Theo Todman's Web Page - Notes Pages
Status Reports
Status: Summary (2020 - December)
(Text as at 04/01/2021 19:40:48)
*** 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.
Secondary Projects
- 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!
- 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.
- Languages7: Gain at least a rudimentary understanding of 24 diverse languages – for practical and philosophical purposes.
- Consciousness Studies8: A supporting project for both Personal Identity and Philosophy of Religion. An essential element of any critique of transhumanism.
Other Projects
- Bridge9: 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.
- Chess10: 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.
- 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, with the third phase started in December 2020 and now about 40% through. We’ve given up seeking redress from the surveyor.
- 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 20Q4 I spent across my various projects 679 hours (679 hours YTD) – where by "YTD" - Year to Date - I mean the academic year commencing in October 2020. "Actual versus plan" was 96.5%, (96.5% YTD).
- Overall, I worked hard in 20Q4 and marginally failed to achieve my time-budget, mainly on account of the Christmas period, circumscribed though this was, and the third wave of work on the house. I’m doubtless being too selfish – usually described as ‘focused’.
- The balance of the various projects against plan was mostly as I’d like, with the minor projects losing out. However, I only spent half the time planned on Music – mostly on account of loss of enthusiasm – the effort shifting to 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
I’ve retained the average weekly total plan at 54 hours (8 hours a day during the week, 7 hours at weekends).
The planned effort for my Thesis – at 24 hours / week – is more or less what it ought to be20.
Chess and Bridge remain at “Priority 3”, as they should be, and Languages and Consciousness Studies at “Priority 2”. Religion remains at “Priority 2”.
A point of continual but 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.
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 and the weekly allocation has been reduced further to only 1 hour / 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 the philosophy of 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. However, as the clubs are shut, and I’m not playing on-line, I’ve slashed the planned effort to 1 hour / week for occasional study and interaction.
I’ve increased the time allocated to Languages to 7 hours / week, and the bulk of this will be otherwise “fallow” time while walking Henry the dog.
I’ve decided to continue to down-prioritise Chess, and have scheduled only 1 hour / week.
Other projects continue to have a notional hour / week.
So, the weekly plan (retained at 54 hours) for the next quarter is as below:-
- Priority 1: 34 hours
- Personal Identity: 24 hours.
- Web Tools: 10 hours.
- Priority 2: 16 hours
- Philosophy of Religion: 1 hour.
- Music: 7 hours.
- Consciousness Studies: 1 hour.
- Languages: 7 hours.
- Priority 3: 4 hours
- Bridge: 1 hour.
- Chess: 1 hour.
- 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
- Website
- Religion
- Music
- Languages
- Consciousness
- Bridge
- Chess
- Mathematics
- HiQ
- Thesis26 (24 hours per week)
- 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, Religion34, Semantics35, Soul Criterion36, Souls37, Unity of the Person38.
- Those not yet in the latest standard format.
- Make progress on specific Chapters of my Thesis, using the materials below →
- Chapter 139 (Introduction). Focussing on:-
- Locke40
→ "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 241 (What Are We?). Focussing on:-
- General: "Olson (Eric) - What are We? A Study of Personal Ontology", a core text!
- Brains42: "Mitchell (Kevin J.) - Innate: How the Wiring of Our Brains Shapes Who We Are", Read & review
- Human Beings43: 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
- Persons44:-
- "Cottingham (John) - Why we are not 'persons'", Complete Write-up
- "Kuhn (Robert Lawrence), Ed. - Video - Closer to Truth: Personal Identity", Watch and write up
- "Kuhn (Robert Lawrence), Ed. - Video - Closer to Truth: Persons and Selves", Watch and write up
- Selves45:-
- "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-up46
- "O'Hear (Anthony), Ed. - Mind, Self and Person", Complete Reading and Write-ups
- Chapter 347 (What Is A Person48?).
- General:-
→ "Noller (Jorg) - A Transformative Account of Personal Identity", Read and write-up
→ "Noller (Jorg) - Person", Read and write-up
- Free Will49
→ "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
- Personites50, 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 451 (Basic Metaphysical Issues). Focus on:-
- General: "Hazlett (Allan) - New Waves in Metaphysics", Read
- Existence52: "Williams (Christopher) - Death and Other Difficulties", Read and write-up
- Logic of Identity53
- Partial Identity54
→ "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.
