throwing out the ballast

I spent a few hours today going through all the stuff in my room in my parents' house, deciding what to keep there, what to throw out, and what to put into storage because I don't want to throw it away but also don't expect to have any use for it for years. It's amazing how much crap I have managed to accumulate. Highlights of the 2 dustbins' worth of paper that I'm recycling include the Youth Hostel Association Guide to Accommodation in Britain, 1995, the borrowers' guide for a library that isn't even open any more, and a book previewing Windows 95.... I've also succeeded in freeing up the 3 bookshelves I need, and set aside enough old clothes to make a well-stocked wardrobe, if only they fit me and/or looked nice, all of which will find their way to charity shops (hopefully soon), making way for the stuff I actually wear when I have to move it back from Brighton.

This has been a long overdue task, because for a few years I fell into the trap of postponing this because there was so much to do, which of course just allows more to build up. Once I got started I have to say it was quite satisfying; I have this feeling of having thrown out a load of excess weight that was serving no purpose.

posted @ 1:59 PM -

Philosophy essay titles

One of the 2 small(ish) bits of coursework I have to hand in before I can focus on the research project that I really want to get my teeth into is a 3,500 word essay for the Philosophy of Cognitive Science course I was on last term. It's one of these nice courses where I get to choose my own title, but of course that has a drawback - I need to pick one that will let me produce a decent piece of work. Unfortunately the most interesting ones also seem to be rather over-ambitious, considering the shortness of the essay and the fact that I only have a week or so to write it in.... Here are the ones I'm toying with at present; the general themes I want to focus on are self, world and the interface between them:

Where does "self" end and "outside world" begin?

do we locate ourselves in our heads, in our whole bodies, in body + personal effects, or not in physical space at all?

Why should I care if I die?

not to be written as a depressed person's manifesto, but as a serious approach to the question of why we value our own continued life even though none of the material that makes us will disappear when we die - an attempt to explain what creates our consciousness of 'self' - could be over-ambitious...

What is the difference between "experiencing" the world and "sensing" it?

as long as my eyes are open I receive a constant and un-ignorable flood of visual experience from the outside world. By contrast a robot samples and processes information from the world as and when its control program requests it to. How significant is this difference between my experience and that of a robot

I'm sorry. I was not myself yesterday.

considering that people who clearly are not afflicted with Multiple Personality Disorder say this, what do they mean?

How can we ever lose self-control?

if we take the idea of mind, brain and body being utterly entangled, how can we account for examples of poor self-control, ranging from poor bodily co-ordination to weakness in the face of temptation. Where do we locate agency in a fully embedded mind/body system?

I can see that this will be one of those essays that gives me a big headache for several days and then turns out to be really rewarding....

posted @ 8:18 AM -

If you tolerate this then your children will be next

I went to the Spanish Civil War exhibition at the Imperial War Museum today. It's a well set out exhibition, with lots of historical information that I didn't know enough about beforehand, lots of great propaganda art, but more importantly a very hard hitting sense of the horror of what people will do to each other over an idea.

I left feeling completely numb, but I will definitely go back there (and by the way entry to the museum and all the special exhibitions is free) once I've recovered because it's a fascinating place.

posted @ 4:04 PM -

passover

Listening to the Haggadah this evening I was more keenly aware than ever of how inadequate it is. Partly because I've given it more thought than in previous years (when this was all just a hassle that I wanted to get over and done with), and partly because my brother's girlfriend was present (she's not Jewish and I was listening to her read about Hashem and about my ancestors who were not really her ancestors) things which bothered me about the service before became that much more salient.

The thing is that it makes almost no explanation of why we celebrate this night, and instead explains the minutiae of some of the symbolism, recounts long and boring theological arguments about whether there were 10, 40 or 250 plagues, and makes grovelling sycophantic reference to a God who I don't believe in. It's a real shame because it's a story that should be relevant to anyone, whether they are Jewish or not, whether they believe in God or not, and even regardless of whether they believe the story to be true (for the record I think there was an escape from slavery in Egypt, but I'm not convinced it amounts to a blow by blow accurate account of how the escape happened).

