If I'd never been born

What would the world be like if I had never been born? Exactly the same as very few people have known me and even those that have never listen or read anything I say? I don't think so. Infinitesimally small changes in the world lead to larger and larger effects without end, leaving nothing untouched until the whole world is changed. I reckon if any one of us had never been born, the world would be different, perhaps very different.

The Engagement Rating of Novels

I think the novels I read can be placed into one of the following four categories:

1. You end up skim reading it i.e it's not at all engaging. It's a chore to read, but you want to see what happens in the end (most likely this will happen near the end, if it happens the first half of the book, I'd just give up on it).

2. I don't skim read, but it's not engaging and a bit of a chore to read and finish.

3. Yeah . .it's ok . .ish.

4. You actually look forward to picking it up again and reading some more i.e it's a "page turner". "4" is very rare with me. When I was a kid, yes, lots of "page turners" back then.

Same for films. 4 is rare.  And I have watched less less famous films than anyone else.  So I've watch none of the star war, Harry Potter, lord of the rings, batman, Godfather films etc. 

The claim consciousness would have been detected.

It keeps being claimed (eg David Papineau, Sean Carroll et al) that if consciousness caused anything in the brain over and above physical causation, then neuroscientists would have detected it by now.  I have no idea why they would think this.  The initial change precipitated in the brain might only have a minute effect, but then, via physical chains of causes and effects, cascade to larger and larger effects (see the video). Since neuroscientists are materialists, they won't be looking for any such influence and our functional MRI's lack the resolution to make any assertions in this regard in any case. It's just silly nonsense that materialists constantly put out.

Note that the notion that the world is physically closed is incoherent in any case.  I argue this in my other blog in my A Causal Consciousness, Free Will, and Dualism.

A Logic Quiz

 

Assume 1 is true. It has 2 being true, but 2 being true is inconsistent with 1 being true (eg 3 cannot both be true and false). So it's not 1.

Assume 2 is true. In that case 4 will be false, and thus out of statements 1, 2, 3, either all are false, 2 of them are true, or all of them are true (but just one of them alone cannot be true). Can't all be false since this contradicts 2, which we are assuming is correct. Can't be 1 and 2 as we've already argued these are inconsistent. Cannot be 2 and 3 since 3 being true entails 1 being true, which again is inconsistent with 2 being true. And all cannot be true since, yet again, we know 1 & 2 are not both true. So it's not 2.

Assume 3 is true. Again this has both 1 & 2 being true, which we know is inconsistent. Hence it's not 3.

Assume 4 is true. This is inconsistent with 3. Inconsistent with 2. Inconsistent with 1. But either 1 or 2 or 3 has to be true in order for 4 to be correct. Hence it's not 4.

Assume 5 is true. Well, my above reasoning shows that 5 is correct.

Assume 6 is correct. But 5 is correct, so 6 must be incorrect.

Hence the answer is 5. Incidentally, where I originally saw this on facebook the most popular answer was 6. But it clearly cannot be 6! For that would make 5 false and if 5 is false then at least one out of 1, 2, 3, 4 is correct. But that contradicts 6.

This underscores the fact that people just say things without even thinking about it!

Technological Change

I would say the world was much more transformed by technology in the 60 years from 1900 to 1960 than they were in the 60 years from 1960 to 2020.

Imagine a time traveller from 1900 arriving in 1960.  He would be overwhelmed by all the changes.  Now imagine a time traveller from 1960 arriving in 2020.  I think he would be disappointed!

Smartphone affected by unlocking?

The issue in detail

My mobile contract with BT ended 11 days ago.  I decided to go with Lebara for my new provider.  My phone -- a Motorola G7 Power --  had been locked by BT so that only SIM cards from them would work with it.  However, they sent me a code to unlock it.  11 days ago, on the 2nd of July, I removed the BT SIM card and replaced it with a Lebara SIM card and unlocked the phone.  

