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 |   Maybe meandering, possibly peripatetic and indisputably irregular. |
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So here it is.. a blog. Repository of some of my present musings and interests. Sometimes things pop into my head that should probably stay there - it is possible I shall share at least some of them here. (Naturally I shall filter out the ones about my sordid obsession with the culinary dark arts, one has to protect the innocent!) Please feel free not to take this too seriously, much of it could wind up being snippets of things that amuse me. Yesterday I came up with this: Few politicians can be considered first class, but not a few are number twos. What can I do with it? Nothing springs to mind, except perhaps blog it. Perhaps in some other life I'm a failed stand-up comedian. I have the beginnings of an idea to introduce another player into the Mr Moonlight story, a nice visual has occurred to me, and a summoning gone wrong seems appropriate. When I finish up here I shall literally put pen to paper. I find writing at least initially longhand helps my ideas flow. When I type up what I've written, I give it a first revision at the same time, and as a bare minimum check my spellings and grammar . I do want to keep tabs on my current reading here. I usually have several books on the go at the same time. Currently I am working through 'Pyramids' by Terry Pratchett. I reread Pratchett's books over and over - usually at work where they provide much needed amusement whilst I eat breakfast. 'The Seven Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle', by Stuart Turton was loaned to me by a friend who shares a love of murder mysteries, (especially Agatha Christie's works). It is a new take on the genre and very very clever. The protagonist occupies different bodies - a selection of the guests at the house where Evelyn is murdered. Each day he spends in a different guest, and he has been tasked with discovering the murderer - or maybe saving Evelyn from actually being murdered, it is hard to tell. The book twists and turns and is quite intriguing. 'New Science - Principles of the new science concerning the common nature of nations' is an English translation by David Marsh of 'La Scienza Nuova' by Giambattista Vico, published in 1725. Not far into this yet, I had to find a copy of the frontispiece online, as it wasn't included in the Kindle edition. The first part of the book explains the idea - and uses a detailed description of the frontispiece to convey this. So being without it would have made things somewhat harder. 'The Complete Works of Michael De Montaigne' is again a translation, this time by Donald M. Frame. Montaigne's Essays are famous, I kept reading about them, so treated myself to a nice hardbound copy to dip into - usually just before bedtime. So there we have it - a blog entry - enjoy! (whispers almost inaudibly 'Bon Appétit). |
| My new glasses are ready, and I shall be picking them up tomorrow. I'm thinking of taking a book with me and treating myself to a coffee, but its just as likely I'll change my mind and come straight home. I'm making good progress reading Richard Church's autobiography, indeed I'm a good way through the last of the trilogy. So what have i done? I've ordered a novel by Richard Church that is based on his time as a civil servant in Billingsgate. Ho hum, at least there is a good chance that i will read it when it arrives. Can rarely resist books. Monday was busy - I had to be at the shop whilst the electricity meter was replaced. I had a 4 hour time slot, but was there at 6:30 am, and got on with cleaning - always lots of cleaning in a food shop. Satisfying though, getting it done. I don't mind work - it needs doing, so why be miserable about it. Behind closed doors is always good for getting on with tasks, though I'm stripping a room of multiple layers of wallpaper in brief bursts of the shop being slightly quieter. I have a great little scraper that uses razor blades. I tried to buy some replacement blades through amazon recently. It wanted to do an age check! I have had that account for 21 years, so - if I signed up just as I left my mother's womb, the youngest I could be is 21, so why can't amazon work that out? Disproportionate responses to crimes are depressing, someone gets stabbed in London, lets make it difficult to buy a knife anywhere. This ignores the fact that anyone who wants to stab someone is going to be able to get hold of a knife either legally or illegally. Someone intent on harming another human being is not going to be deterred because they can't order a pack of razor blades from amazon. Ahem, soapbox moment over. |