Maybe for next year I should write my own alternative based on these ideas....

oh yes, and while I'm on the subject of things Jewish, this took me by surprised: there is a community of Jews in Uganda who converted in the early 20^th Century. There are not many converts to Judaism, and most people who do convert do so to marry a Jew, so it's very unusual to see a whole tribe converting in an area where there are no Jews to begin with.

posted @ 8:23 PM -

why is this night different from all other nights?

Tonight (sundown to be precise) is the start of Passover. I don't believe in God, I don't pray (it would be pretty futile), and I only normally go to the Synagogue for events of personal significance to friends and family (weddings and suchlike). I do, however, feel that my heritage is something important and worth commemorating, and Passover is one of the only two dates on the religious calendar that have significance to me beyond just being times when the extended family from around the world tend to gather in one place.

On the first night (and other nights for religious families, but my family normally just do this once) there is a special meal, with many symbolic foods and the reading of various set passages. One of the passages asks the question why is this night different from all other nights?. I won't go into the standard text, because I don't actually find its answer very satisfying, but I will try to explain in my own words, because I think it's very important that Jews and non-Jews alike are mindful of the significance of this commemoration.

This night is different from all other nights because it commemorates the ancient Jews' escape from slavery in Egypt. This is personally important to me because those were my ancestors, and it was the first in a series of lucky escapes to which I owe my very existence. It should also be important to everybody else because it can teach us something about our own lives - the importance of freedom, and of protecting freedom.

It's not enough to just eat the lamb, drink the wine and sing the service in Hebrew (all the worse considering how many of us don't speak Hebrew). There is a real point to these customs; we eat bitter herbs dipped in salt water to remind us of the bitter tears of our ancestors, and we drink the wine to celebrate that these days we can do such things when we want to. Yet how many of use really do anything meaningful to further the cause of freedom?

The point of telling this story, and of re-telling it every year, is to remind everybody that we must be free in our own minds, and we must support the freedom of others. Putting this into action means standing by one's convictions, and thinking through why we do things the way we do, not just following the crowd or the custom. This should be something that everybody does every day, but tonight is the night we make a particular fuss about it.

Because this night is when we celebrate that we are free and no longer enslaved

posted @ 12:02 PM -

someone has just posted an evangelical Christian newspaper through my door. I don't generally get offended by such things, but this one is called Good News and has a banner immediately under the masthead with the words Titanic disaster anniversary. Good news?!?

posted @ 11:05 AM -

Mice Eat Ballots in Thailand

posted @ 10:06 AM -

Mysticism and science

In reading around an essay I intend to write next week I have come across a particularly interesting paper, which may prove to be completely irrelevant to the essay (I have as yet to pick a title), but has provided an interesting diversion at the very least: What does mysticism have to teach us about consciousness?. The article tries to look at mystical experiences as consciousness distilled to its simplest form, just as we try to understand other problems in science by looking at simple instances. It risks opening a whole can of worms with the subjective nature of such things, but it's interesting to see mysticism taken seriously as a route to understanding one of the hardest problems in science.

posted @ 9:50 AM -

sports that might just not catch on worldwide

buzkashi is an Afghan game which involves teams of horsemen battling over a headless sheep or goat carcass, scoring points by dragging it to a chalk circle. The players want to see it exported to the rest of the world, but somehow I think they may encounter some difficulties....

posted @ 12:12 PM -

the barn door swings open

I read with considerable amusement the frequent articles about wireless network security, or rather the general absence thereof. I hadn't realised quite how widespread this problem really was, until seeing the International Chamber of Commerce's shocking statistics. In what seems to have been a more methodical study than most (they usually just involve driving through an area with a laptop and seeing what can be picked up, which means they will only get the very easiest targets) 94% of London businesses using wireless networks in their offices don't even have the basic security software that comes with the network enabled. That means that anyone who can pick up their radio signals (and at short range you only need a Pringles can and some basic electronics components, while with high quality receivers you can get a range of 25 miles) can use their network as though they were legitimate users.

On the one hand this is very funny, because it's a case of hacking being possible due to corporate IT departments' stupidity as opposed to hackers' genius. On the other hand it's not at all funny because sooner or later something important, like a list of credit card numbers or privileged legal documents will find its way into the public domain. I get the feeling that security won't be tightened up until something big goes wrong and gives people a scare....

