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Status Reports
Status: HiQ (2017 - September)
(Text as at 09/10/2017 23:25:26)
(For earlier versions of this Note, see the table at the end)
Rationale for this Project- I was very active in Mensa and ISPE in the years prior to taking up formal study of philosophy at Birkbeck in 2000. Thereafter I was too busy, and no longer felt the need to contribute, so I let my memberships lapse.
- When I retired from HSBC at the end of 2010, given that I was no longer involved in formal academic study, I re-joined both societies for a year to see how things were going, but then let my memberships lapse again. ISPE seemed no better than when I was involved last time. The Mensa SIGs seem active enough, but I didn’t have the time to contribute.
- I re-joined ISPE yet again for the calendar year 2017, to see what was going on.
- Society Details:-
- For Mensa – see Link – I joined, or re-joined, a bundle of societies, but did nothing.
- For ISPE – see Link – I did nothing other than pay my dues and exchange friendly emails with a couple of old contacts.
- For a site1 giving details of the tests used for entry to ISPE and “higher” societies, see “uncommonly Difficult IQ Tests” (Link).
- See Link for a site that gives the admission tests for the various societies (and refers to the defunct site above-mentioned).
- Between 1997 and 2001 I edited a newsletter (Commensal - Past Issues) in my capacity as secretary of the Philosophical Discussion Group of British Mensa.
- I also edited "ISPE, Todman (Theo) - Under the Sycamore Tree: Correspondence Folder for the UK Members and Associates of ISPE" for a year.
- My intention has been to participate in these societies just so far as doing so would support my other projects by way of stimulation and the opportunity for interaction. As such, most of the time recorded against this project could equally be recorded against others.
Status as at end-September 2017- I re-joined ISPE. All that ought to have been required was that I pay my dues, but because of a mix-up I was asked to sit the latest version of their test, which I did. I didn’t, however, hear back – though I was re-instated OK. I’ve recently chased them up for the results2.
- I spent 5 hours in the 2016/17 academic year, which was 38% of plan.
- At the end of July 2017, I received the last print-copy3 of "ISPE - Telicom" (it was a bumper “full year” issue for 2016) and have read some of it. I was put off by the article recording the allocation of the ISPE Whiting Memorial Award to two members of the society. As usual, the academic status of society members is grossly overblown, but the thing that really disturbed me was the project for which they received their award, which was to replace Minkowski Space-Time by adding a third “substratum” so we have Space-Time-Consciousness. This sounds as misguided as you can get, but I’ve not investigated it. Further, one of the recipients was alleged to have solved Fermat’s Last Theorem in 1965, but “remarkably” only several pages long, as against the 170 pages of Andrew Wiles’s proof. Despite the claim that “tens of professional mathematicians” have failed to refute it, it’s bound to unsound, or we’d have heard of it4.
HiQ (Total Hours = 5)
Plans for the 2017/18 Academic Year- I’m an ISPE member until end-2017, and only thereafter if I pay my dues. We’ll see.
- To provide focus for higher-priority projects, I do not plan to spend any significant time on this project in the near future. I may do so on an ad hoc basis, and have therefore allocated 1 hour / week. If so, actions will feature on the Summary_Task_List5.
- However, I do not intend to produce any more editions of this report until this time next year.
- Possible Background Activities:-
- ISPE
- Mensa
- Nothing planned – see previous versions of this report for possibilities.
In-Page Footnotes:
Footnote 1: The reference given in previous reports is defunct. I think this is the same basic site.
Footnote 2: My rationale being set out in an email: - “On the test itself – it’s similar to, though not the same as – the first one I took, and leaves me feeling similarly uncomfortable. Theory is massively underdetermined by data, so – in a sense – “it depends what you want”. It’d be possible – no doubt – to think more and more deeply and come up with more and more Byzantine reasons for excluding particular items. But how would I know this is what is wanted? It wasn’t until I got the same percentile on the (much more satisfying but now sadly compromised) Mega Test that I trusted the ISPE test at all (actually, I was surprised that I didn’t do better on the Mega Test, and an inquest revealed I’d made at least 3 howlers that more care would have avoided).”
Footnote 3: - Hereafter Telicom will be published on-line only, except for those willing to pay a premium membership fee.
Footnote 4: - A quick Google only reveals self-published material, eg: Link.
Printable Version:
- Follow (this link) for level 0 (with reading list).
Table of the Previous 8 Versions of this Note:
Summary of Note Links from this Page
To access information, click on one of the links in the table above.
Summary of Note Links to this Page
To access information, click on one of the links in the table above.
Text Colour Conventions
- Black: Printable Text by me; © Theo Todman, 2018
- Blue: Text by me; © Theo Todman, 2018