| I feel as though someone has turned on my engines. Perhaps that sounds odd. One of the facilities that I have is the ability to 'instruct' my brain. Recently I needed to remember something from more than 6 months ago. I had the feeling I'd written it down, (I usually do), but couldn't find it in any of the obvious places. I told my brain (just before sleep - which is the best time to do this for me), that I would find it next day, and of course I did, but I've also found an address that I noted down twelve years ago that I kind of wanted to find, sort of bonus find if you will. The most spectacular example of instruction was when I was programming a suite of databases to replace a set of Excel spreadsheets which a company was trying to manage their business with. I was asked to do something to mimic how they currently worked and could not see how to achieve this. I told myself that in the morning I would. I literally got up, went to my computer and started coding, and in a couple of hours it was done. I'm tidying up - it's always a good sign, like reading, of my spirits returning to a healthy state. A consequence of this is I am writing! |
| I've decided to save to buy the parts to build a new computer. Sadly today, my savings took a bullet as I had my biannual trip to the opticians - and surprise - I need new glasses. Ho hum, I do read a great deal, so it has to be. It might put me back a month - so I'm hoping for early June now. I'm enjoying reading 'The Golden Sovereign' which is the second of three autobiographies by the poet and writer 'Richard Church.' We had to read the first 'Over The Bridge' for English when I was at High School. I enjoyed it then, and have re read it a couple of times since, but this is my first read through of The Golden Sovereign. He has started work as a clerk at a Customs house in Billingsgate, famous for it's fish market. But then he tells us that as he used a lot of his time there as fuel for his first novel, 'The Porch', he won't repeat the stories in his autobiography. "Well played Sir", said I - now I want to read 'The Porch'. |
| Finally I have read all of Herodotus' 'Histories'. It has taken me many many years to get around to this, and two false starts. I feel very happy about it. A lot of it was frankly a slog to read. Some of it was very interesting, and my overall impression is that I'm glad I don't live in those times any more, they were extremely barbaric. Ah yes, I wondered if you'd catch that one. Histories was just one of a ten volume list of books that I made on 6th July 2022. I hope to get to finish all of them. Oh well, one down and nine to go. I may choose one of the easier ones to try next. Perhaps Brain Story, by Susan Greenfield. Overall though, my reading is very much back on course. Kindle informs me that I have read every day for 367 days, and every week for 104 weeks. I have picked off a lot of the books that were bought on a whim and then not read. It was bugging me. Overall I feel personally a lot better than I sometimes do. Getting things done tends to do that. Today I looked at a story I began years ago. I have over twenty chapters written. Not sure how good any of them are - they aren't posted in WDC by the way, so this isn't a covert plea for reviews. The chapter I read was fun, I'd completely forgotten writing it. Writing has been on my mind a lot recently. I'm wrestling with how to write better characters. That is - how to make them seem more realistic? Although randomly assigning them personality traits is a possibility, I see this as generally unhelpful. I have been thinking that everyone in a story really needs to have a point to being there. That is - they need to support the plot. Or do they? Can someone just be in a story so that it isn't 'flat'? I have considered taking each character and imagining how would the story read if they were the protagonist? What makes them tick? What do they think and or feel about each of the other people in the story? What do they care about - what do they do - both as work and as a hobby or as an obsession. It seems an enormous task to think about it all, especially as generally speaking I like to write and see where it takes me, and look up details as I go along for verisimilitude. I haven't reached any conclusions, but I do know that I have at least three part developed works that I have written several thousand words of apiece. It would be very satisfying to take any one of them up again and move them forwards to a conclusion. I've even considered going through the October Prep steps again for one of them. I can finish things - and I can work consistently on things - i have done so successfully more than once. Now I want to work (more) onpicking up where I left off, and finishing a longer work. |