[update at 5pm: there's also a story on ZDNet about this]

posted @ 7:12 AM -

moving out

Even if something does manage to go wrong with my planned move to Bristol, I know that I have spent my last winter (for a few years at least) in Brighton. Actually, if my plan to get to the southern hemisphere succeeds I won't see another winter for some time yet, but that's another matter. Anyway, I also know that whether I finish the MSc here or at HP my remaining coursework will consist of 3 pieces of work out of 4 possible subject areas. The upshot of this is that I no longer need my winter clothes or roughly a third of my personal library, so I'm starting to pack them up in order to ship them off to my parents' place for storage.

It's the first time in years that I've actually enjoyed the packing up and moving out activity, because it's the first time since moving to Brighton for the start of University that I've been planning a move for wholly positive reasons, rather than because I have to move out of my present accommodation. There is a tinge of sadness at the fact that I really am moving away from a town that I am very attached to, but it's far outweighed by the positive things involved.

posted @ 6:49 AM -

Hallelujah! Someone has actually found it in themselves to be cynical about the Oscars. I've had less exposure to the media than usual today, and I don't live in the States, and even so I'm sick of hearing about them.

posted @ 1:15 PM -

HP, take 2

It looks like I am going to Bristol after all. Having had my original plan thrown into confusion, I went back there on Friday to effectively re-interview, and just got a phone call an hour or so ago offering me a place on a different project. They are being understandably careful to make clear that there are still potential pitfalls, so I shall try not to get too excited until I actually have a piece of paper in my hand, but it seems like good news....

posted @ 12:46 PM -

worst web page ever?

Balancing Minerals has taken the concept of Mystery Meat Navigation to a new low. Do they actually want readers?

posted @ 11:31 AM -

swords into... keyboards

A Sierra Leonean expat is trying to set up a scheme to provide IT training to former soldiers in his country. I find this kind of thing quite inspiring, because this is the sort of aid that could actually help people put their troubles behind them, rather than just making them dependent on the charity of foreigners. There's also clearly a profit motive here as well - the scheme will be run by a company that intend to turn West Africa into a new hub of the IT industry - but far from being a problem this strikes me as a reason for optimism. It actually looks like a complete scheme that will provide both training and useful jobs, rather than the usual story of worthy individuals going off and teaching people things that they can't use, or big companies building a base in a country where they have to import all the workers due to lack of local skills.

It's all got me thinking - I'm supposed to be going off travelling after I finish the MSc, and I am pretty determined to leave this country for a few months at least, but maybe I could contribute something useful to a place rather than just being a tourist?

posted @ 9:55 AM -

Glastonbury

Having decided not to bother going to the Glastonbury Festival this year, I've changed my plans and will now be going. At the price (�100 for a ticket, lots of money to get there (unless I do end up in Bristol, but that's still uncertain), and I never manage to keep a tight budget within festivals) it seemed like poor value conisdering I could probably spend a week in Iceland at similar expense, but I've just been invited as the guest of a friend who will be working there. Now I have at least one good thing to look forward to during the summer, even if all other plans fall through....

posted @ 6:27 AM -

football's coming home?

I didn't actually realise how serious this is until yesterday. ITV Digital are trying to dramatically reduce the amount they pay for League football rights. The trouble is they are contractually obliged to pay the current rate for another two years, so many clubs have started spending on the assumption that the cash would be there. Now, according to the Football League, half the clubs are facing bankruptcy if the money is reduced.

I can't help feeling that someone, be it government or the Football Association or whoever, will start to bail out clubs if it really gets that bad, but even so this is worrying. If a large number of clubs go to the wall the whole structure of English football would collapse, and while sport is trivial in a way, an awful lot of people do care, and football clubs also often offer a lot to their local communities.

posted @ 6:54 PM -

Altruism

The Economist is carrying an article about altruism and reciprocity which made very pleasant reading. Not only does it provide a model in which altruism that is neither directed at close relatives nor tied to an obvious return (so genuine altruism as opposed to be behaviour that just looks altruistic) can be explained rationally and has a believable evolutionary history (though evolutionary explanations are always 'just so stories' to some extent), but it also points to research that might be useful. By looking at a range of situations and seeing which produce public-spirited and which produce selfish behaviour, researchers are trying to come up with public policy reccommendations.

posted @ 6:41 AM -