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Books

Robert.adlington — Fri, 07 Aug 2026 15:47:43 GMT

2026 (week 30)

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	=== 2026 (week 30) ===		=== 2026 (week 30) ===

			* 34. The Oldest Book in the World: Philosophy in the Age of the Pyramids - Bill Manley
	* 33. Congo, Une Histoire - David Van Reybrouck		* 33. Congo, Une Histoire - David Van Reybrouck
	* 32. [[The Art of Logic]]: How to Make Sense in a World that Doesn't - Eugenia Cheng		* 32. [[The Art of Logic]]: How to Make Sense in a World that Doesn't - Eugenia Cheng

Films

Robert.adlington — Fri, 07 Aug 2026 15:43:20 GMT

2026

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	=== 2026 ===		=== 2026 ===

			* 48. Kind Hearts and Coronets
	* 47. Parasite		* 47. Parasite
	* 46. Arsenic and Old Lace		* 46. Arsenic and Old Lace

Reading

Robert.adlington — Fri, 07 Aug 2026 12:50:19 GMT

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	[[Category:Concepts]]		[[Category:Concepts]]
			Reading is a specific form of perception and one which is exclusive to humans.

			While we may be genetically inclined to be drawn to faces and to listen to speech, there is no similar innate tendency to attend to written material. There is no dedicated brain region, in part because writing is a relatively recent (5-6,000 year old) technology.

			Instead, reading is acquired only through instruction - letters and then words and sentences must be identified and remembered, and these memories need to be drawn on to then recognize and read further writing.

			The [[wikipedia:Visual_word_form_area\|visual word form area]] (VWFA) is a functional region of the left fusiform gyrus and surrounding cortex (right-hand side being part of the fusiform face area) that is hypothesized to be involved in identifying words and letters from lower-level shape images, prior to association with phonology or semantics.

			Writing is a delineated subset of the objects that we encounter in the world. Hofstadter argues in many places, especially [[Ambigrammia]], that the definitions of letters are very blurry, and that the surrounding context allows us to identify letters as parts of words and phrases even when those letters are greatly deformed:<blockquote>"Is that first shape really a "D"? Is the final shape really an "E"? Such questions make it sound as if precise scientific determination is called for, but category membership is blurry and is influenced by context, and the nearby letters (or nearby shapes, to use a more neutral term) form a context in which each of these four shapes is perceived. Even if each shape taken in isolation is a somewhat shaky member of its intended alphabetic category, it's a different ballgame when all four are placed side by side, since now, the shaky alphabetic suggestion made by each one, supplemented by the prior existence of the familiar name "DAVE" results in each questionable part reinforcing all the other questionable parts, and the overall upshot is, mirabile dictu, a strong member of the higher-level "DAVE" category."</blockquote>Reading is a particular form of perception. Your brain is either primed to read by the action of opening a book or turning to a sign, or is surprised to encounter letters and words and switches from its previous context or form of attention, into a reading context.

			For Western readers, reading is a form of perception that moves in a specific, controlled manner, from left to right along the written page and then jumping to the start of the next line.

Reading

Robert.adlington — Fri, 07 Aug 2026 12:21:13 GMT

Created page with " Category:Concepts"

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[[Category:Concepts]]

Perception

Robert.adlington — Fri, 07 Aug 2026 12:20:35 GMT

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	[[Category:Concepts]]		[[Category:Concepts]]
			Perception seems to be an effortless process. When I look out into the garden in front of me, I see the lawn, trees, and my son swinging on a swing.

			When a baby is born and encounters the world for the first time, we must assume that it has very limited organization of what it perceives. Perhaps there is just a sense of more or less light, the smell of the mother, the feel of her skin. But, immediately, we imagine these perceptions begin to be classified and organized. From initial confusion, begins a process of distinguishing objects, initially, perhaps simply as good/agreeable or bad/disagreeable. We know that we are predisposed to pay attention to face-like shapes and by repeatedly seeing the faces of the mother and other family or community members, there begins the process of being able to distinguish them as objects among those available in the world and then to be able to identify them.

			A similar process is happening in the auditory world too. The baby hears sounds and among those sounds are words and among those words are some that are repeated more frequently. Caregivers will point to objects and name them, but there is also a general background of words and other sounds that are being organized and eventually can be identified and even repeated. The child's introduction into the linguistic world comes through imitation of the sounds that it hears and the beginning of mastery of the tongue and throat muscles to reproduce what it hears.

			I still remember clearly when I was staying in Paris and learning French. I would listen to the radio each morning and suddenly, one morning, what had the previous day been an unbroken chain of sound, now became a stream of words. I'm sure that I didn't identify each word beginning and end immediately, but my mind, immersed in these sounds, had somehow found the knack to split the stream into objects that could be identified and understood.

			We can experience this process at a much smaller scale when first learning chess or another game with pieces and positions. Here, of course, the pieces are already identified as separate objects moving in the world of the game but initially we are not able to distinguish between the bishop and the pawn or the king and the queen or to identify a position of check or where a piece is menaced. But after a game or two things become clearer, distinctions can be drawn and each piece is assigned to one or more categories, ranked in order of power and importance etc. When a grandmaster looks at a game in progress even briefly, they can reproduce the positions of all pieces easily because of the depth and quality of their perception - built up over thousands of hours of play.

			But once we have moved beyond the initial identification of objects and on to the effortless recognition of them? What is mature perception?

			Perception is a powerful instance of [[Habit]] - we do not consciously perceive as the baby or the beginning chess player does. We are able to look around, situate ourselves and identify the objects in our surroundings due to the work of learning that we have done in childhood and to the deep habits we have acquired

			X in [[The Mind is Flat]] says: "The mind-as-mirror metaphor can't possibly be right - we need a very different viewpoint, that perception requires inference." and suggest the following principles of the operation of perception (and, by extension, thought):

			* We see only meaningful organizations (or, at least, the most meaningful organization the brain can find): visual chunks, patterns and whole letters, numbers, words, rather than a random scatter of fragments.
			* We see just one meaningful organization at a time.
			* Other sensory information that is not part of this meaningful organization is largely or even entirely ignored, to the point of becoming invisible.The brain is continually churning: despite the unaccustomed lack of new input, the brain is desperately attempting to disengage from the current organization, and to find another. When it cannot, the image entirely disappears.
			* Perceiving is a type of thinking and perhaps the most important type, with all other types of thought being just powerful extensions of perception.

			My image for perception is of many thought traces bubbling or forcing their way to the surface of the mind. Concepts of colors, shapes, borders, biographical memories and scholarly knowledge surge forward to provide meaning to the scene and objects perceived. And this is happening all the time, as your eyes rove over a scene or are watching images on a screen or reading words on a page.