- Artifacts55
→ "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-up56
- Parfit57
→ "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-up58
→ "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, Note59
→ "Parfit (Derek) - Who do you think you are?", Write-up
→ Complete run-through of the Parfit reading-list
- Simple View60
→ "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 Identity61
→ "Broome (John) - Indefiniteness in Identity",
→ "Noonan (Harold) - Vague Identity Yet Again"
- Narrative Identity62 / Race63. Obtain a balanced view64 Focussing On65:-
- Race and Racism66
→ "Boxill (Bernard), Ed. - Race and Racism: Oxford Readings in Philosophy"
→ "Brues (Alice M.) - People and Races"
→ "Curran (Andrew) - Facing America's History Of Racism Requires Facing The Origins Of 'Race' As A Concept"
→ "Glasgow (Joshua) - Another Look at the Reality of Race, By Which I Mean Race-f"
→ "Mac Donald (Heather) - The Diversity Delusion"
→ "Rutherford (Adam) - How to Argue With a Racist: History, Science, Race and Reality"
→ "Saini (Angela) - Superior: The Return of Race Science"
- The British Empire & its 'Crimes': obtain a balanced view67 from the following list:-
→ "Brendon (Piers) - The Decline And Fall Of The British Empire"
→ "Darwin (John) - Unfinished Empire: The Global Expansion of Britain"
→ "Eaton (Richard M.) - India in the Persianate Age: 1000-1765"
→ "Lawrence (James) - Rise And Fall Of The British Empire"
→ "Tharoor (Shashi) - Inglorious Empire: What the British Did to India"
- Chapter 568 (Persistence69 and Time70). Focussing on:-
- General
- "Sider (Ted), Hawthorne (John) & Zimmerman (Dean), Eds. - Contemporary Debates in Metaphysics",
- Persistence71
- "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"
- Time72
- "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 673 (Animalism74). Focussing on:-
- Animals75:
- "Chittka (Lars) & Wilson (Catherine) - Bee-brained", Write up
- "Keim (Brandon) - I, cockroach", Write up
- "Rachlin (Howard) - Teleological behaviourism or what it means to imagine a lion", Complete Write-up
- "Ross (Don) - Consciousness, language, and the possibility of non-human personhood: Reflections on elephants", Write up
- "Wilson (Jack) - Biological Individuality - The identity and Persistence of Living Entities", Complete Write-up
- "Woodruff (Michael) - The face of the fish", Write up
- Animalism76
- "Hershenov (David) - Review of David DeGrazia’s Human Identity and Bioethics",
- "Madden (Rory) - Human Persistence",
- "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",
- Hybrid Theory77
- "Kotak (Aakash) - The Hybrid Theory of Personal Identity", Read and evaluate carefully
- Life78
- "Al-Khalili (Jim) & McFadden (Johnjoe) - Life on the Edge: The Coming of Age of Quantum Biology", Expand 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
- "Rose (Steven) - Précis of 'Lifelines: Biology, Freedom, Determinism'", Read
- "Schrodinger (Erwin) - What is Life?"
- Phase-sortal Animalism
- "Sauchelli (Andrea) - The animal, the corpse, and the remnant-person", Read and evaluate carefully
- Process Animalism79
- "DiFrisco (James) & Mossio (Matteo) - Diachronic Identity in Complex Life Cycles: An Organizational Perspective", Read
- "Meincke (Anne Sophie) & Dupre (John) - Biological Identity: Why Metaphysicians and Philosophers of Biology Should Talk to One Another", Read
- "Meincke (Anne Sophie) - Human Persons – A Process View", Read
- "Meincke (Anne Sophie) - Persons as Biological Processes: A Bio-Processual Way Out of the Personal Identity Dilemma", Read
- "Meincke (Anne Sophie) - Processual Animalism: Towards a Scientifically Informed Theory of Personal Identity", Read
- "Noller (Jorg) - Beyond Animalism and Constitutionalism: The Person as A Form of Life", Read
- Chapter 780 (The Constitution View81):-
- "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
- "Van Inwagen (Peter) - Can Mereological Sums Change their Parts": Read
- "Van Inwagen (Peter) - Inside and outside the ontology room": Read
- "Zahavi (Dan) - Subjectivity and Selfhood: Investigating the First-Person Perspective": Write-up.