It was only 2 days ago that I have attempted to make a phone call to someone -- namely my elderly parents (to remind them the Euros 2020 final was on since England were playing).  But, although I could hear them fine (I could hear they had the match on in the background), they couldn't hear me at all, that is they heard complete silence.  So I experimented with a voice recorder app and recorded my voice.  My microphone is not entirely unfunctional as I can just to say hear my voice if I press the phone against my ear.  But, my microphone's sensitivity has utterly plummeted.  I also tried to record a video.  My voice there too is extremely faint. 

I rebooted my phone into safe mode.  Voila!  When I record videos in safe mode my voice comes out as normal.  However, mysteriously, when I rang my parents whilst still in safe mode, I have the exact same problem. Namely, I can hear them clearly, but they cannot make out my voice at all.

OK, so at that point I thought a factory reset should sort the problem out.  I did three factory resets in total.  Even before adding my google account or any other apps, the google voice search only picks up my voice if I speak very loudly and close to the phone.  It would not pick up my voice when I spoke at a normal volume.  Nor did the voice recorder work after I added it.  But it did seem to cure the problem with recording videos.  So now I could get audio on the videos I recorded without being in safe mode.  However, later on, after adding my google account, which therefore added all my previous apps, the same problem with recording videos re-appeared i.e the sound is virtually non-existent.  Again, going into safe mode resolves this specific problem with recording videos, but not the problem when I use my microphone for phone calls.

The problem in a nutshell

I'm not sure if the above is confusing, so let me summarise the salient points.

1.  There cannot be a physical problem with my phone's microphone since I can get the microphone to work normally, specifically if I record videos in safe mode.  So that entails a software problem of some type.

2.  But, if it's a software problem, why wouldn't hard resets resolve it?  It cannot therefore be any apps I've added.  And pre-installed apps won't cause problems.

So it follows that it necessarily is a software problem of some nature, either elicited by unlocking my phone, or something the Lebara SIM card has done.

But, I confess, I know next to nothing about mobiles.  I scarcely use my mobile at all, so the average person should know much more than me.  And certainly, Motorola Support should be able to suggest what the problem must be, right?

Nope, not at all.  I more or less repeated to the Motorola tech support guy what I said under "the issue in detail". He first of all suggested a hard reset, then when I pointed out I had done so three times, he said it must be a physical problem with my microphone and to send it in for repair.  He also suggested it might be a network problem with the Lebara card.  

So I mentioned 1 and 2 above.  And I also pointed out that it can't be a Network problem as this would not be consistent with the voice recorder app etc not working. And the Motorola tech guy simply agreed with me that it is very puzzling.  For some reason, he refused to address the question of whether unlocking a phone or adding a SIM card could somehow cause a problem, even though I repeated the question about three times.

Anyway, I just cancelled my Lebara contract since there's no point in having one since I only want a contract to make phone calls.  I have just ordered a talkmobile SIM and see if that works.  Doubt it though, in which case I'll cancel that too during the "cooling off" period.

I can only think unlocking my phone has somehow compromised the functioning of my phone.  Has anyone else experienced any such deleterious consequences when unlocking their phones?  If so, please feel free to respond in the comments.  

So if this talkmobile SIM card fails to work, I think I'll need to buy a new phone (I think sending it off to be repaired is not financially viable).  This is annoying, I've only just paid for my phone!  One thing's for sure, I will be diligently avoiding locked phones in future! (I only heard about phones being locked a few weeks ago.  I'd heard about jail breaking your phone, but never knew what people were talking about).

I'll update this post when my new SIM card arrives.

14/07/2021 Update (next day).

I received my talkmobile SIM.  It's made no difference.  I have found a thread on the net with people having a similar problem with Motorola phones (the G5 and maybe other models, mine's the G7 power).  Most significantly, someone says:

What's /really/ weird is that the camera Video RECORDS audio just fine. However, a voice recording app, and all phone calls have the MIC not working, even after a complete factory reset and numerous OS updates (even 7->8.1). So, it's not a mic problem, just a mic symptom. (Maybe stereo/mono encoding?