			[[Reading]] is a particular form of perception which is learned and is peculiar to humans. We can imagine how it is learned:

			* Initially writing must be identified as an object amongst those is the world.
			* Individual letters are probably identified first, but possibly short words may be instead. The shapes and sounds of letters are identified
			* Then groups of letters are identified as words where each word has its own sound (generally derived from the sounds of its component letters) and a meaning. Certain words can be associated with physical objects in the world - "That is a cat" - while others have other less concrete meanings
			* Then groups of words are identified as sentences which have a meaning.
			* While making all of these identifications, we are additionally, passively, learning that certain sequences of letters are more common than others (and some are never seen), that certain sequences of words are acceptable, while others are not, and a variety of other grammatical rules, many/most of which also apply to our spoken language

Perception

Robert.adlington — Thu, 06 Aug 2026 13:12:59 GMT

Created page with " Category:Concepts"

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[[Category:Concepts]]

Habit

Robert.adlington — Thu, 06 Aug 2026 13:11:46 GMT

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	** Learning 0 - Is not learning from experience, but rather randomly reacting to stimuli of pleasure or pain		** Learning 0 - Is not learning from experience, but rather randomly reacting to stimuli of pleasure or pain
	** Learning 1 - Is habituation to stimuli so that the individual will retreat from painful stimuli and move towards agreeable one.		** Learning 1 - Is habituation to stimuli so that the individual will retreat from painful stimuli and move towards agreeable one.
	** Learning II - Is the highest form of learning achieved by a majority of human beings. Involves the segmentation of experience into contexts for which the individual has learned behaviors and can perfect those behaviors. He associates this type of learning with a person's character and with a tendency toward dominant or dependent behavior in various contexts.		** Learning II - Is the highest form of learning achieved by a majority of human beings. Involves the segmentation of experience into contexts for which the individual has learned behaviors and can perfect those behaviors. Bateson associates this type of learning with a person's character and with a tendency toward dominant or dependent behavior in various contexts.
	** Learning III		** Learning III - Involves identifying the habits that have been constructed in Learning II, calling them into question and reorganizing them, identifying new or higher patterns or stepping beyond patterns. He says that "The premises of what is commonly called "character" - the definitions of the "self" - save the individual from having to examine the abstract, philosophical, aesthetic, and ethical aspects of many sequences of life. But Learning III will throw these unexamined premises open to question and change"
			** Learning IV - Would involve change in Learning III, and probably does not occur in any adult living organism.

	[[:Category:Concepts]]		[[Category:Concepts]]

Habit

Robert.adlington — Wed, 05 Aug 2026 13:51:52 GMT

Created page with "There are various forms of "habitual" behavior that we undertake unconsciously or semi-consciously or are driven to undertake: * Innate or reflexive - We are born with drives and tendencies that enable us to survive: ** bodily behaviors - such as breathing, digesting, evacuating, heart beating, etc ** caregiver bonding - turning toward a touch on the cheek and sucking on objects to feed ** social behaviors - We have a tendency to look for faces, to pay attention to lang..."

New page

There are various forms of "habitual" behavior that we undertake unconsciously or semi-consciously or are driven to undertake:

* Innate or reflexive - We are born with drives and tendencies that enable us to survive:
** bodily behaviors - such as breathing, digesting, evacuating, heart beating, etc
** caregiver bonding - turning toward a touch on the cheek and sucking on objects to feed
** social behaviors - We have a tendency to look for faces, to pay attention to languages, smiling
** more advanced infant learning - sitting, walking, language
* Learned behavior:
** Diet/Exercise
** Religion/Beliefs
** Preferences/Prejudices
* Addictions:
** Caffeine, cigarettes
** Soft and hard drugs
** TV/Cellphones
* Habits are defined as a "routine of behavior that is repeated regularly and tends to occur subconsciously" or as "more or less fixed ways of thinking, willing, or feeling acquired through previous repetition of a mental experience.
* Some studies suggest that more than 40% of human actions are driven by habit.
* For James, "Any sequence of mental action which has been frequently repeated tends to perpetuate itself; so that we find ourselves automatically prompted to think, feel, or do what we have been before accustomed to think, feel, or do, under like circumstances, without any consciously formed purpose, or anticipated of result."
* The process of learning is one of acquiring unconscious habits. Consider learning how to drive a car:
** Initially I have to think about and consciously manage the balance between the clutch and the accelerator, to remember to check the mirror before a maneuver, to check on all sides, to switch to the brake.
** As I learn, more and more of these tasks will become automatic and require less of my conscious attention. Only when something unexpected happens - a car slows suddenly of pulls in front of me - is my conscious attention called to action.
** Now after 35 years of driving, I can say that most of my driving is done at an unconscious level. I think about what my feet or my hands are doing only rarely, and it is difficult to explain what I am doing to my learner driver son - I just do it!
* For Bateson "No organism can afford to be conscious of matters with which it could deal at unconscious levels. This is the economy achieved by habit formation."
* Bateson's theory of learning involves "various habits of punctuating the stream of experience so that it takes on one or another sort of coherence and sense.":
** Learning 0 - Is not learning from experience, but rather randomly reacting to stimuli of pleasure or pain
** Learning 1 - Is habituation to stimuli so that the individual will retreat from painful stimuli and move towards agreeable one.
** Learning II - Is the highest form of learning achieved by a majority of human beings. Involves the segmentation of experience into contexts for which the individual has learned behaviors and can perfect those behaviors. He associates this type of learning with a person's character and with a tendency toward dominant or dependent behavior in various contexts.
** Learning III

[[:Category:Concepts]]

Category:Books

Robert.adlington — Wed, 05 Aug 2026 13:05:04 GMT

2026 (week 30)

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	=== 2026 (week 30) ===		=== 2026 (week 30) ===

			* 33. Congo, Une Histoire - David Van Reybrouck

	* 32. [[The Art of Logic]]: How to Make Sense in a World that Doesn't - Eugenia Cheng		* 32. [[The Art of Logic]]: How to Make Sense in a World that Doesn't - Eugenia Cheng

Books

Robert.adlington — Wed, 05 Aug 2026 09:15:58 GMT

2026 (week 30)

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	=== 2026 (week 30) ===		=== 2026 (week 30) ===

			* 33. Congo, Une Histoire - David Van Reybrouck
	* 32. [[The Art of Logic]]: How to Make Sense in a World that Doesn't - Eugenia Cheng		* 32. [[The Art of Logic]]: How to Make Sense in a World that Doesn't - Eugenia Cheng
	* 31. [[Why Read]] - Will Self		* 31. [[Why Read]] - Will Self

Films

Robert.adlington — Tue, 04 Aug 2026 20:45:19 GMT

2026

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	=== 2026 ===		=== 2026 ===

	* 46. Arsenic and Old Lace 45. Get Out 44. Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure (rewatch)		* 47. Parasite
			* 46. Arsenic and Old Lace
			* 45. Get Out
			* 44. Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure (rewatch)
	* 43. Apex		* 43. Apex
	* 42. 21 Jump Street		* 42. 21 Jump Street

Attention

Robert.adlington — Tue, 04 Aug 2026 14:24:49 GMT

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-* When I try to think about thinking, the closest I can get is to thinking about attention.
+* When I try to think about thinking, I become aware not of some internal mechanisms that do thinking, but rather of attention. When I try to concentrate on what is happening in my mind, paradoxically, I become more aware of what I am looking at.
-* Only sometimes am I consciously asserting attention
+* I had a girlfriend who liked to ask what I was thinking about. Most of the time I lied for simplicity. One time I told her - "I'm thinking about the color blue, and lightning, and..." I listed maybe 8 or more things that were flitting through my mind.
 [[Category:Concepts]]

Attention

Robert.adlington — Tue, 04 Aug 2026 13:38:19 GMT

Created page with "* When I try to think about thinking, the closest I can get is to thinking about attention. * Only sometimes am I consciously asserting attention Category:Concepts"

New page

* When I try to think about thinking, the closest I can get is to thinking about attention.
* Only sometimes am I consciously asserting attention

[[Category:Concepts]]

Phenomenology

Robert.adlington — Tue, 04 Aug 2026 13:31:30 GMT

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	[[:Category:Concepts]]		[[Category:Concepts]]

Category:Concepts

Robert.adlington — Mon, 03 Aug 2026 17:13:40 GMT

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 ** AI is not a way out of the postmodern wasteland; it is the concrete canopy built over it. It takes the terrifying, beautiful, chaotic project of human categorization—the messy, emotional, memory-infused art that makes your mind uniquely yours—and turns it over to a predictive text algorithm.
-== Phenomenology ==
 == Heterophenomenology ==

Phenomenology

Robert.adlington — Mon, 03 Aug 2026 17:13:36 GMT

Created page with "We have a form of "privileged access" - a direct, first-person doorway to our own mental contents that no external observer possesses. But even if it feels like we are watching our minds work in real time, our introspective access is severely limited: * We see the output, not the process - Your mind generates the result of a thought, and then invents a plausible-sounding reason after the fact to explain why you thought it. * Your conscious awareness is just the thin, sh..."

