "Eklund (Matti) - The Existence of Personites", Read and write-up
→ "Johnston (Mark) - The Personite Problem: Should Practical Reason Be Tabled?", Read and write-up
→ "Johnston (Mark) - Personites, Maximality and Ontological Trash", Read and write-up
→ "Kaiserman (Alexander) - Stage Theory and the Personite Problem", Read and write-up
→ "Pautz (Adam) - Johnston’s Puzzle about Personites", Read and write-up.
- Chapter 452 (Basic Metaphysical Issues). Focus on:-
- General: "Hazlett (Allan) - New Waves in Metaphysics", Read
- Existence53: "Williams (Christopher) - Death and Other Difficulties", Read and write-up
- Logic of Identity54
- Partial Identity55
→ "Baxter (Donald L.M.) - Temporary and Contingent Instantiation as Partial Identity", Read and write-up
→ "Hawley (Katherine) - Almost Identical, Almost Innocent", Read and write-up.
- Artifacts56
→ "Han (Byung-Chul) - The copy is the original", Write-up
→ "Han (Byung-Chul) - Shanzhai: Deconstruction in Chinese", Read and write-up
- "Loose and Popular" vs "Strict and Philosophical" senses of identity
→ "Noonan (Harold) - Identity, Constitution and Microphysical Supervenience", Write-up57
- Parfit58
→ "Colen (J.A.) - In Memoriam Derek Parfit (1942-2017)", Write-up
→ "Funkhouser (Eric) - Notes on Parfit, 'Personal Identity'", Write-up
→ "Korsgaard (Christine) - Personal Identity and the Unity of Agency: A Kantian Response to Parfit", Read and write-up
→ "McDowell (John) - Reductionism and the First Person", Write-up59
→ "Perry (John) - Time, Fission, and Personal Identity", Read and write-up
→ "Parfit (Derek) - Personal Identity", Write-up
→ "Parfit (Derek) - Prudence, morality, and the prisoner's dilemma", Read and write-up, Note60
→ "Parfit (Derek) - Who do you think you are?", Write-up
→ Complete run-through of the Parfit reading-list
- Simple View61
→ "Duncan (Matt) - A Challenge to Anti-Criterialism"
→ "Duncan (Matt) - A Renewed Challenge to Anti-Criterialism"
→ "Duncan (Matt) - Dualists Needn’t Be Anti-Criterialists (Nor Should They Be)"
- Vague Identity62
→ "Broome (John) - Indefiniteness in Identity",
→ "Noonan (Harold) - Vague Identity Yet Again"
- Narrative Identity63 / Race64. Focussing On65:-
- Race and Racism66
→ "Boxill (Bernard), Ed. - Race and Racism: Oxford Readings in Philosophy"
→ "Brues (Alice M.) - People and Races"
→ "Glasgow (Joshua) - Another Look at the Reality of Race, By Which I Mean Race-f"
→ "Olusoga (David) - Black and British: A Forgotten History"
- The British Empire & its 'Crimes': obtain a balanced view from:-
→ "Lawrence (James) - Rise And Fall Of The British Empire"
→ "Brendon (Piers) - The Decline And Fall Of The British Empire"
→ "Paxman (Jeremy) - Empire: What Ruling the World Did to the British"
→ "Ferguson (Niall) - Empire: How Britain Made the Modern World"
- Chapter 567 (Persistence68 and Time69). Focussing on:-
- General
- "Sider (Ted), Hawthorne (John) & Zimmerman (Dean), Eds. - Contemporary Debates in Metaphysics",
- Persistence70
- "Haslanger (Sally) & Kurtz (Roxanne), Eds. - Persistence : Contemporary Readings",
- "Hawley (Katherine) - Persistence and Determination",
- "Wiggins (David) - Continuants: Their Activity, Their Being, and Their Identity", especially
→ "Noonan (Harold) - Review of Wiggins's 'Continuants'", and
→ "Wiggins (David) - Identity, Individuation, and Substance"
- Time71
- "Boccardi (Emiliano), Ed. - Manuscrito vol. 39 no.4: Recent Trends in the Philosophy of Time: An Introduction to Time and Reality - I", and
- "Boccardi (Emiliano), Ed. - Manuscrito vol. 40 no.1: The Passage of Time and its Enemies: An Introduction to Time and Reality - II"
- "Botros (Sophie) - Truth, Time and History: A Philosophical Enquiry", Re-read & Annotate ... also especially
→ "Botros (Sophie) - Truth, Time and History - A Philosophical Inquiry with Dr Sophie Botros", Complete analysis
- "Bourne (Craig) - A Future for Presentism",
- "Buonomano (Dean) - Your Brain Is a Time Machine: The Neuroscience and Physics of Time",
- "Correia (Fabrice) & Rosenkranz (Sven) - Unfreezing the Spotlight: Tense Realism and Temporal Passage",
- "Costa (Damiano), Gilmore (Cody) & Calosi (Claudio) - Relativity and Three Four-Dimensionalisms",
- Natalja Deng: Various papers, starting with
→ "Deng (Natalja) - One Thing After Another: Why the Passage of Time is Not an Illusion",
- Mauro Dorato: Various papers,
→ "Dorato (Mauro) - Presentism / Eternalism and Endurantism / Perdurantism: why the unsubstantiality of the first debate implies that of the second",
→ "Dorato (Mauro) - Presentism and the Experience of Time",
→ "Dorato (Mauro) - The Irrelevance of the Presentist / Eternalist Debate for the Ontology of Minkowski Spacetime".