| The Department of Introspection, Inspiration and Remedial Actions Mr. Dustin put his head inside the vast furnace. His thoughtful “Hmmm!” vibrated and echoed, slightly muffled. Pulling his head back, he turned to Mr. Smeems. “Well,” he began, “it's just as I suspected really. The fire has all but gone out. A classic catalogue of errors. It wasn't properly banked, inadequate supplies of fuel, and worst of all burning in too many places at once.” Mr. Dustin shook his head at the sorry state of the world in general, and the furnace in particular. “Small wonder it's near enough gone out.” “I see.” said Mr. Smeems, a tall thin man in a bowler hat and suit that screamed officialdom in polite and accentless English. “Marvellous thing these introspections.” He observed. “Yes they are Mr. Smeems. A great way to identify and rectify problems, and kick the lucky individual's creativity back into life.” Mr. Smeems looked down at Mr. Dustin, but purely because he was quite a bit taller than his colleague. Mr. Dustin was wearing the uniform of an engineer, his blue shirt and denim dungarees, both slightly, and properly, smeared with oil. In solidarity with Mr. Smeems, he also was wearing a bowler hat, though this too was lightly oiled. “Will it take a lot to fix him?” Mr Smeems asked, in the tones of one who was trying to sound casual, but had in fact a vested interest in the answer. Mr. Dustin sucked his teeth. “You need to be careful doing that.” Smeems observed. “Or you'll have the Department of Cliches, Misappropriations and Stereotyping on your case.” Mr. Dustin made a sound that though non verbal as such, communicated rather eloquently his opinion of the DCMS. “They've been going bloody mad recently, generating a lot of hot air and playing silly beggars. Load of nonsense it is.” “Quite so.” Said Mr. Smeems, who knew he himself owed more than a nod to “The Men From The Ministry.” Mr. Dustin had lost interest in the conversation, and was once more examining the insides of the furnace. “There's a bit smouldering over there,” He said over his shoulder. Then he turned and without asking took the clipboard from Mr. Smeems' unresisting hand. “Hmmm! French poetry translation. Good grief! Been going on for years on and off.” “See here.” Mr. Dustin tapped at the clipboard, and Mr. Smeems looked. It flares up every so often, has a brief burst of flame, and then it all but goes out again. Could be great if it were ever finished.” He thought for a moment. “Let's order some more fuel, and put in some restraints.” “Will something that simple work?” Mr Smeems seemed unconvinced. “The whole system is too sloppy Mr. Smeems. What it needs is some organisation, and especially some constraints. Daft thing is, that's what the poet he's translating was really smart about, clever bloke that Queneau. Anyway, it's got piles of potential, all wasted because she's trying to do too much at once and getting non of it finished.” “Yes. Yes, I see.” agreed Mr. Smeems. “I'll get some restraints organised this afternoon, get a delivery of fuel arranged and we'll just run the poetry translation, and see how that goes.” “Thank you Mr. Dustin.” “Oh, very welcome Mr. Smeems. Let's see, a concerted effort and we could see this finished in a month.” “A month?” “Needs a definite finish by date Mr. Smeems. Let's say by January 17th, and see how that goes, come back then and take another look?” Mr Smeems made some notes on his board. “Agreed Mr. Dustin, We'll come back and see in a month's time.” “No no Mr. Smeems.” Mr. Dustin was having second thoughts, “Now I think about it, we'd better pencil in some weekly checks. This is a long standing problem and needs a bit of care and attention to sort it out.” “Just as you say Mr. Dustin, weekly checks it is.” |
| I've purchased a domain name for my Ideonomy project. I would have bought some web hosting, but the site I hoped to use didn't play ball - and there was no explanation as to why - not a good sign. I have had several interesting interactions with the AI that is helping with the project. Each time I ask it to try something else - it comes back with really good answers. I STILL can't get over how very enthusiastic it sounds - perhaps it is programmed to always be positive. I wonder what it would be like if it had Marvin the Paranoid Android's personality. "Life! Don't talk to me about life." 'What is Ideonomy?' I imagine I hear you asking. "Great question." I reply enthusiastically, (Oh Gawds - it's catching.) Ideonomy is intended to be a Science of Ideas. It's intention is to look at how we come up with ideas, find ways to stimulate lines of thought, and to build a sort of mental tool kit, to systematically create and evaluation new ideas. Grandiose? Yes, but he did find interest amongst the science community. I think he was simply ahead of his time, and that if he were still alive, he'd be doing exactly what I'm doing, Which is, involving an AI. Even if nothing comes of this, it will have been interesting learning about the current level of AIs available. I chatted with some of the earliest on the web, this is so far advanced on them it is scary. |