New page

We have a form of "privileged access" - a direct, first-person doorway to our own mental contents that no external observer possesses. But even if it feels like we are watching our minds work in real time, our introspective access is severely limited:

* We see the output, not the process - Your mind generates the result of a thought, and then invents a plausible-sounding reason after the fact to explain why you thought it.
* Your conscious awareness is just the thin, shiny surface of a massive cognitive ocean. The actual search algorithm, brain-state modulation, and network firing are completely hidden from you.
* You are the audience for your brain's finalized outputs. You have privileged access to the movie playing on the mental screen, but you are sitting in the audience completely blind to the projector, the editing room, and the director working behind the scenes.

== What it "Feels Like" to Think ==

* I've spent a lot of time thinking about thinking, but it is very hard to say what it feels like to think.
* I try to introspect while doing various activities, physical and intellectual and it is very hard to pin down what is happening in my head.
* At best, I feel I can say that I am trying to give attention to one thing or another, but also that other "things" - other needs or pieces of information - are also working to grab my attention.

== Word Puzzles ==
I do the NYT crossword, Wordle, Spelling Bee, and Connections every day.

=== The NYT Crossword ===

* I have been doing the NYT crossword in the app nearly every day for ten years.
* I have a pretty wide vocabulary and I have lived long enough in America (1 year and then 5 years) and am familiar enough with US culture that I am surprised if I cannot find the right answer to a clue in the course of the day. I normally complete the grid. My average solve time goes from around 6 min on a Monday to 32 min on a Sunday.
* How do I find the answer to a clue?
** I read the clue and either I have the answer or I don't.
** I look at the number of squares and that may trigger an answer
** If any of the letters are present (or become present), then that may trigger an answer
** I work through the grid completing what I can of the across clues and then the down clues. If I don't have an answer I move to the next clue.
** Sometimes, particularly for a proper noun, I might feel like the answer is on the tip of my tongue, but I can't get it. I move on.
** I don't try. I'm not sure what trying would feel like. I either have the answer or I don't have it. I keep running through the remaining clues and slowly they fall into place, thanks to additional available letters.
** My work seems to be simply to direct attention. To the puzzle in the first place, then to one clue after another, then to hold attention for longer over the final clues if they are difficult.
** My mind produces cultural, geographical, historical, and general information as appropriate.
** I don't count the number of boxes and I rarely make a mistake in choosing a word of the correct length

=== Wordle ===

* Wordle is a simple game - just find the five-letter word of the day. Get a green square when the letter is correct and in the right place. Get a yellow square when the letter is correct but in the wrong place. Get the word in up to six tries.
* I've been doing it daily for nearly five years and have a 99% solve rate. I start with "TEARS".
* The challenge with Wordle is to find words that fit with the letters you have already guessed. I almost never deliberately guess a word that could not work with my existing clues.
* Wordle does not let you guess a word unless it is in its dictionary. The solving experience thus begins with some 12,000 possible english 5-letter words (of which, apparently, some 2,300 are identified as valid solutions) but rapidly filters out possible words due to the clues from previous attempts
* I spend a lot of time looking at the previous guesses and the blank line waiting for my next guess. Unlike the crossword, there is no "next clue" to go to. You are stuck until you find a valid word to enter.
* Here I feel that there is some conscious thought that goes into solving. I know that certain sequences of letters go more commonly together than others and so I am trying to find words that fit the clues I have into these sequences. I have to find a valid answer to enter and I force my mind to propose words based on the restrictions provided by previous clues
* Probably in about half the cases the solve is quick - say in under 3 minutes. In maybe 95% of cases I can solve in under 6 minutes. I suspect that I get frustrated at about this point and will turn to another puzzle and come back after that. Often a fresh perspective then makes the solve very quick. In very rare situations I am still stuck and have to come back later in the day. Only at this point will I consider entering a word I know is wrong in order to unlock further clues. I've never not entered six guesses and have failed 100/1,683 days.

=== Connections ===

* Based on/ripped off from Victoria Coren-Mitchell's "Only Connect" show, Connections makes you group sixteen words or phrases into four groups of four. There are yellow, green, blue, and purple sets in increasing level of difficulty of connection.
* I've been doing it for just over two years and have a 91% win rate.
* I start by looking at all sixteen squares and often one or more sets will suggest themselves.

* On the day I'm writing this, the solution was (in the order in which I got them):
** Yellow: "Road Less Traveled" - Alley, Backstreet, Byway, Lane
** Purple: "Starting with Synonyms for 'Pester'" - Bug Fix, Nag Champa, Needless, Tea Set
** Blue: "'Y' is the Only Vowel" - Fly By, Myrrh, Nsync, Rhythm
** Green: "Shades of Green" - Forest, Hunter, Mint, Sage
* This is by far (for me) the hardest of the daily NYT word puzzles, because of the varying natures of the connections you are required to identify. The connection can be of meaning, some property of the word or phrase, some sub-component of it or some second order connection, such as the greens above.
* Here again, my main work seems to be directly attention, choosing a word to examine, until a context, a membership of some category suggests itself. Then by turning to other words, seeing if they also have potential membership of the same category.
* This is a different challenge because here you're not providing answers, but rather organizing answers to four unknown questions.

=== Spelling Bee ===

* Generate as many words as possible from the seven letters provided - each letter can be used multliple times in a single word. Your words must have four or more letters and must include the central letter. The more words you find, the more you move up the ranks, with "Amazing" and "Genius" being the top two official ranks and "Queen Bee" reserved for anyone finding every word listed as valid for a given day. Each day there is one or more "pangrams", ie words using all the letters
* I've been doing this for nearly three years and 97% of my days are ranked as "Amazing" or "Genius". I've never gotten "Queen Bee".
* Here it just seems to be a case of "seeing" the words. Maybe 30% of the time I start off by "seeing" the pangram first. Commonly I'll reel off the first 10 or 20 words without effort.
* Then it tends to be a case of choosing a letter as a starting letter and working from there or thinking about common sequences of letters.
* If "ED" or "ING" or "S" are available, then any word found can be extended with one or all of them.
* Other than that it tends to be a case of simply directly attention to a letter and then letting that attention flow to potential next letters and so on.

[[:Category:Concepts]]

Films

Robert.adlington — Sun, 02 Aug 2026 20:27:51 GMT

Films to Watch

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	[https://www.cinealcazar.fr/fichier/programme.pdf Cinema Alcazar Program]		[https://www.cinealcazar.fr/fichier/programme.pdf Cinema Alcazar Program]

			* Wicker: https://youtu.be/HP0BWBWn14I?si=E5oThE4uNiED28b3
			* morvern Callar
			* Do the right thing
			* run Lola Run
	* Mind trips		* Mind trips
	** Triangle		** Triangle
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	=== 2026 ===		=== 2026 ===

	* 44. Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure (rewatch)		* 46. Arsenic and Old Lace 45. Get Out 44. Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure (rewatch)
	* 43. Apex		* 43. Apex
	* 42. 21 Jump Street		* 42. 21 Jump Street

Category:Concepts

Robert.adlington — Mon, 27 Jul 2026 16:44:04 GMT

Concept/Category

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 ** When you spend your days interacting with an AI, conversational boundaries evaporate. You type a prompt, the AI spits back a mirror of your own linguistic habits, and you edit it. The loop closes. You enter a state of pure semantic hollowing. You are no longer navigating the postmodern wasteland; you are a ghost talking to a machine, using automated words to build an automated self.
 ** AI is not a way out of the postmodern wasteland; it is the concrete canopy built over it. It takes the terrifying, beautiful, chaotic project of human categorization—the messy, emotional, memory-infused art that makes your mind uniquely yours—and turns it over to a predictive text algorithm.
 == Heterophenomenology ==

Project

Robert.adlington — Mon, 27 Jul 2026 16:12:44 GMT

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	== The Future ==		== The Future ==
	Is a future of progress assured? Will democracy continue? Are we able to face the challenge of climate change? Will AI help or destroy us? How will it impact consciousness? Are we slowly being ushered into a matrix-like state of screen addiction?		Is a future of progress assured? Will democracy continue? Are we able to face the challenge of climate change? Will AI help or destroy us? How will it impact consciousness? Are we slowly being ushered into a matrix-like state of screen addiction?