- "Fischer (Florian) - Philosophy of time: A slightly opinionated introduction",
- "Friebe (Cord) - Eternalism and the Temporal Content of Persistence", and
- "Friebe (Cord) - Metametaphysics: the Ontology of Spacetime and the Presentist/Eternalist Debate".
- "Lebens (Samuel) & Goldschmidt (Tyron) - The Promise of a New Past": Complete and send to Sophie Botros & Michael J. Alter,
- "LePoidevin (Robin) - Travels in Four Dimensions: The Enigmas of Space and Time",
- "LePoidevin (Robin) & MacBeath (Murray), Eds. - The Philosophy of Time: Oxford Readings in Philosophy",
- "Mellor (D.H.) - Review of Michael Tooley: 'Time, Tense, and Causation'", Read & review
- "Miller (Kristie) - Issues in Theoretical Diversity: Persistence, Composition, and Time",
- "Roselli (Andrea) - How Long is Now? A New Perspective on the Specious Present",
- "Rovelli (Carlo) - The Order of Time",
- "Sattig (Thomas) - The Flow of Time in Experience",
- "Savitt (Steven) - Presentism and Eternalism in Perspective",
- "Skow (Bradford) - Objective Becoming",
- "Torrengo (Giuliano) - Time and Simple Existence",
- "Thomas (Emily) - Before, now, and next", Expand review
- "Thomas (Emily) - Does the Future Exist?", Expand review
- "Zimmerman (Dean) - Presentism and the Space-Time Manifold"
- Chapter 672 (Animalism73). Focussing on:-
- Animals74:
- "Chittka (Lars) & Wilson (Catherine) - Bee-brained",
- "Keim (Brandon) - I, cockroach",
- "Rachlin (Howard) - Teleological behaviourism or what it means to imagine a lion",
- "Ross (Don) - Consciousness, language, and the possibility of non-human personhood: Reflections on elephants".
- Animalism75
- "Hershenov (David) - Review of David DeGrazia’s Human Identity and Bioethics",
- "Merricks (Trenton) - Objects and Persons",
- "Olson (Eric) - The Human Animal - Personal Identity Without Psychology", my core text,
- "Shoemaker (Sydney) - Persons, Animals, and Identity",
- "Snowdon (Paul) - Persons, Animals, Ourselves",
- Life76
- "Al-Khalili (Jim) & McFadden (Johnjoe) - Life on the Edge: The Coming of Age of Quantum Biology", Finish reading & write file-note
- "DiFrisco (James) & Mossio (Matteo) - Diachronic Identity in Complex Life Cycles: An Organizational Perspective",
- "Lachmann (Michael) & Walker (Sara) - Life ≠ alive",
- "Noble (Denis) - The Music of Life: Biology Beyond Genes", Read
- "Noble (Denis) - Dance to the Tune of Life: Biological Relativity", Read
- "Schrodinger (Erwin) - What is Life?"
- Chapter 777 (The Constitution View78):-
- "Baker (Lynne Rudder) - Persons and Bodies: A Constitution View": My other core text. Start a serious review.