- Chapter 882 (Arguments against Animalism83):-
- "Bailey (Andrew M.) - The Elimination Argument",
- Brainstem
- "Olson (Eric) - The Role of the Brainstem in Personal Identity",
- "Tzinman (Rina) - Against the Brainstem View of the Persistence of Human Animals"
- Dicephalus & Conjoined Twins84
- "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"
- "Ferner (Adam) - Metaphysics and biology: a critique of David Wiggins’ account of personal identity"
- "Olson (Eric) - On Parfit's View That We Are Not Human Beings",
- Pregnancy85
- "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",
- "Paez (Eze) - Abortion: What We Ought to Believe - An Ontological and Normative Analysis",
- "Smith (Barry) & Brogaard (Berit) - Sixteen Days".
- "Tzinman (Rina) - Memory, Organisms and the Circle of Life".
- Chapter 1086 (Thought Experiments87):-
- "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 Transhumanism88. 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-up89,
- "Contera (Sonia) - Nano Comes to Life": Read,
- "da Cunha (Rui Vieira) - Will I ever Be a Cyborg?": 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,
- "Liao (S. Matthew) - Twinning, Inorganic Replacement, and the Organism View": 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 1190 (Resurrection91):-
- Death92
- "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
- "Van Inwagen (Peter) - Dualism and Materialism: Athens and Jerusalem?": Read & review
- "Veatch (Robert M.) - Would a Reasonable Person Now Accept the 1968 Harvard Brain Death Report? A Short History of Brain Death": review
- Makropulos Case93
- "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
- Reincarnation94
- "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
- Resurrection95
- "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
- "Martin (L. Michael) & Augustine (Keith) - The Myth of an Afterlife: The Case against Life After Death": Start a thorough review,
- "Zimmerman (Dean) - The Compatibility of Materialism and Survival: The “Falling Elevator” Model": 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 PDFs to Notes:-
- Review the two reports:-
→ PDF-précis,
→ PDF-essays96.
- Determine how the first is produced, and why the pdfs aren't highlighted, and compare with Write-ups Notes Jump Table
- Re-read & enhance recent Précis conversions, ie:-
→ "Skyrms (Brian) - The Goodman Paradox and the New Riddle of Induction"
→ "Woolhouse (Roger) - Spinoza and Substance"
- Convert outstanding Essays.
- 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",
- "Bregman (Rutger) - Utopia for Realists: And How We Can Get There",
- "Bregman (Rutger) - Why Garbagemen Should Earn More Than Bankers",
- "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?",
- "Fine (Cordelia) - Testosterone Rex: Myths of Sex, Science, and Society",
- "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",
- "Lee (Daniel) - The SS Officer's Armchair: In Search of a Hidden Life",
- "Ord (Toby) - The Precipice: Existential Risk and the Future of Humanity",
- "Paxman (Jeremy) - Friends in High Places: Who Rules Britain",
- "Rovelli (Carlo) - Reality Is Not What It Seems: The Journey to Quantum Gravity",
- "Shand (John) - Central Issues of Philosophy",
- "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.
- Economics:-
- "Sowell (Thomas) - Basic Economics: A Common Sense Guide to the Economy",
- "Susskind (Daniel) - A World Without Work: Technology, Automation and How We Should Respond",
- "Reiss (Julian) - Philosophy of Economics: A Contemporary Introduction".
- Continue reading and reviewing papers issued by Aeon97,
- Keep up with the Journals via JSTOR & Cambridge Core.
- Update my Journals Note98: 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.
- Website99 (10 hours per week)
- 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!
- Document100, Repair & update my Website site-map
- 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. Took about 22 minutes on 01/01/2021, 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 BookCitings and PaperCitings pages:-
- Detail 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 BookCitings (copy the code: or, better, combine the two subs).
- Summary (Author Letter) pages: Include counts (as in Authors' Citations).