			[[Category:Project]]

Geometry

Robert.adlington — Sun, 26 Jul 2026 16:07:18 GMT

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	*		*

			[[Category:Maths]]

Real Numbers

Robert.adlington — Sun, 26 Jul 2026 16:06:55 GMT

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	== Absolute Values ==		== Absolute Values ==

			[[Category:Maths]]

Calculus

Robert.adlington — Sun, 26 Jul 2026 16:06:30 GMT

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	** Geometrically: the definite integral of a function between two points represents the area under a curve, the signed area between the function's graph and the x-axis over that interval.		** Geometrically: the definite integral of a function between two points represents the area under a curve, the signed area between the function's graph and the x-axis over that interval.
	** Physically: The integral can be thought of as a way to sum up infinitely many tiny pieces to find a total quantity. For example, if you know the rate at which water is flowing into a tank, integration can tell you the total volume of water in the tank over a period of time.		** Physically: The integral can be thought of as a way to sum up infinitely many tiny pieces to find a total quantity. For example, if you know the rate at which water is flowing into a tank, integration can tell you the total volume of water in the tank over a period of time.


			[[Category:Maths]]

Understanding Media

Robert.adlington — Sun, 26 Jul 2026 16:05:43 GMT

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	=== 33. Automation: Learning a Living		=== 33. Automation: Learning a Living

			[[Category:Books]]
			[[Category:Consciousness]]

The Practice of Not Thinking

Robert.adlington — Sun, 26 Jul 2026 16:05:25 GMT

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	* In Buddhism, the ability to become aware is called the power of the will. The will refers to our ability to recognize things, like a sensor for awareness.		* In Buddhism, the ability to become aware is called the power of the will. The will refers to our ability to recognize things, like a sensor for awareness.
	* We concentrate, control our awareness, grab hold of it and focus on it in a single location. It means gathering up and bringing together in one place the scattered thoughts that flit through our mind at lightning speed.		* We concentrate, control our awareness, grab hold of it and focus on it in a single location. It means gathering up and bringing together in one place the scattered thoughts that flit through our mind at lightning speed.

			[[Category:Books]]
			[[Category:Consciousness]]

Category:Books

Robert.adlington — Sun, 26 Jul 2026 16:01:57 GMT

Created page with "== Books to Buy == Used: * [https://www.amazon.fr/Nightmare-Reason-Life-Franz-Kafka/dp/0374523355/ref=mp_s_a_1_1?crid=3UVJCLJFIY2CS&dib=eyJ2IjoiMSJ9.u3RaalBtg8bvWBbE8fVyXaCIirwCIkTLbUk5cwh_aYdlxQvg0yct5WxpF8hlFrbZxzIlPisTw_LJ-XermdOvrvQTKJR1xhGnjBQeBOOkj7UvLDqubVbBqOs4xWZlUjrzTneCM3AQNtLpEPT7T52XEL13eNQRCBZrMnVuSMk128RVqDk4IOYDPBhUWZzf9mHNv9T-yqA9Qv2JRg8l61zGhg.6VgqDbi7D-Vl19NQyoPSj86-nLG9IM98Vpm9Z9m-uGo&dib_tag=se&keywords=nightmare%2Bof%2Breason&qid=1783763181&sprefix..."

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== Books to Buy ==

Used:
* [https://www.amazon.fr/Nightmare-Reason-Life-Franz-Kafka/dp/0374523355/ref=mp_s_a_1_1?crid=3UVJCLJFIY2CS&dib=eyJ2IjoiMSJ9.u3RaalBtg8bvWBbE8fVyXaCIirwCIkTLbUk5cwh_aYdlxQvg0yct5WxpF8hlFrbZxzIlPisTw_LJ-XermdOvrvQTKJR1xhGnjBQeBOOkj7UvLDqubVbBqOs4xWZlUjrzTneCM3AQNtLpEPT7T52XEL13eNQRCBZrMnVuSMk128RVqDk4IOYDPBhUWZzf9mHNv9T-yqA9Qv2JRg8l61zGhg.6VgqDbi7D-Vl19NQyoPSj86-nLG9IM98Vpm9Z9m-uGo&dib_tag=se&keywords=nightmare%2Bof%2Breason&qid=1783763181&sprefix=nightmare%2Bof%2Breason%2Caps%2C131&sr=8-1&th=1&psc=1 The Nightmare of Reason]: A Biography of Franz Kafka- Pawel i know that you know that I know - George Butte [https://www.amazon.co.uk/Dormant-Einstein-Wittgenstein-Frankenstein-Re-Inventing/dp/0670804800 Einstein, Gertrude Stein, Wittgenstein and Frankenstein] : Reinventing the Universe by John Brockman
* Gormenghast - Mervyn Peake
* [https://www.amazon.co.uk/What-Name-This-Book-Recreational/dp/0486481980 What is the Name of this Book]: Raymond Smullyan
* [https://www.amazon.co.uk/Thought-Contagion-International-Engineering-Paperback/dp/B00FDVRANQ Thought Contagion]: How Ideas Act Like Viruses - Aaron Lynch
* [https://www.amazon.co.uk/Language-Thought-Other-Biological-Categories/dp/0262631156 Language, Thought, and other Biological Categories]: New Foundations for Realism - Ruth Garrett Millikan

Paperbacks:

* [https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/aw/d/1399417509/ref=tmm_pap_swatch_0?ie=UTF8&dib_tag=se&dib=eyJ2IjoiMSJ9.SQM7Fcey4aad63hBfUW3aw.ctIlU9WAvr7a0KcGQ6Trzvv10dT7aouxiR_JgFN38Qc&qid=1784816314&sr=8-1 The Illuminated Man]: The Life, Death, and Worlds of JGB (apr 27)
* [https://www.amazon.fr/Center-Cannot-Hold-Journey-Madness/dp/1401309445/ref=mp_s_a_1_1?crid=30LPLKNP3IZ6T&dib=eyJ2IjoiMSJ9.1ymUySu7SSRnF7VrIuk7F9G8mDn0vUlYjj2Ku5JZ3_PYON6iIUmcNCX9ai20Y0vZox6uJDtrT6HWKPcMOwUgffTs0AKgu-nJljkfuSqPliiinzJYFv3sqyAMrGqzWIfw1fGZbsff-kHjLgzZIx0OxtARGswv-lBF3OKikrjGNBjWl7yb3jt78g-xLiJJZ7UBKQF4OOJNYWJrOzJwiNmtFQ.o-6a46h4dxUo_ekLzSagCPkaFyAF6FjIdkVnB7TcOUI&dib_tag=se&keywords=elyn+saks&qid=1783197867&sprefix=elyn+sa%2Caps%2C193&sr=8-1 the center cannot hold]: my journey through madness - Elyn Saks
* [https://www.amazon.fr/One-Cares-About-Crazy-People/dp/0316341134/ref=mp_s_a_1_1?crid=1G9JUB6IDN3BF&dib=eyJ2IjoiMSJ9.8pmsCx59KiaAt10bvF9HMZoqKCLpjaKJ384UkB8fA1A.YfWbCZxI4NByVLmIFTKMyWu3fJ8kBRIsi0sDSjv8Yrg&dib_tag=se&keywords=no%2Bone%2Bcares%2Babout%2Bcrazy%2Bpeople&qid=1783198086&s=books&sprefix=no%2Bone%2Bcares%2Babout%2Bcrazy%2Bpeople%2Cbooks%2C146&sr=1-1&th=1&psc=1 no one cares about crazy people] - Ron Powers Born on a Blue Day - Daniel Tammet
* Pellis - [https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/aw/d/1851687602/ref=tmm_pap_swatch_0?ie=UTF8&dib_tag=se&dib=eyJ2IjoiMSJ9.H3yYZI7yMy8UMo0DZRtBXC7wbyUv2gRGlVcNGkDlLMJgXzHKvH1465fjUMkPxFfF6Gy4SxJZF5iHJj2-KPFajMqmXBiYahwhe5kfd66JSukAwSqbKylXct02KUMpWpWQCIW6bCM_Ht6bSd14GU33N14R__7O6CnhnzxNZy9X2zb3i5AfMj6mzwHRCKmg4ksQwKR6te7VhUOppALivblKNw.VKJXzbK6PkVwM-NWQcVACHw9NKJAMBuwXSLAEcjus40&qid=1775903643&sr=8-1 The Playful Brain]
* Strauss - The Three Waves of Modernity
* Peter Handke - Insulting the Audience
* Lorrie Moore - Self Help
* La Modification - Michel Butor
* Un Homme qui dort - Georges Perec
* How Like a God - Rex Stout

* Time and Narrative - Paul Ricoeur
* Flight of Icarus - Raymond Queneau
* Nausea - Sartre
* [https://www.amazon.fr/Seven-Joanna-Kavenna/dp/0571338151 Seven], [https://www.amazon.fr/Zed-Joanna-Kavenna/dp/0571245161 Zed], etc by Joanna Kavenna. See [https://blog.adlington.fr/index.php/2026/01/12/seven-or-how-to-play-a-game-without-rules-by-joanna-kavenna/ blog].
* Building a second brain
* how to solve it
* [https://www.amazon.co.uk/Adam-Eve-Paradise-E%C3%A7a-Queir%C3%B3s/dp/0811239144 Adam and Eve in Paradise] - eca de queiros
* [https://www.amazon.co.uk/Bounds-Possibility-Puzzles-Modal-Variation/dp/0198910770 The Bounds of Possibility] - Philosophy book about categories
* Nicola Barker - [https://www.amazon.co.uk/TonyInterruptor-Nicola-Barker/dp/1803512563 Tony Interrupter] [https://www.amazon.co.uk/H-PPY-Nicola-Barker/dp/1785151142 Happy], etc
* [https://www.amazon.co.uk/Growth-Form-Canto-Classics/dp/1107672562 On Growth and Form] - D'Arcy Thompson
* [https://www.amazon.co.uk/Alpha-Omega-Jane-Ellen-Harrison/dp/1961341417 Alpha and Omega] - Jane Ellen Harrison
* [https://www.amazon.co.uk/Willard-Gibbs-Whole-Simpler-Parts/dp/1961341158 the Whole is Simpler than its Parts] - Willard Gibbs
* [https://www.amazon.co.uk/Stranger-Than-Fiction-Lives-Twentieth-Century/dp/152992572X Stranger Than Fiction]: Lives of the Twentieth-Century Novel - Edwin Frank
* [https://www.amazon.co.uk/Gray-Matters-Biography-Brain-Surgery/dp/1836430396 Gray Matters]: A Biography of Brain Surgery - Theodore Schwartz
*

Hardbacks:

* Mark Solms - The Only Cure - Freud and Neuroscience

* [https://kottke.org/26/03/beginning-comes-after-the-end The Beginning Comes After the End] - Rebecca Solnit
* [https://marginalrevolution.com/marginalrevolution/2026/02/being-and-time-an-annotated-translation.html Being and Time Annotated] or [https://www.amazon.com/Heideggers-Being-Time-Paraphrased-Annotated/dp/1786613417/ref=sr_1_1?crid=22NKOIU8DE86V&dib=eyJ2IjoiMSJ9.DTYI13qU7soxuiueo4-e128MDF_Ax3dyLaUSGkoN5Ia4UdUOk_Dq1I7NCzXbEWWQnCsZ_8TnpI_r-Aut-ca4ur7QoC5kObPu2gII5w37OPLBu35YwyZZIcQAH6cz3tSLhX00snAOwxwxFPCfiq2S-wt5XmSjCN3Hg5m3Btu2C-mHF7lEv6A6EaaeWIdcwChz23nuiyKnrHs62cHAUXQspCNW8TuE65y1CydE89Xp8as.iBxvGfEz3Ac-ZaaYxIBUO8lpCpF0iHOejymlghbifJ4&dib_tag=se&keywords=thomas+sheehan&qid=1771981151&s=books&sprefix=thomas+sheehan%2Cstripbooks%2C198&sr=1-1 paraphrased] ?
* [https://www.theguardian.com/books/2025/dec/23/capitalism-by-sven-beckert-review-an-extraordinary-history-of-the-economic-system-that-controls-our-lives Capitalism]: A Global History-Sven Beckert
* [https://www.amazon.co.uk/Violent-Saviours-Capitalism-Without-Consent/dp/1399811215 Violent Saviors]: How the West Conquered the Rest - William Easterly
* [https://www.amazon.co.uk/Master-Contradictions-Thomas-Making-Mountain/dp/0300233744 The master of contradictions]: Thomas Mann and the making of the Magic Mountain
* [https://www.amazon.co.uk/Story-CO2-Everything-Planetary-Experiment/dp/0241631165 The Story of CO2 Is the Story of Everything]: A Planetary Experiment
* [https://www.amazon.co.uk/M%C3%B6bius-Book-Catherine-Lacey/dp/1803511494 the moebius book] - Catherine Lacey
* Chance and Necessity - Jacques Monod
* L'homme microscopique - Pierre Auger
* Why Machines Learn: The Elegant Maths Behind Modern AI (out in paperback Jan 30 2025)
* A History of the Muslim World: From Its Origins to the Dawn of Modernity (awaiting paperback)
* The New Roman Empire: A History of Byzantium
* Magnetic Mountain: Stalinism as Civilization
* Consolations - David Whyte

== Books to Read ==

* Reading to Learn - William Zinger
* Breakfast of Champions - Kurt Vonnegut

== Currently Reading ==

* [[Atomic Habits]] - James Clear
*[[Die Montez-Juwelen]] - Sabine Vôhringer
* [[The Book: A Cover-to-Covet Exploration of the Most Powerful Object of Our Time]] - Keith Houston
*[[Understanding Media]] - Marshall McLuhan (re-read)
*[[The Practice of Not Thinking]]: A Guide to Mindful Living - Ryunosuke Koike
*Congo: Une Histoire