- "Baker (Lynne Rudder), Etc. - E-Symposium on 'Persons & Bodies: A Constitution View'": Write up reviews of papers,
- "Corcoran (Kevin) - Rethinking Human Nature: A Christian Materialist Alternative to the Soul": Read and review,
- "Loose (Jonathan) - Constitution and the Falling Elevator: The Continuing Incompatibility of Materialism and Resurrection Belief": Write a Note.
- "Mellor (D.H.) - Micro-composition": Read
- "Zahavi (Dan) - Subjectivity and Selfhood: Investigating the First-Person Perspective": Write-up.
- Chapter 879 (Arguments against Animalism80):-
- "Bailey (Andrew M.) - The Elimination Argument",
- Dicephalus & Conjoined Twins81
- "Buchanan (Rachael) - The battle to separate Safa and Marwa"
- "Campbell (Tim) & McMahan (Jeff) - Animalism and the Varieties of Conjoined Twinning"
- "Olson (Eric) - The Metaphysical Implications of Conjoined Twining"
- "Stone (James L.) & Goodrich (James T.) - The craniopagus malformation: classification and implications for surgical separation"
- "Wikipedia - Craniopagus Twins"
- "Olson (Eric) - The Role of the Brainstem in Personal Identity",
- "Olson (Eric) - On Parfit's View That We Are Not Human Beings",
- Pregnancy82
- "Damschen (Gregor), Gomez-Lobo (Alfonso) & Schonecker (Dieter) - Sixteen Days? A Reply to B. Smith and B. Brogaard on the Beginning of Human Individuals",
- Elselijn Kingma. Especially
→ "Finn (Suki) - Bun or bump?",
→ "Kingma (Elselijn) - Lady Parts: The Metaphysics of Pregnancy", and
→ "Kingma (Elselijn) - Were You Part of Your Mother?".
- "Gomez-Lobo (Alfonso) - Sortals and Human Beginnings",
- "Isaac (Sasha) - Is artificial-womb technology a tool for women’s liberation?",
- "Oderberg (David) - The Metaphysical Status of the Embryo: Some Arguments Revisited",
- "Smith (Barry) & Brogaard (Berit) - Sixteen Days".
- Chapter 1083 (Thought Experiments84):-
- "Nielsen (Lasse) - Reconstructing Thought Experiments in Personal Identity", Read & Write-up
- "Searle (John), Etc. - Minds, Brains, and Programs", Annotate
- "Wilson (James) - The trolley problem problem", Write-up
- Investigate Transhumanism85. In particular,
- "Alexander (Denis) - Healing, enhancement and the human future": Read,
- "Awad (Edmond), Etc. - The Moral Machine experiment": Read,
- "Ball (Philip) - Sim ethics": Write up,
- "Bostrom (Nick) - Superintelligence: Paths, Dangers, Strategies": Read,
- "Bridle (James) - New Dark Age: Technology and the End of the Future": Read,
- "Clark (Andy) & Kuhn (Robert Lawrence) - Aeon: Video - Andy Clark - Virtual immortality": Review write-up86,
- "Contera (Sonia) - Nano Comes to Life": Read,
- "Davies (Sally) - Women’s minds matter" (and papers cited / resisted)
- "Francis (Matthew) - Is this life real?", Write-up
- "Fry (Hannah) - Hello World: How to be Human in the Age of the Machine": Read & review,
- "Graziano (Michael) - Endless fun": Detailed review,
- "Hanson (Robin) - The Age of Em: Work, Love, and Life when Robots Rule the Earth", Read
- "Harari (Yuval Noah) - Homo Deus: A Brief History of Tomorrow": Review, especially Chapter 8,
- "Kent (Adrian) - Replication Ethics": Read,
- "Kobie (Nicole) - Quantum Supremacy is here - So what?": Complete write-up,
- "Madary (Michael) & Metzinger (Thomas) - Real Virtuality: A Code of Ethical Conduct": Read,
- "Marshall (Richard) & Metzinger (Thomas) - Thomas Metzinger: All About the Ego Tunnel": Read,
- "Midgley (Mary) - Biotechnology and Monstrosity: Why We Should Pay Attention to the 'Yuk Factor'": Complete,
- "O'Connell (Mark) - To be a Machine": Briefly review,
- "Otsuka (Michael) - Personal Identity, Substantial Change, and the Significance of Becoming": Read,
- "Schneider (Susan) - Artificial You": Read,
- "Shipley (G.J.) - Review of Andy Clark's 'Natural-Born Cyborgs'": Complete review,
- "Smith (Wilfred Cantwell) - The Promise of Artificial Intelligence": Read,
- "Tegmark (Max) - Life 3.0: Being Human in the Age of Artificial Intelligence": Read,
- "Wyatt (John) - Artificial intelligence and simulated relationships": Write-up.
