I'd like to move to Cornwall

I've decided I want to move to a nice detached house off the coast of Cornwall near land's end so I can watch the crashing sea on the rocks and have a nice forest to the back of the house. Away from all idiots.

Futile Exchanges

The thing about getting into arguments with people -- at least on the net -- is that no one ever budges an inch. Whether politics, metaphysics, or whatever other topic, no one ever says "you've got a good point there". Or "yes, that is something I hadn't considered" etc.

 I'm not sure if I'm like that too. I certainly am with metaphysics, the mind-body problem, free will, philosophy of science and certain other philosophical issues. Scarcely anyone seems to have a faintest clue what they're talking about on such topics, and this definitely includes prominent scientists. I, on the other hand, have thought about these issues constantly for many many years. 

Politics, I'm far less sure about and I like to think that I'm amenable to differing views. But, even here not much substantive ever seems to be said.

Also see my Arguing with People.

An Invisible Man in the Sky

“Tell people there's an invisible man in the sky who created the universe, and the vast majority will believe you. Tell them the paint is wet, and they have to touch it to be sure.”
George Carlin

Tell people there's an invisible consciousness in peoples' bodies who created iphones and the vast majority will believe you. Tell them the paint is wet, and they have to touch it to be sure.
Ian Wardell

Mobiles are frustrating

Unlike seemingly the vast majority of people, I've rarely used mobiles.  But for the past few days I've had to rely upon one to communicate with people, and I find them extremely frustrating to use. 

For one thing, why won't it reliably ring out when someone calls me?  I know I get a call as my PC is linked to my phone and a message pops up on the screen saying I missed a call!  Pressing this button on the mobile seemed to solve the problem, at least temporarily.  But now it's doing it again.

And sometimes when I ring people it says I'm not allowed to ring them, or something.  Only for it to work the next time I try calling them. 

And them sometimes people cut out in the middle of the call, only for them to re-appear and be seemingly unaware that I couldn't hear them.

Oh yes, and unlike on a landline (which I normally use all the time), I keep speaking over people on mobiles.  Must be because peoples' voices are slightly delayed.

Another thing, unless I terminate the bluetooth connection to my PC, peoples' voices come out of the speakers.  Am I still supposed to speak into the microphone on my mobile, or the microphone I use with my PC?  I don't know.

I imagine it's simply a question of getting used to them, but for the moment I find them frustrating.

Do I have the virus? Maybe.

This is now the 4th day since I was in close contact with someone who has the virus (sitting next to in a car). I read that the 4th and 5th days after the initial contact are the most likely days to experience the first symptoms. I await in trepidation!

So, 9 months of avoiding people and the very first person I'm forced to interact with at close quarters gets ill the very next day and transpires to have the virus. I might as well have enjoyed myself and attended covid 19 parties with wild abandon!

I feel like that main character in the Truman Show. 

 

29/11/20  Edited to add:  Now 3 weeks and 1 day since the contact.  No symptoms, so either I didn't get it or I was asymptomatic. 

 

Happiness Sappers

Sometimes I say things, something light-hearted, tongue in cheek sort of thing. Many other people just take what I say at face value, they appear to have zero sense of levity, facetiousness and take everything I say literally. They appear to have zero sense of humour, or at least their sense of humour is vastly different from my own. They appear to have zero understanding of how I tick. They sap light-hearted moods.

Jus' watched "They Live". Hmm . . makes me wonder!

Edited to add:  And yes, I am well aware all you aliens out there will take me seriously when I say "makes me wonder".

Souls are real but are not things?

I've just read the following piece by Vance Morgan a philosophy professor.

The Soul is Not a Thing, but it Most Certainly is Real

Not sure what it means to say the soul is not a thing but that it nevertheless exists.  And he doesn't explain what he means.  It's not a material thing, no.  But if a soul is our essence, if it is that which makes us the very same person throughout our lives, then why is it not an immaterial thing?

But anyway, the author says: 

[S]cience tells us that everything about us, including our consciousness and all that it entails, is at least in principle reducible to the operations of our physical bodies.

And he also says:

[S]cience has told us for a long time that everything that human beings have traditionally thought that we needed an immaterial “something else” to explain—our thoughts, consciousness, emotions, and so on—is rooted in brain activity.

This is complete nonsense, science tells us no such thing.  Or, if he thinks otherwise, he is required to specify what this research is that suggests this.  

He also says:

[A]s a philosophy professor who, at least in my own understanding of my job description, am there to ask difficult questions, challenge embedded assumptions, and generally blow my students’ minds. For instance, does the notion “non-physical thing” even make sense, since all of our experience of “things that exist” are rooted in stuff made of matter?

So this seems to be suggesting that only things that can be cashed out in terms of our sensory experiences -- i.e only what we see, hear, touch, smell and taste -- can be said to exist.

The first point to make is, why think that? Why do minds, or consciousness, have to be directly perceived in order to exist? No-one ever sees my mind, nor my experiences. Others can only infer what I experience from what I say or from my behaviour, but they do not perceive it. Should we follow the author on this and conclude that the existence of my mind or experiences do not exist?  That would result in each and every person concluding no-one else exists in the world apart from themselves!  And maybe not even themselves since we do not perceive through our senses our own consciousness or minds.  We are just simply directly acquainted with our own consciousness.

Second point, does this mean that what we perceive -- namely colours, smells, sounds etc -- actually exist? That they are part of the furniture of reality? Because this is denied by mainstream scientific thinking.

A review of the Fire HD 10 Tablet

This is so incredibly frustrating. I bought this tablet in order to read books on it. After having possession of it for a few hours I've arranged to send it back to Amazon.