== Books Read ==

=== 2026 (week 30) ===

* 32. [[The Art of Logic]]: How to Make Sense in a World that Doesn't - Eugenia Cheng
* 31. [[Why Read]] - Will Self
* 30. [[The Collected Schizophrenias]] - Esmé Weijun Wang
* 29. L’Intranquille Monsieur Pessoa (BD) - Nicolas Barral
* 28. [[Seven and a Half Lessons About the Brain]] - Lisa Feldmann Barrrett.
* 27: [[Nine Minds]]: Inner Lives on the Spectrum - Daniel Tammet
* 26: [[Ambigrammia]]: Between Creation and Discovery - Douglas Hofstadter
* 25. [[Once Upon a Prime]]:The Wondrous Connections Between Mathematics and Literature - Sarah B. Hart
* 24. [[Short Stories in German for Beginners]] - Olly Richards (reread - with Ricky)
* 23. Books v. Cigarettes - George Orwell
* 22. Der Nasse Fische - Volker Kutscher (in German!)
* 21. [[We Are Our Brains: From the Womb to Alzheimer's]] - Dick Swaab
* 20. [[Gertrude Stein: An Afterlife]] - Francesca Wade
* 19. [[How the World Made the West]] - Josephine Quinn
* 18. [[Formulations on the Two Principles of Mental Functioning]] - Sigmund Freud
* 17. [[This is Your Mind on Plants]]: Opium - Caffeine - Mescaline - Michael Pollen
* 16. [[Open Socrates]]: The Case for a Philosophical Life - Agnes Callard

* 15. [[Consciousness: How Our Brains Turn Matter Into Meaning]] - John Parrington
*14. [[The Happiness of Dogs]]: Why the Unexamined Life is Most Worth Living - Mark Rowlands
*13. [[The Hidden Spring]] - Mark Solms
*12. [[The Interpretation of Dreams]] - Sigmund Freud
*11. [[A Certain Lucas]] - Julio Cortazar
*10. [[The Intentional Stance]] - Daniel Dennett
*9. [[La Conquête de Plassans]] ([[Les Rougon-Macquart]] 4) - Zola
*8. [[Why We Read Fiction]]: Theory of Mind and the Novel - Lisa Zunshine

* 7. On the Calculation of Volume: 3 - Solvej Balle
* 6. [[Unnatural Voices]]: Extreme Narration in Modern and Contemporary Fiction - Brian Richardson
* 5. The Seven Dials Mystery - Agatha Christie
* 4. [[Le Ventre de Paris]] ([[Les Rougon-Macquart]] 3) - Zola
*3. [[The Cambridge Introduction to Narrative]] (2nd Edition) - H. Porter Abbott
* 2. [[Autocracy Inc]]: The Dictators Who Want to Run the World - Anne Applebaum
* 1. [[The Secret Life of the Periodic Table]] - Dr Ben Still

=== 2025 ===

* 55. The White Priory Murders - Carter Dickson (re-read)
* 54. [[How Life Works]]: A User's Guide to the New Biology - Philip Ball
* 53. [[Who Killed Father Christmas]]? and Other Seasonal Mysteries - Martin Edwards
* 52. [[Chemistry: A Very Short Introduction]] - Peter Atkins
* 51. [[The Scheme of Things]] - Allen Wheelis
* 50. [[La Fortune des Rougon]] ([[Les Rougon-Macquart]] 1) - Zola
* 49. [[Cause for Alarm]] - Eric Ambler
* 48. [[The Man from the Future]]: The Visionary Life of John Von Neumann - Ananyo Bhattacharya
*47. [[Everything is Predictable]]: How Bayes' Remarkable Theorem Explains the World - Tom Chivers
* 46. [[The Book on the Taboo Against Knowing Who You Are]] - Alan Watts
* 45. [[La Curée]] ([[Les Rougon-Macquart]] 2) - Zola
* 44. [[The Emperor of All Maladies]]: A Biography of Cancer - Siddhartha Mukherjee
* 43. [[La Bête Humaine]] ([[Les Rougon-Macquart]] 17) - Zola (re-read)
* 42. [[The Society of Mind]] - Marvin Minsky
* 41. [[Le Père Goriot]] - Honore Balzac
* 40. [[Gravity's Rainbow]] - Thomas Pynchon (re-read)
* 39. [[Le Colonel Chabert]] - Balzac
* 38. [[Damned to Fame: The Life of Samuel Beckett]] - James Knowlson (re-read)
* 37. [[Reading for the Plot]]: Design and Intention in Narrative - Peter Brooks (re-read)

* 36. [[Steps to an Ecology of Mind]] - Gregory Bateson (re-read)
* 35. [[Le Bilan de L'intelligence]] - Paul Valéry
* 34. [[Zero]] - Charles Seife
* 33. [[Alan Turing: The Enigma]] - Andrew Hodges
* 32. [[How to Do Things with Words]] - J L Austin
* 31. [[The Human Use of Human Beings: Cybernetics and Society]] - Norbert Wiener
* 30. [[The Mind is Flat]]: The Illusion of Mental Depth and the Improvised Mind - Nick Chater
* 29. [[Possible Minds: 25 Ways of Looking at AI]] - John Brockman
* 28. [[A Little History of Philosophy]] - Nigel Warburton
* 27. [[All Fours]] - Miranda July
* 26. [[Metamagical Themas: Questing for the Essence of Mind and Pattern]] - Douglas R Hofstadter
* 25. [[The French Lieutenant’s Woman]] - John Fowles
* 24. [[Short Stories in German for Beginners]] - Olly Richards
* 23. [[On the Calculation of Volume: 2]] - Solvej Balle
* 22. [[Deep Simplicity: Chaos, Complexity, and the Emergence of Life]] - John Gribbin
* 21. [[Das Ludwig Thoma Komplott]]- Sabine Vöhringer
* 20. [[Maus]] - Art Spiegelman
* 19. [[On the Calculation of Volume: 1]] - Solvej Balle
* 18. [[The Concept of Mind]] - Gilbert Ryle
* 17. [[Cognitive Neuroscience: A Very Short Introduction]] - Richard Passingham
* 16. [[The Experience Machine]] - Andy Clark
* 15. [[Why We Remember: Revealing the Hidden Power of Memory]] - Dr Charan Ranganath
* 14. [[From Bacteria to Bach and Back]] - Daniel Dennett (re-read)
* 13. [[The Village of Eight Graves]] - Seishi Yokomizo
* 12. [[Science: A History]] - Richard Crockett
* 11. [[Vienna: How the City of Ideas Created the Modern World]] - John Gribbin
* 10.[[The Inugami Curse]] - Seishi Yokomizo
* 9. [[The Rise and Reign of the Mammals]]
* 8. [[Four Ways of Thinking]] - David Sumpter
* 7. [[I've Been Thinking]] - Daniel Dennett
* 6. [[Serendipities: Language and Lunacy]] - Umberto Eco
* 5. [[I Am Dynamite: A Life of Friedrich Nietzsche]] - Sue Prideaux
* 4. [[A Brief History of Intelligence]] - Max S. Bennett
* 3. [[Foucault’s Pendulum]] - Umberto Eco (re-read)
* 2. [[Kant and the Platypus]] - Umberto Eco
* 1. [[Le cerveau m’a beaucoup déçu. L’esprit, non]] - Antoine Sénanque

=== 2024 ===

* The Plot - Will Eisner
* The Prague Cemetery - Umberto Eco
* The Nonjin Murders - Seishi Yokomizo
* When We Cease to Understand the World - Labatut
* Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance - Robert Pirsig (reread)
* The Way We Think: Conceptual Blending and the Mind’s Hidden Complexities - Fauconnier and Turner
* The Singularity is Nearer - Ray Kurzweil
* Physics and Philosophy - Werner Heisenberg
* Le Ton Beau de…
* The Origins of Creativity - Edward O Wilson
* Psychonauts -
* The MANIAC - Benjamin Labatut
* In Search of Memory - Eric R. Kandel
* Dreaming: A Very Short Introduction - Hobson
* Les Effinger - Gabriele Target
* Triad - Tom Keve
* Nietzsche - Stefan Zweig
* The Weirdest People in the World - Joseph Henrich
* How Language Works - David Crystal
* The Invention of Nature - Andrea Wolf
* [[The Song of the Cell]] - Siddhartha Mukherjee
* [[Gödel, Escher, Bach]] - Douglas Hofstadter
* [[From Bacteria to Bach and Back]] - Daniel Dennett

== Challenging Books (per ChatGPT) ==
That’s a great (and slippery) question, because “challenging” can mean different things: difficulty of language, density of allusion, fractured narrative structure, philosophical depth, or even sheer length. Here’s a map of novels often considered among the most challenging, grouped by ''what makes them hard'':
----

=== 1. Language & Style Difficulties ===

* '''James Joyce – ''Finnegans Wake''''' (1939) Probably the hardest novel in English: dream-logic, multilingual puns, and invented words.
* '''William Gaddis – ''The Recognitions'' (1955)''' and ''JR'' (1975) Huge cast, little exposition, dialogue-driven (often without quotation marks).
* '''Samuel Beckett – ''The Unnamable'' (1953)''' Interior monologue collapsing into language itself; syntax dissolves.