- Chapter 1187 (Resurrection88):-
- Death89
- "Baillie (James) - We all know that we will die, so why do we struggle to believe it?": Complete review
- "Bradley (Ben), Feldman (Fred) & Johansson (Jens) - The Oxford Handbook of Philosophy of Death": Start a review, especially
→ "Zimmerman (Dean) - Personal Identity and the Survival of Death",
- "Kaufman (Sharon) - Neither person nor cadaver", Review
- "Luper (Steven), Ed. - The Cambridge Companion to Life and Death": Start a review, especially
→ "Olson (Eric) - The Nature of People",
- "Stone (Alison) - Thinking about one’s birth is as uncanny as thinking of death": review
- "Veatch (Robert M.) - Would a Reasonable Person Now Accept the 1968 Harvard Brain Death Report? A Short History of Brain Death": review
- Makropulos Case90
- "Moore (Adrian W.) - Is the quest for immortality worse than death?": Detailed analysis
- "Moore (Adrian W.) - Williams, Nietzsche, and the Meaninglessness of Immortality": Read and review
- Reincarnation91
- "Barua (Ankur) - Revisiting the Rationality of Reincarnation-Talk": Write a file-note.
- "MacIntosh (J.J.) - Reincarnation and Relativized Identity": Read and review
- "Noonan (Harold) - The Possibility of Reincarnation": Read and review
- Resurrection92
- "Martin (L. Michael) & Augustine (Keith) - The Myth of an Afterlife: The Case against Life After Death": Start a thorough review,
- "Badham (Paul) - Christian Beliefs About Life After Death": Read and review
- "Baker (Lynne Rudder) - Death and the Afterlife": Read and review
- "Corcoran (Kevin) - Dualism, Materialism and the Problem of Post Mortem Survival": Read and review
- 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 PDF-précis, Etc93 to Notes.
- Review the above two reports (how is the first produced, and why aren't the pdfs highlighted?)
- As an interim task, if possible, correct the dates + email address on the longer pdfs
- Re-read & enhance recent conversions, ie:-
→ "Dennett (Daniel) - True Believers: The Intentional Strategy and Why it Works"
→ "Popper (Karl) - Corroboration: The Merits of Improbability"
→ "Skyrms (Brian) - The Goodman Paradox and the New Riddle of Induction"
→ "Woolhouse (Roger) - Leibniz and Substance"
→ "Woolhouse (Roger) - Spinoza and Substance"
- Complete cataloguing the books downloaded from Springer,
- Continue with "Marshall (Richard) - Philosophy at 3:AM: Questions and Answers with 25 Top Philosophers",
- Complete reading (or make notes on):-
- "Ball (Philip) - Beyond Weird: Why Everything You Thought You Knew About Quantum Mechanics is ... Different",
- "Barker (Jonathan) - Debunking Arguments and Metaphysical Laws",
- "Borges (Jorge Luis) - Labyrinths: Selected Stories and Other Writings",
- "Costa (Albert) - The Bilingual Brain: And What It Tells Us about the Science of Language",
→ "Hernandez (Arturo E.), Etc - In Memoriam - The Bilingual Brain: Emergent, Dynamic, and Variable. Albert Costa (1970–2018)"
- "Dennett (Daniel) - The Mind's I - Fantasies and Reflections on Self and Soul: Introduction",
- "Erber (Joan T.) & Szuchman (Lenore T.) - Great Myths of Aging",
- "Everett (Daniel) - Did Homo erectus speak?",
- "Greene (Brian) - The Hidden Reality: Parallel Universes and the Deep Laws of the Cosmos",
- "Hoffman (Donald D.) - The Case Against Reality: How Evolution Hid the Truth from Our Eyes",
→ "Gefter (Amanda) & Hoffman (Donald D.) - The Evolutionary Argument Against Reality"
→ "O'Grady (Jane) - Donald Hoffman’s 'The Case Against Reality' is hard to get your head around"
- "Hofstadter (Douglas) - Godel, Escher, Bach: an Eternal Golden Braid - A Metaphorical Fugue on Minds and Machines in the Spirit of Lewis Carroll",
- "Howson (Colin) & Urbach (Peter) - Scientific Reasoning: The Bayesian Approach",
- "Ord (Toby) - The Precipice: Existential Risk and the Future of Humanity",
- "Rovelli (Carlo) - Reality Is Not What It Seems: The Journey to Quantum Gravity",
- "Vedral (Vlatko) - Decoding Reality: The Universe as Quantum Information".