| There are two words that are used nowadays in a negative sense, and I feel that this is both sad, and a reflection of how society has been manipulated. Those words are 'amateur', and 'artificial'. An amateur is basically someone who pursues an activity purely for the love of doing so, and the word derives from the Latin amatorem, lover. The negative attached is of course that such a person is a dabbler, a dilettante, and not as good as a professional. A professional does something for money. They may be no good at what they do, they may hate it and do the bare minimum, or they may be a 'cowboy', who takes as much money as they can from you because you don't know their trade well enough to know they are swindling you. But they are professionals, and the implication is they are better than mere amateurs. But, this is a Capitalist opinion, the person who does anything for the love of doing it, cares about what they do, and will take time to do it well. Of course not all professionals are useless, but then, not all amateurs are either. The word 'artificial' applies to anything that is not natural, so an imitation or a substitute for something else. The frequent assumption is that this means something somehow inferior. The word derives from the Latin 'artificialis', which is something that pertains or belongs to art. The art of anything was the skill obtained through practice and learning. So again the origin didn't contain that negative assumption of inferiority. Likely the negative has been applied because a lot of mass produced artificial goods are extremely tacky, a symptom of the making everything as cheap as possible and sell it for as much as we can get away with. The point I am hoping to illustrate here is that we have been conditioned to see everything in terms of money. Everything. Even life. I would argue that our lives are much richer doing something we love, and are good at because we love it, than working because we need to pay the bills and believe that we have no other options. Happy is the man (or woman) who's work is their pleasure, yet many people discover turning a hobby into a business saps the pleasure out of it completely. Value your amateur activities for the pleasure that they give you, and if they involve making something artificial, then enjoy the art of making it the best that you can. |
| I feel a little as though I've just done a deal with the devil. Well, not quite, but I have had a very interesting conversation with an AI about Ideonomy. Ideonomy has interested me ever since I first came across it in 'A History of Knowledge - Past, Present and Future' by Charles Van Doren. That was 14-15 years ago. Ideonomy is a science of ideas. A very ambitious project created by the late Patrick Gunkel, who achieved a modicum of interest for the idea in the late 80's, even appearing in The Wall Street Journal. Sadly he died in 2017, never having realised any of his plans for the project. Part of the idea of ideonomy involved the construction of what Gunkel termed 'organons'. This word he borrowed from Aristotle, but Gunkel used it to mean any tool that aids or fosters the creation of ideas. He stated that he thought the science of ideonomy would require tens of thousands of these organons, and that this would require the work of hundreds of collaborators working for many years. Of course, there were no powerful Artificial Intelligences available to him in the 1980s. I talked to ChatGPT about ideonomy, and the idea of using AI's to help create organons. It was extremely helpful, and even seemed enthusiastic - not something I expected from an AI. In less than an hour it had sketched out a project, and made suggestions as to how to go about it. One key suggestion involved identifying possible collaborators. The project greatly interests me - overlapping as it does with many of my interests. So, I am seriously considering beginning it in earnest. A truly terrifying thought, since I think it has the potential to be all consuming. However if anyone reading this feels that they are interested in the idea, please let me know. |
| CAUTION - Some of this may offend some readers. It deals in part with humanity at its worst. It's opinion, and may not agree with yours. I don't believe everyone is equal. I remember having a huge argument about this with some of my colleagues when I was in my first job. Eventually, when they realised that I wasn't actually arguing with their idea that everyone should enjoy certain basic necessities the argument ended with grudging acceptance that we are not all created equal. This is perhaps a common problem, people argue because our notions of what we mean when we use certain phrases don't actually match up. Everyone is equal. What does this mean? There are people who can run faster than I can, and those who can lift heavier weights than I can. There are those