----

=== 2. Length & Scope ===

* '''Marcel Proust – ''In Search of Lost Time''''' (1913–27) ~4,000 pages, long sentences, obsessive detail, profound reflections on memory.
* '''David Foster Wallace – ''Infinite Jest'' (1996)''' ~1,000 pages + 100 pages of endnotes; encyclopedic, fragmented plotlines.
* '''Norman Mailer – ''Harlot’s Ghost'' (1991)''' or ''Ancient Evenings'' (1983) Dense, sprawling, philosophically ambitious.

----

=== 3. Experimental Structure ===

* '''Thomas Pynchon – ''Gravity’s Rainbow'' (1973)''' Fragmented narrative, technical language, paranoia, hundreds of characters.
* '''Clarice Lispector – ''The Passion According to G.H.'' (1964)''' A single, intense interior monologue; metaphysical and unsettling.
* '''Julio Cortázar – ''Hopscotch'' (1963)''' Offers multiple reading orders; disruptive structure.

----

=== 4. Philosophical / Esoteric Depth ===

* '''Hermann Broch – ''The Sleepwalkers'' (1931–32)''' Mixes fiction with philosophy and essay.
* '''Robert Musil – ''The Man Without Qualities'' (1930–43)''' Massive unfinished modernist work, blending narrative with philosophical treatises.
* '''Thomas Mann – ''Joseph and His Brothers'' (1933–43)''' Retells biblical myth with immense erudition and depth.

----

=== 5. Dense Intertextuality ===

* '''James Joyce – ''Ulysses'' (1922)''' Homeric parallels, stylistic experiments, deep allusion to Irish politics and myth.
* '''Roberto Bolaño – ''2666'' (2004)''' Five interlinked novels, ranging from literary criticism to detective fiction to Holocaust history.
* '''José Lezama Lima – ''Paradiso'' (1966)''' Baroque Cuban prose, mythic density.

----

=== 6. Postmodern Labyrinths ===

* '''Mark Z. Danielewski – ''House of Leaves'' (2000)''' Multiple narrators, typographical experimentation, layered commentary.
* '''Viktor Pelevin – ''The Sacred Book of the Werewolf'' (2004)''' (or ''Generation “P”'') Satirical, reality-bending narratives.

----

=== A few contenders often called “the hardest of the hard”: ===

* ''Finnegans Wake'' (Joyce)
* ''The Recognitions'' (Gaddis)
* ''The Man Without Qualities'' (Musil)
* ''Gravity’s Rainbow'' (Pynchon)
* ''In Search of Lost Time'' (Proust)

Four Ways of Thinking

Robert.adlington — Sun, 26 Jul 2026 15:57:45 GMT

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	** Complexity - Remember that we are all part of a much larget social system: family, work, and society. And we all have our own innermost feelings that we can often never fully understand. Try to see everyone as an individual by finding the words that best capture who they are.		** Complexity - Remember that we are all part of a much larget social system: family, work, and society. And we all have our own innermost feelings that we can often never fully understand. Try to see everyone as an individual by finding the words that best capture who they are.
	* Kolmogorov had found that the meaning of life, the one that he had found, involved enriching his own internal thoughts and engaging with the complex internal lives of others. This was what made his life worthy. Words spoken sincerely to each other. And everything helped him in his movement towards clarity.		* Kolmogorov had found that the meaning of life, the one that he had found, involved enriching his own internal thoughts and engaging with the complex internal lives of others. This was what made his life worthy. Words spoken sincerely to each other. And everything helped him in his movement towards clarity.

			[[Category:Consciousness]]
	[[Category:Books]]		[[Category:Books]]

The Inugami Curse

Robert.adlington — Sun, 26 Jul 2026 15:57:18 GMT

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	The first book in the series was interesting as a locked room mystery, but ultimately disappointing. This one, with masks and mistaken identities is fine enough, but the main trick was easy to see through (even if the ultimate use of it was not). The influence of John Dickson Carr is pretty heavy here.		The first book in the series was interesting as a locked room mystery, but ultimately disappointing. This one, with masks and mistaken identities is fine enough, but the main trick was easy to see through (even if the ultimate use of it was not). The influence of John Dickson Carr is pretty heavy here.

			[[Category:Books]]

Metamagical Themas: Questing for the Essence of Mind and Pattern

Robert.adlington — Sun, 26 Jul 2026 15:55:38 GMT

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	** We suddenly find that we have got up. A fortunate lapse of consciousness occurs; we forget both the warmth and the cold; we fall into some revery connected with the day's life, in the course of which the idea flashes across us, "Hollo! I must lie here no longer!" - an idea which at that lucky instant awakens no contradictory or paralyzing suggestions, and consequently produces immediately its appropriate motor effects. It was our acute consciousness of both the warmth and the cold during the period of struggle, which paralyzed our activity then and kept our idea of rising in the condition of wish and not of will. The moment these inhibitory ideas ceased, the original idea exerted its effects.		** We suddenly find that we have got up. A fortunate lapse of consciousness occurs; we forget both the warmth and the cold; we fall into some revery connected with the day's life, in the course of which the idea flashes across us, "Hollo! I must lie here no longer!" - an idea which at that lucky instant awakens no contradictory or paralyzing suggestions, and consequently produces immediately its appropriate motor effects. It was our acute consciousness of both the warmth and the cold during the period of struggle, which paralyzed our activity then and kept our idea of rising in the condition of wish and not of will. The moment these inhibitory ideas ceased, the original idea exerted its effects.
	* It's more passive than active - or more accurately put, the action is on levels of yourself that are far lower - far more microscopic - than you have direct control over.		* It's more passive than active - or more accurately put, the action is on levels of yourself that are far lower - far more microscopic - than you have direct control over.

	[[Category:Consciousness]]		[[Category:Consciousness]]
	[[Category:Books]]		[[Category:Books]]

A Little History of Philosophy

Robert.adlington — Sun, 26 Jul 2026 15:55:17 GMT

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	* Kuhn - There aren't facts out there waiting to be discovered: instead, the framework or paradigm to some extent fixes what you can think about. And then it shifts.		* Kuhn - There aren't facts out there waiting to be discovered: instead, the framework or paradigm to some extent fixes what you can think about. And then it shifts.
	* Singer (1946-) - Consistency is treating similar cases in a similar way.		* Singer (1946-) - Consistency is treating similar cases in a similar way.

	[[Category:Books]]		[[Category:Books]]

Possible Minds: 25 Ways of Looking at AI

Robert.adlington — Sun, 26 Jul 2026 15:55:02 GMT

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	* What's the difference between a rock and a box of a trillion downloaded souls? The details of what's happening in the box were derived from the long history of human civilization, whereas the rock has its long geological history but not the particular history of our civilization.		* What's the difference between a rock and a box of a trillion downloaded souls? The details of what's happening in the box were derived from the long history of human civilization, whereas the rock has its long geological history but not the particular history of our civilization.
	* Realizing that there isn't a genuine distinction between intelligence and mere computation leads you to imagine that future - the endpoint of our civilization as a box of a trillion souls, each of them essentially playing a video game forever. What is the "purpose" of that?		* Realizing that there isn't a genuine distinction between intelligence and mere computation leads you to imagine that future - the endpoint of our civilization as a box of a trillion souls, each of them essentially playing a video game forever. What is the "purpose" of that?