- Complete my Note on "Smith (Martin) - Why Throwing 92 Heads in a Row Is Not Surprising" and discuss with Pete & Mike.
- Continue reading and reviewing papers issued by Aeon94,
- Keep up with the Journals via JSTOR & Cambridge Core.
- Update my Journals Note95: 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.
- Religion96
- Philosophy of Religion:
- "Antony (Louise M.) - Philosophers without Gods: Meditations on Atheism and the Secular Life": Continue reading,
- "Ferguson (Matthew) - Κέλσος": Continue reading the Blog,
- "Insole (Christopher J.) - Realism and Anti-Realism": Read,
- "Plantinga (Alvin) & Dennett (Daniel) - Science and Religion: Are They Compatible?": Read.
- Resurrection: Continue reviewing97
- "Alter (Michael J.) - The Resurrection: A Critical Inquiry", and
- "Alter (Michael J.) - The Resurrection & Christian Apologetics: A Critical Inquiry Volume 2".
- Background:
- Aeon: Read & annotate papers as they arise
- "Finkelstein (Israel) & Silberman (Neil Asher) - The Bible Unearthed": Continue reading
- "Finkel (Irving) - The Ark Before Noah: Decoding the Story of the Flood": Continue reading
- "Lennox (John C.) - Where Is God in a Coronavirus World?": Review in Blog
- "Levine (Amy-Jill) & Brettler (Marc Zvi), Eds. - The Jewish Annotated New Testament": Continue reading
- "Taylor (Joan E.) - Jesus and Brian: Exploring the Historical Jesus and His Times Via Monty Python's Life of Brian": Review KCL Conference videos
- Website98
- Own Website: Priority 1 Items By Category:-
- Architecture
- Compact and Repair Problems
- On compacting and repairing my main database I sometimes get the error "The query cannot be completed. Either the size of the query result is larger than the maximum size of a database (2 GB), or there is not enough temporary storage space on the disk to store the query result".
- It happens 3 times while the database is re-opening.
- There is lots of space, and the database is only 600Mb (and the error started when it was under 500Mb).
- This mostly happens after I've run long processes, so I usually close the database, re-open it and then try the compact and repair. Usually this works, but not always. But I then try again and the message disappears.
- I strongly suspect that this is MS Access itself re-indexing tables, and blowing up a temporary database, but I can’t find any evidence for this on-line. Or help, other than suggestions to split databases and do other sensible things. Given that the error occurs when the database is re-opening, with no temporary file visible, is very strange.
- 17/04/20 - set MaxLocksPerFile to 1,000,000 (from the default 9,500). Sadly, it doesn't seem to have made a difference.
- Complete XRef-re-engineering project:-
- Ensure all links and link-pages use the new XRef table, and pension off the old tables.
- Look into writing out specific object-identifiers, and linking thereto for Citations, rather than paragraph references. An issue is multiple instances of the same object in a document.
- Check all link-types still work and fix any errors.
- Complete the auto-triggering of regeneration of “associated” link pages.
- Fix update bug in Convert_Webrefs.
- Fix Bug whereby PaperSummary pages seem to have “Works-” and “Books/Papers-” Citings that refer to the same link-pages.
- Document the process!
- Review effectiveness of hyperlinking method in the light of PhD and Philosophy of Religion experience.
- Where possible, use ID rather than NAME for in-page hyperlinks
- Backups
- 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 document first
- Books
- Further improve the time to regenerate Book Summaries. Now takes about 39 minutes, but should be under 5 minutes!
- Books/Papers
- Investigate whether multiple Subject/Topic/Subtopic usage leads anywhere (ie. are just the first (of 3) actually used). Fix anything amiss.
- Reformat the PaperCitings pages:-
- Include only useful information on the detail pages; but if there are multiple links from the same object, include them on the same line as 'extra links' as in Authors' Citations (copy the code).
- Include counts on the summary page.
- Document!
Do the same for BookCitings
- Bridge
- Develop auto-reconciliation routines vs EBU results download
- Documenter
- Investigate the error reports from the Documenter, especially unused variables & queries.