The main problem is that no matter what I do, I simply cannot transfer any non-Amazon purchased books to the tablet. These books do not have drm, they are in mobi format, they have no problem in being transferred to my kindle paperwhite. I've also tried to transfer my own docx and txt files, but they can't be viewed either.

I've tried connecting the tablet to my PC and copying the books over to the books folder (and other folders on the off chance). No luck there. I've tried the calibre software -- it claims the books have transferred and lists them as being on the device. But the kindle app on the tablet doesn't detect them. I've tried sending using the kindle email. That doesn't work. I downloaded this software called "Amazon send to kindle". That doesn't work either. 

I've spent so many hours trying to get this thing to work. I've been chatting with a fair few people on Amazon's customer support. I'm not used to mobiles or tablets and have never read an ebook on one, so perhaps I'm simply missing something very simple. But sometimes you just have to give in. I'm sick of my life being sucked away trying to get modern technology to work. I've had enough . .nay . .more than enough.

Also, on first switching on, it was asking me for my name and address and other details, and then I couldn't get the home page. Swiping up from the padlock simply got a message saying 'wait a min', which lasted interminably, and eventually presented itself with the same locked screen! I eventually sorted it by a hard reset, or factory reset or whatever (can't remember now). This time I wasn't asked for my name and address (why not??) and it simply asked for my email and other stuff instead. This time it all went more smoothly.

Until, that is, I tried to use Alexa and tried to view kindle books actually purchased from Amazon. It threw up errors. Eventually I discovered the wifi had an exclamation mark over it (even though it had already detected my wifi). Simply pressing the wifi icon solved that. But the tablet keeps losing the wifi connection where I simply need to press the wifi icon to reconnect. So what the heck is all that about?? 

And every time I connect to my PC I have to go to the settings and alter some setting to file transfer. Every single time! Unless I do that no folders on the fire are visible. 

OK I've spent many many hours on this thing trying to sort it out. Hours I'll never get back. It's going back. What a complete waste of money.

Yet more on Covid

Just read the following article:

Boris Johnson’s latest Covid strategy: no hope and no end in sight

Article says:

However, shortly afterwards documents were released showing that Sage had advised the government three weeks ago to bring in five measures including a short “circuit breaker” lockdown, or else face a “very large epidemic”.

The official documents dated 21 September also called for a ban on household mixing in homes; the closure of all bars, restaurants, cafes, indoor gyms and services such as hairdressers; and all university and college teaching to be online “unless absolutely essential”.

So all this was significantly watered down. 

Inevitable the growth R will increase when relaxing lockdown measures. Hence, if R is only marginally below 1, it is inadvisable to relax all the lockdown measures since this will likely increase the R rate to above 1.  It was especially foolish allowing students to go to University as people from all over the country are mixing together there.  

R needs to be substantially below 1 before reverting back to normal life and this needs to be applied to all the different regions of the country.  Alternatively, we can let the virus rip through most of the population, but try to keep the vulnerable isolated.

But the choice has to be made.  The Government appears to have opted for the former.  But why on earth wasn't the advice from Sage followed?  Allowing R to get above 1 can be calamitous since this is exponential growth we're talking about here. Sorry, but I regard the Government -- and especially Boris Johnson -- as utterly incompetent, at least at handling a pandemic.

I wrote about the virus way back in March on my other blog here.  And on this blog both here and here.  

Sabine Hossenfelder and her denial of Free Will

I watched the following video of the physicist Sabine Hossenfelder and her arguments against the existence of free will.

I find it exasperating that scientists continually pontificate on philosophical issues such as whether there's free will, whether there's an afterlife etc, when they simply do not have the appropriate expertise.

This video is a case in point. There's 2 claims she makes:

a) Free will is incompatible with the laws of nature.

b) Free will is entirely meaningless.

She addresses "a" first, but "b" is clearly more important. If free will is meaningless, then to refute free will one doesn't have to appeal to the laws of nature or anything else. So I shall address "b" first.

b) She says:

"[Free will] never made sense in the first place. You see that thing you call "free will" should in some sense allow you to choose what you want. But then it's either determined by what you want, in which case it's not free, or it's not determined, in which case it's not a will."

Determined by what we want... In other words, we have the innate capacity within us to act on our wants, to choose in other words. But this is precisely what is meant by free will! If we have the power to choose as we please, if we are not constrained to act in a specific manner by physical laws or by physical chains of causes and effects, then this is what is meant by free will.

a) The problem here is she assumes reductive materialism. Unfortunately, reductive materialism is incompatible with the very existence of consciousness, hence it is scarcely surprising that it leaves no room for a causally efficacious consciousness! Indeed, science leaves out consciousness in its description of reality, hence the "hard problem" (the "hard problem" is the apparent intractable difficulty in reconciling the existence of consciousness within some type of materialist metaphysic.)

One last point. She says:

 "If you want to define free will in such a way that it is still consistent with the laws of nature, that is fine by me, though I will continue to complain that's just verbal acrobatics."

But no verbal acrobatics are required. We do what we want, what we choose, and the laws of nature, as applied to us, are a simple description of that freely chosen behaviour. Of course, she might complain that only the 4 fundamental forces have any genuine causal agency, but this is both to assume reductive materialism and that these forces do indeed have genuine causal agency. But physics merely describes the world. Assigning innate powers to electrons etc is a metaphysical position. Free will is a metaphysical position too (as is its denial), but at least in our own case we are immediately and directly acquainted with our own causal agency.

I have written an essay on the issue of free will in the below link

http://ian-wardell.blogspot.com/2019/11/a-causal-consciousness-free-will-and.html