- Ensure uses the Cross_Reference table.
- Document!
- 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.
- 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 875101, 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 170102) are being truncated. Probably suppress them in any case, as they take far too long to load.
- Enhance Functors to work for selected non-temp Notes so that up-to-date stats can be incorporated. This is complex as I want to avoid production of an Archived Note each time a non-Temp Note is regenerated. I also want to ensure that Notes whose variable text consists entirely of Functors get archived correctly (which they might not if I removed Functor-generated text from Notes before saving them to the Notes table).
- 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 Page103 into multiple sub-pages (either by topic or by priority)
- Suppress the publication of the Printable versions of Temp Notes
- Upgrade Auto_Reference_Notes to reference Sub-Notes: Currently only affects one note - Somerset Maugham - so not yet urgent
- Papers
- The monthly regeneration process for Paper Abstracts was still taking just over 5 hours. I thought it could not be fixed until the cross-referencing project is fully complete and documented. However, it spontaneously improved to 1.6 hours in the August 2020 run. Monitor! Last run: 1.72 hours on 01/01/2021.
- 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 pages104 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.
- Technology
- Look into Sistrix Smart105. 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
- Webrefs_Update failing because IE loops with Aeon / Psyche pages. Currently doing manual checking - try to find an automated solution.
- 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 Webrefs 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?
- Other Websites: Priority 1 Items By Category:-
Religion106 (1 hour per week)
- 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,
- "Howard-Snyder (Daniel) - The Skeptical Christian": Read,
- "Howard-Snyder (Daniel) - Does Faith Entail Belief": Read,
- "Insole (Christopher J.) - Realism and Anti-Realism": Read,
- "Plantinga (Alvin) & Dennett (Daniel) - Science and Religion: Are They Compatible?": Read.
- Resurrection: Continue reviewing107
- "Alter (Michael J.) - The Resurrection: A Critical Inquiry", and
- "Alter (Michael J.) - The Resurrection & Christian Apologetics: A Critical Inquiry Volume 2".
- Essays:
- "Todman (Theo) - Philosophy of Religion Essay 1: Can God's necessity establish the existence of God?", Review - what's the latest version?
- Background:
- Aeon: Read & annotate papers as they arise
- "Finkelstein (Israel) & Silberman (Neil Asher) - The Bible Unearthed": 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
- "Thomson (Oliver) - A History of Sin": 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
- "Watts (Edward) - The Final Pagan Generation: Rome's Unexpected Path to Christianity": Continue reading
Music108 (7 hours per week)
- Oboe:-
- Practice the oboe for two 30-minute sessions each and every day109 – focussing on the items below and …
- Occasionally combine into an hour-long session to build up stamina further.
- Work through, and perfect, scales & arpeggios110 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 particular111
→ "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 particular112
→ "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 through113 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 material114, and
→ Try out "Earmaster - Ear Training & Sight-singing".
- Try out "Boytim (Joan Frey) - The First Book Of Baritone/Bass Solos".
- Also follow up items in:-
→ "Various - Music - Aural - Various On-line Training".