- Provide Functional Documentation for Website Generator (using Notes)
- Education
- "Sitepoint (Learnable) - Sitepoint Learnable Web Development Courses": Membership cancelled, but plan what to do with the eBooks in my possession.
- Read "PC Pro - Computing in the Real World".
- Read "White (Ron) & Downs (Timothy Edward) - How Computers Work: The Evolution of Technology".
- Infrastructure
- iCloud for Windows: Re-install & solve 'The upload folder for iCloud Photos is missing' problem. Try on new Laptop.
- Notes
- Add "Note Alternates" to Note pages.
- Add option in Auto-Reference Notes to automatically ignore words containing certain strings that include the key-word (eg. ignore 'grace' and 'trace' when indexing 'race')
- Add option in Auto-Reference Notes to only confirm new items (leaving previously-flagged items untouched)
- Allow the option to concatenate Notes in the Printed version (ie. linearly embed them essay-style), rather than treating the hyperlinks as footnotes – but still keep the hyperlink & cross-referencing in place.
- For use as "disclaimers" - eg. for "Plug Notes".
- For Thesis / essays: the difficulty here is the need for linking passages to make the text run smoothly.
- As part of the Cross-Referencing project, check out the consistent treatment of Note 87599, which should be universally ignored. Recently, links to it appeared on Book-Summaries, Book_Paper_Abstracts and Note_Book_Links, as a Note referencing a Book. The critical item was a row on the Note_Book_Links table.
- Determine why very long printable notes (eg. Level 3+ for Note 170100) are being truncated. Probably suppress them in any case, as they take far too long to load.
- Fix bugs in multi-level footnoting in Printable Notes – the referencing is going wrong.
- Investigate Note_Links: Section references seem to be incorrect
- Printable Notes: fix the bug whereby the “private” flag is round the wrong way.
- Split Aeon Page101 into multiple sub-pages (either by topic or by priority)
- Suppress the publication of the Printable versions of Temp Notes
- Papers
- The monthly regeneration process for Paper Abstracts still takes just over 5 hours. Problem is with Cross_Reference_Deletions and Cross_Reference_Additions. Cannot be fixed until the cross-referencing project is fully complete and documented.
- Photos
- Develop software & procedure to make adding more content to the photos pages easier to undertake.
- Timeline software: Add photos for Holidays & Family History
- Process
- Determine why Recalculation & Changed Book/Papers produce unneeded regeneration.
- Spider
- Analyse the results of the data collection exercise and design a plan of campaign to fix broken Internal links and prevent recurrence.
- Correct the code so the problems discovered by the Spider don’t recur.
- Delete 'orphan pages' that are never linked to, ie. Use the Spider to prune redundant pages102 automatically where possible.
- Fix the historical data where errors are uncovered by the Spider. An easier task now the site has a full-regen function.
- The size of the main database bloats to over 1.6Gb during the spider run, so is approaching the 2Gb limit.
- Use Check_Database_Size, with a parameter, to monitor the size – output a message along the those reporting the compact / repair of the Slave database).
- Put a checks in to STOP if over 1.8Gb.
- Determine a solution as the limit is pushed. Some tables are “local” for performance reasons and are later copied to the Slave … maybe move them?
- The Spider was generating WebRefs. Procedurally, this ought not to have been possible.
- The major problem turned out to be because unprocessed103 URLs got added to the end of the last WebLinks_Tester_Brief page, which then got Spidered. I've stopped this happening, so hopefully the problem will not recur. The fix was made in 18Q2.
- However, 4 other creations appeared - dated 18/05/18 - from the run of 10/07/18. The creation date was from the previous spider run, but the IDs show that they were produced in the latest run.
I've re-opened the case!
- Status
- Quarterly Project Reports: Correct Functor_08. The Project Planned YTD % keeps having to be bodged!
- Technology
- Look into Sistrix Smart104. Errors and warnings itemised are:-
- Duplicate content: seems to be variants on theotodman.com
- Title Tags: Empty, too long, identical
- Page Not Found
- Filesize in excess of 1Mb
- Meta-Description: Empty
- Few words on Page
- H1: Not used, used multiple times per page, identical across pages
- Pictures: Alt attribute missing
- WebRefs
- 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.
- Improve WebRefs checker (Webrefs_Update) further to check for Error 403 "Forbidden". This will often involve finding way of checking pdfs where the returned page is in fact HTML or XML (see DevLog Ref 379).