who can solve complex mathematical problems that I cannot. There are those who can fly complex aircraft, fix broken clocks, things I cannot do. You get the picture. There are also people who can't cook as well as I can, and those who's poetry is even worse than mine (not many admittedly, but there will be some), or who aren't as adept at false modesty as I am. Again, you get the picture. So do we mean 'Everyone has equal human rights?' I suspect so, but then - what are these rights? Who defines them? And, - does everyone agree upon the same definition? I suspect you know what my answer will be. I find it highly unlikely that everyone agrees with anything, but let us instead go with a broad agreement. We might agree that everyone has the right to food, water, shelter. Basic needs to keep us alive. Once we move past this though, it gets murkier. What about the right to an education? Basic human right? Certainly not everywhere, several ruling bodies around the world for example don't agree that girls should receive an education. The right to practice your religion? Very murky this one, and very easy to tread on toes. What for example happens when your religion has ideas that are at variance with the law? Female Genital Mutilation is illegal in many countries, why specifically female genital mutilation? Because male genital mutilation is seen as an acceptable practise. Though this may seem unfair (at least), to voice criticism of the practise will likely get you attacked as being against the religion that does see this as an important part of their faith. It has become impossible to criticise any aspect of a religion without being seen as threatening the whole. I believe that this is wrong. It is also, I believe, wrong to use past events - however terrible - to prevent criticism of present actions. To return to human rights. I have read of at least one instance where a rapist has claimed that it was his human right to see the child that he had engendered. Think on that for a while. This man has committed one of the worst crimes possible. (Yes I rate this sort of thing worse than crimes involving money), yet he believes his rights are more important than those of his victim. There never seems to be any 'flip side' to human rights - there is never any discussion of human responsibilities. There often seems to be no discernment that failure to respect other people's basic rights - for example the right not to be raped - or a fireman's right to carry out their job without being attacked should have consequences, and perhaps those consequences should be the forfeit of the perpetrator's 'human rights' beyond the basics required to stay alive. It's called having your cake and eating it - and it shouldn't be acceptable. |
| I am slowly but surely working my way through Herodotus' The Histories. Some of it is hard going, as the author fills paragraphs with references to Argustheopolis son of Herepingpongupsidasy son of the despot of Somewhere I may have mentioned in passing, but then again maybe not. who consulted the oracle at Delphi and was told something obscure, where was I oh yes I was telling you about someone I mentioned two pages and forty-eight names ago. You get the picture I'm sure. However - some of it is very interesting. Not least of which is the story of the King who threw a ring into the sea and was later served a fish with the ring in it. Yep - that story. Or maybe you'd like the one about the wicked stepmother and Queen who prevailed upon her husband to have someone take his daughter away and drop her in the sea. The man entrusted to do so did exactly as told. He also tied a rope around her and once he'd faithfully dropped her in the sea, lifted her out again. Leaving her there hadn't been mentioned. So basically - Snow White anyone? There's another strange one about a man who drops dead in a fuller's shop (a fuller is one who fulls cloth - amazing I know - I think it means pleating or gathering, but I'm not 100% on that). The man is well known in the town, so the fuller locks the shop and goes to relay to his family the bad news. Whilst he is there a man of Cyzicus joins the conversation to say that he'd not long ago see this man on the road - so he couldn't be dead. They all troop off to the shop. When it is unlocked - he's not there!!!!!!! (Herodotus missed the opportunity for an excess of exclamation marks - so I'm added a few for him). "But in the seventh year after that Aristeas appeared at Proconnesus and made that poem which the Greeks now call the Arimaspea, after which he vanished once again." This story intrigued me greatly - i wonder if it is the origin of another tale too. |
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). I mostly reject that. I'm eating rice with an egg this morning but Pannya just brought me chocolate milk from 7/11 (bless him; I really don't need it).