Oh wow!  Very very similar to my own situation.  OK, my video recordings don't work either, unlike this guy's.  But!  I can get them to record audio at the normal level when recording videos by either:

a) Booting up into Safe mode.

b) Immediately after a factory reset, that is before installing my standard apps.

c) Disabling Googles permission to use my mic. (got that from the thread, although it was supposed to be a total solution).


But, similar to that guy, the mic doesn't work for anything else.  Not for calls, not for the voice recorder app.  Which I thought was very weird indeed and incomprehensible.  But it's happened to someone else. So a different Moto model, but similar problem. Too similar to be anything else but the same underlying problem.  And this thread is 2.5 years old and the same problem has now occurred with me and with a different Motorola model!

So it's definitely a software problem.  Perhaps, after unlocking, the software updated itself?  (again, I'm very ignorant of mobiles!) 

OK, not sure what to do now.  I feel it's ludicrous to have to buy a new phone for a software problem that's lingered on for years!  One thing is for sure.  Whether I buy a phone now, or I can sort this out, I won't be buying a Motorola again.  

27/12/2023 Update I have finally fixed it. I stuck a cocktail stick into the microphone hole, and wriggled it about. Now the microphone appears to be working.

So how come my microphone sometimes worked for video recordings? Um.. the video recording mode significantly boosts the sensitivity of the microphone, or something? But anyway, I was convinced there was no physical problem with the microphone, and it transpires I was wrong. I was wrong to blame BT and the unlocking procedure, and I was also wrong to blame Motorola. Sorry!

Nuclear power and spiders

Buying a house here should be an absolute bargain.

 

Mask Wearing

Imagine if the Government said that from the 19th July, for the sake of personal freedom, people can drive on whichever side of the road they liked. That they should exercise their own good judgment. 

The problem here is that there are going to be lots of accidents, and people will be afraid to drive. It has a negative impact on society as a whole. OK, an extreme example, but it illustrates the point in respect of facemasks (people in the UK will no longer be obliged to wear them from the 19th July).

The thing is that "personal freedom", when taken too far -- and often it is -- has a very negative impact on society as a whole. But people in modern western societies are brainwashed into thinking that personal freedom is more important than collective responsibility.

Worried about long covid.

 94% of white people in their 50's or older in the UK have had at least one vaccine dose.  I'm white and in my 50's, but I haven't.  Why?  Essentially because of my health anxiety (I suffer both from health anxiety and social anxiety).

I worry way too much about my health.  That includes being averse to anything entering that body that interferes with its functioning.   And often, when I take pills of one type or another, they have deleterious side effects eg rennie is amazingly effective at immediately stopping my acid reflux during the night, but is more likely than not to lead to bouts of diarrhoea the next morning.  A few years ago when taking beta blockers for high blood pressure, I found that my heart didn't seem to be able to beat fast enough when I went for a run. When relaxing my heart rate was getting as low as the upper 30's (although, at that time, sometimes it went as low as the low 40's even without beta blockers. More typically, though it was around 50).  And I had a pupil dilation exam back in February 2019 (almost 2.5 years ago), and it's still having the occasional negative effect on my vision! (although seemingly very slowly improving over time.  I was very squeamish at the time, and as a result I think too much of that liquid was put in my eye to make the pupils widen, so that most probably did the damage).

So, anyway, I'm very averse to getting the jab. However, I'm even more averse to getting covid.  I was hoping to avoid both.  Unfortunately, the Government, in its never-ending ineptness, have decided to drop mandatory face-masks and social distancing from the 19th of July in England. Just read the following article in the independent:

Thousands facing long Covid as ‘collateral damage’ of Boris Johnson’s decision to lift restrictions

If I don't get the vaccine there's a fair chance I could get long covid, or maybe even die considering my age.  So, I'm in a dilemma on what to do...

Why do we have a mind-numbingly incompetent Government who seem hell-bent on spreading the virus as much as possible?  I have been banging on about people freely entering the country and spreading the virus ever since back in January 2020.  And  a few weeks ago on facebook I mentioned the extraordinarily bad decision to allow people in from India given the spread of a new variant there (now called the delta variant).

OK, decisions...