- Investigate defunct items. Populate Defunct_Explanation in WebRefs_Table and include in relevant WebLinks_Tester reports. Consider use of FairUse (Link (Fair Use)) for documents no longer available that I'd downloaded.
- Reformat WebLinks_Tester.htm, WebLinks_Tester_Map.htm, WebLinks_Tester_Full.htm & WebLinks_Tester_Full_Map.htm
- Clarify 'truncated': Display, not link
- Allow more space for 'link returned', 'issue' and 'display text'
- The 'As Above" lines waste space. Only for Notes Archive? Consolidate onto single second line.
- Reformat WebLinks_Tester_Brief: Allow more space for 'link returned', 'issue' and 'display text'
- Other Websites: Priority 1 Items By Category:-
Music105
- Oboe:-
- Practice the oboe for two 30-minute sessions each and every day106 – focussing on the items below and …
- Occasionally combine into an hour-long session to build up stamina further.
- Work through, and perfect, scales & arpeggios107 for Grades I-VIII, using
→ "Trinity Guildhall - Trinity Guildhall Scales & Arpeggios for Oboe (Grades 1–8)", and
→ "ABRSM - Scales and Arpeggios for Oboe, Grades 1-8 (ABRSM Scales & Arpeggios)".
- 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 particular108
→ "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 particular109
→ "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 "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 through110 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 material111.
- Try out "Boytim (Joan Frey) - The First Book Of Baritone/Bass Solos".
- Also follow up items in:-
→ "Various - Music - Aural - Various On-line Training".
Bridge112
- Bridge "at the table" is on hold. Only play on-line if pressurised by partners.
- Review hands from National Masters Pairs in March 2020.
- Review Mountnessing Bridge Club: Hands of the Week.
- Bridge Admin: Committee and Website involvement for Mountnessing and Hutton.
- Re-read Hand-counting papers, focussing on
→ Papers in Counting the Hands113,
→ "Bourke (Tim) & Smith (Marc), Bird (David) - Countdown to Winning Bridge", and
→ "Lawrence (Mike) - How to read your opponents' cards: The bridge expert's way to locate missing high cards"
→ "Lawrence (Mike) - How to Play Card Combinations"
- Read "Klinger (Ron) - Five-card Majors".
- Read "Reading - Bridge - Magazines".
Chess114
- Why Play Chess: Seriously consider the issues raised by "Ramon y Cajal (Santiago) - On Chess".
- Chess Study:-
→ "Hansen (Carsten) - The Full English Opening: Mastering the Fundamentals",
→ "Ris (Robert) - Crucial Chess Skills for the Club Player: Volume 1",
→ "Ris (Robert) - Crucial Chess Skills for the Club Player: Volume 2",
→ "Sadler (Matthew) & Regan (Natasha) - Game Changer: AlphaZero's Groundbreaking Chess Strategies and the Promise of AI",
→ "Speelman (Jon), Tisdall (Jon) & Wade (Bob) - Batsford Chess Endings",
→ "van der Sterren (Paul) - FCO - Fundamental Chess Openings", and
→ "Willemze (Thomas) - The Chess Toolbox: Practical Techniques Everyone Should Know".
- Chess Training:-
→ Chess.com (game analysis & daily 10-minute game),
→ "Chess - Chess - YouTube Videos"
→ Complete review of 2018/19 season's games, and keep up to date with those of the current season.
- Chess Play: Participation115 if and when play resumes in Billericay Chess Club:-
→ Club Nights
→ NECL matches
→ Southend League matches
→ Consider on-line club play
Consciousness116
- Aeon117: 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
- "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.
- "Papineau (David) - Introducing Consciousness": Re-read and write notes.
- "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
Languages118
- Thai: Following Nat's emigration to Thailand & marriage to Fon:-
→ "Lang Workbooks - Master the Thai Alphabet: a Handwriting Practice Workbook",
→ "Ling - Learn Thai",
→ "Lonely Planet - Lonely Planet Thai Phrasebook & Dictionary",
→ "Becker (Benjawan Poomsan) - Thai for Beginners",
→ "ThaiNotes - Thai Notes",
→ "Various - On-Line Thai Learning",
→ "Wikipedia - Thai Alphabet", and
→ "Wikipedia - Thai Language".
Mathematics119
- Aeon120: Read papers as they arise.