Languages115 (7 hours per week)
- General:
→ Brief Thoughts on Language & Languages116
- Arabic:
→ "Abdul-Rauf (Muhammad) - Arabic for English-Speaking Students",
→ "Wightwick (Jane) & Gaafar (Mahmoud) - Mastering Arabic",
→ "Ling - Learn Arabic"
- Armenian:
→ "Andonian (Hagop) - Beginner's Armenian"
→ "Ling - Learn Armenian"
- Chinese:
→ "Newman (Richard) - About Chinese"
→ "Ling - Learn Chinese"
- Danish:
→ "Koefoed (H.A.) - Teach Yourself Danish"
→ "Ling - Learn Danish"
- Dutch:
→ "Shetter (William) - Introduction to Dutch - A Practical Grammar"
→ "Ling - Learn Dutch"
- German:
→ "Tenberg (Reinhard) & Ainslie (Susan) - Deutsch Plus"
→ "Ling - Learn German"
- Greek (Modern):
→ "Matsukas (Aristarhos) - Complete Greek Course"
→ "Ling - Learn Greek"
- Hebrew (Modern):
→ "Glinert (Lewis) - Modern Hebrew: An Essential Grammar"
→ "Ling - Learn Hebrew"
- Hindi:
→ "Snell (Rupert) - Beginner's Hindi Script"
→ "Ling - Learn Hindi"
- Italian:
→ "Freeth (Mariolina) & Checketts (Giuliana) - Contatti 1: A First Course in Italian"
→ "Ling - Learn Italian"
- Japanese:
→ "Lammers (W.P.) - Japanese the Manga Way: An Illustrated Guide to Grammar and Structure"
→ "Ling - Learn Japanese"
- Latin:
→ "Duolingo - Duolingo Latin"
- Persian:
→ "Farzad (Narguess) - Complete Modern Persian"
→ "Ling - Learn Persian"
- Portuguese:
→ "Whitlam (John) - Modern Brazilian Portuguese Grammar: A Practical Guide"
→ "Ling - Learn Portuguese"
- Russian:
→ "West (Daphne) - Russian"
→ "Ling - Learn Russian"
- Spanish:
→ "Gordon (Ronni L.) & Stillman (David M.) - The Ultimate Spanish Review and Practice"
→ "Ling - Learn Spanish"
- 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"
- Thai:
→ "Becker (Benjawan Poomsan) - Thai for Beginners",
→ "Ling - Learn Thai",
- Turkish:
→ "Celen-Pollard (Asuman) & Pollard (David) - Turkish (Teach Yourself Complete Courses)"
→ "Ling - Learn Turkish"
- Urdu:
→ "Delacy (Richard) - Read and Write Urdu Script"
→ "Ling - Learn Urdu"
Consciousness117 (1 hour per week)
- Aeon118: 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
- "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
Bridge119 (1 hour per week)
- Bridge "at the table" is on hold. Only play on-line if pressurised by clubs or partners.
- Review hands from National Masters Pairs in March 2020.
- Investigate RealBridge.
- Bridge Admin: Committee and Website involvement for Mountnessing and Hutton.
- Re-read Hand-counting papers, focussing on
→ Papers in Counting the Hands120,
→ "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".
Chess121 (1 hour per week)
- 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
- Chess Study:-
→ "Gufeld (Eduard) - The Sicilian for the Tournament Player",
→ "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 & occasional 10-minute game),
→ Investigate122 LiChess.org
→ "Chess - Chess - YouTube Videos",
→ Complete review of 2018/19 season's games,
→ Complete review of 2019/20 season's games.
- Club Play & Participation:
- Over-the-Boad Play: Participation123 if and when play resumes in Billericay Chess Club:-
→ Club Nights
→ NECL matches
→ Southend League matches
- Attend weekly Billericay Virtual Chess Club (using Discord)
Mathematics124 (1 hour per week)
- Aeon125: Read papers as they arise.
- "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.
- "Spiegelhalter (David) - The Art of Statistics: Learning from Data": Read.
- "Wilmott (Paul) - Machine Learning: An Applied Mathematics Introduction": Read.
HiQ126 (1 hour per week)
- ISPE
- 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 about 40% through – is 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.
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 46, 58: Footnote 56:
- This paper covers the 'Loose and Popular' vs 'Strict and Philosophical' senses of identity, amongst much else.
Footnote 59: Footnotes 64, 67:
- This list will hopefully diminish over time, as I read the works, so will no longer look balanced.
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 89:
- Also look through other works by Andy Clark to get a handle on what he means by 'patterns in information space'.
Footnote 104:
- 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 105:
- 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 107:
- 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 109:
- Well, maybe with the occasional holiday, and excluding days on which I have a lesson or the Enigma Ensemble (currently in hibernation).
Footnote 110:
- 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 111:
- I've yet to decide which to present for the Exam, so this long list will get whittled down in due course.
Footnote 112:
- 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 113:
- The earlier grades are very elementary, but I need practice writing musical notation.
Footnote 114: Ie. The following:- Footnote 122:
- And consider migrating from Chess.com, though I renewed my membership at the end of August 2020, but downgraded from Diamond, costing about £80, to Gold, costing about £24.
Footnote 123:
- This used to say "full participation", but I've let the team captain know that my 'mind games' focus is 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.
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