- "Feynman (Richard), Leighton (Robert B.) & Sands (Matthew) - The Feynman Lectures on Physics - Vol I": 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.
- Try the puzzles in
→ "Polya (George) & Kilpatrick (Jeremy) - The Stanford Mathematics Problem Book: With Hints and Solutions", and
→ "UKMT, du Sautoy (Marcus) - The Ultimate Mathematical Challenge".
- "Shapiro (Stewart) - Thinking about Mathematics - The Philosophy of Mathematics": Complete reading.
- "Smith (Martin) - Why Throwing 92 Heads in a Row Is Not Surprising": Analyze.
- "Tammet (Daniel) - Thinking in Numbers: How Maths Illuminates Our Lives": Read.
- "Wilmott (Paul) - Machine Learning: An Applied Mathematics Introduction": Read.
HiQ121
- ISPE
- Sort through and review historical material,
- Investigate & take part in ISPE Ning
- Read "ISPE - The Thousander",
- Read "ISPE - Telicom": The last print issue (Jan - Dec 2016) looks interesting as a starter, and has stimulated me to look into122 ...
- Read "Tammet (Daniel) - Embracing the Wide Sky: A tour across the horizons of the mind",
- 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"
- Consider submitting articles on my research to Telicom as a way of getting feedback.
- Investigate Triple Nine Society.
- Mensa
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:
- Coxes Farm hails from 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 – currently on hold – is to rebuild the lower part of a side wall.
- I’ve written a Blog Item on this saga, with some theoretical thoughts, which I hope to have published in due course.
Footnote 16:
- 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 20:
- 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 21:
- 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.
Footnote 22:
- Or at least those recently added to my database, in the case of electronic items that sometimes arrive too fast to be catalogued immediately.
Footnote 25:
- 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.
Footnotes 47, 59: Footnote 57:
- This paper covers the 'Loose and Popular' vs 'Strict and Philosophical' senses of identity, amongst much else.
Footnote 60: Footnote 65:
- Neither sub-topic is really part of my research into the metaphysics of personal identity, but it's become such an important topic of late - one on which I'm largely ignorant and need to have a considered opinion.
Footnote 86:
- Also look through other works by Andy Clark to get a handle on what he means by 'patterns in information space'.
Footnote 97:
- While I couldn't submit to Michael Alter's deadlines and the amount of work required, I ought to at least read these books.
Footnote 102:
- Note that Backup_Prune_Ctrl deletes (relevant) pages that weren't regenerated in the last full site-regen, but this isn't the same thing.
Footnote 103:
- These are URLs that were used in web pages but hadn't yet been converted to the +WnnnW+ format, so appeared at the end with no WebRef ID.
Footnote 104:
- See Sistrix
- This used to be called Optimizr, see Sistrix (which now auto-forwards to Sistrix).
- A quick look doesn’t show it to be an obvious scam, but I need to double-check.
- An unsolicited analysis of my site turned up monthly from Optimizr from January 2015 to October 2017, listing a large number of “problems” that I think I know about, but which are in the queue to address.
- It restarted in February 2018, under the Sistrix name (this seems to have been associated with Optimizr since November 2015).
- The free version of this software is restricted to 1,000 pages, which is a very small proportion of my Site, though I may be able to point it to difference base-URLs.
- But I do need to address the problems validly itemised, and a sub-set is still useful.
Footnote 106:
- Well, maybe with the occasional holiday, and excluding days on which I have a lesson or the Enigma Ensemble (currently in hibernation).
Footnote 107:
- 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 108:
- I've yet to decide which to present for the Exam, so this long list will get whittled down in due course.
Footnote 109:
- 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 110:
- The earlier grades are very elementary, but I need practice writing musical notation.
Footnote 111: Ie. The following:- Footnote 115:
- This used to say "full participation", but I've let the team captain know that my focus is now on Bridge, and that - while I'm willing to "fill a board" - I don't want to take the place of anyone more enthusiastic.
- In any case, there's now no over the board chess to be had.
Footnote 122:
- Though I will probably book the time against my Thesis, as it involves what it is to be a person, transhumanism and the like.
Live Version of this Archived Note
Table of 12 Earlier Versions of this Note (of 83)
Table of the 10 Later Versions of this Note
| This version updated |
Reference for this Topic |
Parent Topic |
| 03/07/2020 22:09:07 |
512 (Status: Summary (2020 - June)) |
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