	[[Category:Consciousness]]		[[Category:Consciousness]]
	[[Category:Books]]		[[Category:Books]]

The Human Use of Human Beings: Cybernetics and Society

Robert.adlington — Sun, 26 Jul 2026 15:54:27 GMT

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	* Einstein's dictum concerning the directness of God is itself a statement of faith. Science is a way of life which can only flourish when men are free to have faith.		* Einstein's dictum concerning the directness of God is itself a statement of faith. Science is a way of life which can only flourish when men are free to have faith.
	* A faith which we follow upon orders imposed from outside is no faith, and a community which puts its dependence upon such a pseudo-faith is ultimately bound to ruin itself because of the paralysis which the lack of a healthily growing science imposes upon it.		* A faith which we follow upon orders imposed from outside is no faith, and a community which puts its dependence upon such a pseudo-faith is ultimately bound to ruin itself because of the paralysis which the lack of a healthily growing science imposes upon it.

			[[Category:Consciousness]]
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How to Do Things with Words

Robert.adlington — Sun, 26 Jul 2026 15:54:09 GMT

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	=== Lecture XII ===		=== Lecture XII ===

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Alan Turing: The Enigma

Robert.adlington — Sun, 26 Jul 2026 15:53:56 GMT

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	* Although driven by the desire to do something, he wanted to remain ordinary, to be left alone in peace. These were incompatible goals, and there was no consistency in him.		* Although driven by the desire to do something, he wanted to remain ordinary, to be left alone in peace. These were incompatible goals, and there was no consistency in him.
	* Orwell's dream of the plain-speaking Englishman was close to Alan Turing's simple model of the mind - the vision of a science independent of human error.		* Orwell's dream of the plain-speaking Englishman was close to Alan Turing's simple model of the mind - the vision of a science independent of human error.

			[[Category:Consciousness]]
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Le Bilan de L'intelligence

Robert.adlington — Sun, 26 Jul 2026 15:53:38 GMT

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	*Nous répondrons le plus souvent à ce qui nous frappe par des paroles dont nous ne sommes pas les véritables auteurs. Notre pensée - ou ce que nous prenons pour notre pensée - n'est alors qu'une simple réponse automatique. C'est pourquoi il faut difficilement se croire soi-même sur parole. Je veux dire que la parole qui nous vient à l'esprit, généralement n'est pas de nous.		*Nous répondrons le plus souvent à ce qui nous frappe par des paroles dont nous ne sommes pas les véritables auteurs. Notre pensée - ou ce que nous prenons pour notre pensée - n'est alors qu'une simple réponse automatique. C'est pourquoi il faut difficilement se croire soi-même sur parole. Je veux dire que la parole qui nous vient à l'esprit, généralement n'est pas de nous.
	*Si le civilisé pense d'une manière si différente du primitif, c'est par conséquence de la prédominance des réactions conscientes sur les produits inconscients. Sans doute, ces derniers sont la matière indispensable, et parfois du plus haut prix, de nos pensées, mais leur valeur durable dépend finalement de la conscience.		*Si le civilisé pense d'une manière si différente du primitif, c'est par conséquence de la prédominance des réactions conscientes sur les produits inconscients. Sans doute, ces derniers sont la matière indispensable, et parfois du plus haut prix, de nos pensées, mais leur valeur durable dépend finalement de la conscience.

			[[Category:Consciousness]]
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Steps to an Ecology of Mind

Robert.adlington — Sun, 26 Jul 2026 15:53:20 GMT

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	*Flexibility is to specialization as entropy is to negentropy. Flexibility may be defined as uncommitted potentiality to change.		*Flexibility is to specialization as entropy is to negentropy. Flexibility may be defined as uncommitted potentiality to change.
	*The variable which does not change its value becomes ipso facto hard programmed (because other variables encroach on its freedom, narrowing its tolerance limits. This is another way of describing habit formation.		*The variable which does not change its value becomes ipso facto hard programmed (because other variables encroach on its freedom, narrowing its tolerance limits. This is another way of describing habit formation.

			[[Category:Consciousness]]
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Reading for the Plot

Robert.adlington — Sun, 26 Jul 2026 15:52:45 GMT

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	*If narrative indeed has to do with the recovery of the past, and more generally with the attempted rescue of meaning from passing time, the psychoanalytic model of remembering is invaluable since it reaches out to include repeating, working-through, and reconstructing - all of which seem to me to characterize the literary text and our reading of it, to define the text as read.		*If narrative indeed has to do with the recovery of the past, and more generally with the attempted rescue of meaning from passing time, the psychoanalytic model of remembering is invaluable since it reaches out to include repeating, working-through, and reconstructing - all of which seem to me to characterize the literary text and our reading of it, to define the text as read.
	*Plots are valuable for the use-value they give to stories, the way they make them exchangeable, transactable.		*Plots are valuable for the use-value they give to stories, the way they make them exchangeable, transactable.

			[[Category:Consciousness]]
			[[Category:Books]]

Damned to Fame: The Life of Samuel Beckett

Robert.adlington — Sun, 26 Jul 2026 15:52:27 GMT

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	* 671 - ...emotions are strictly contained but never totally abandoned.		* 671 - ...emotions are strictly contained but never totally abandoned.
	* 680 - It is often forgotten that Beckett's work is as much about persisting and continuing as it is about ending.		* 680 - It is often forgotten that Beckett's work is as much about persisting and continuing as it is about ending.

			[[Category:Consciousness]]
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Gravity's Rainbow

Robert.adlington — Sun, 26 Jul 2026 15:52:10 GMT

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	*760. The screen is a dim page spread before us, white and silent. The film has broken, or a projector bulb has burned out. It was difficult even for us, old fans who've always been at the movies (haven't we?) to tell which before the darkness swept in.		*760. The screen is a dim page spread before us, white and silent. The film has broken, or a projector bulb has burned out. It was difficult even for us, old fans who've always been at the movies (haven't we?) to tell which before the darkness swept in.
	*760. And in the darkening and awful expanse of screen something has kept on, a film we have not learned to see...		*760. And in the darkening and awful expanse of screen something has kept on, a film we have not learned to see...

			[[Category:Consciousness]]
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La Bête Humaine

Robert.adlington — Sun, 26 Jul 2026 15:51:46 GMT

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	# A month passes and the gossip around the Roubauds dies down. As the Roubaud's become more distant to each other, Jacques and Séverine become closer. After initially refusing, Séverine finally agrees to meet Jacques while her husband works and, on the night of a vast storm, they finally have sex in a tool shed of the station. Jacques believes that his murderous urges have been quelled by his love for Séverine. Roubaud has begun to gamble and he and Séverine quarrel over money. There are 10k Francs hidden under a floorboard, stolen from Grandmorin on the night of the murder - Roubaud would rather die than touch then, but one night, returning from the café, he removes them to continue gambling.		# A month passes and the gossip around the Roubauds dies down. As the Roubaud's become more distant to each other, Jacques and Séverine become closer. After initially refusing, Séverine finally agrees to meet Jacques while her husband works and, on the night of a vast storm, they finally have sex in a tool shed of the station. Jacques believes that his murderous urges have been quelled by his love for Séverine. Roubaud has begun to gamble and he and Séverine quarrel over money. There are 10k Francs hidden under a floorboard, stolen from Grandmorin on the night of the murder - Roubaud would rather die than touch then, but one night, returning from the café, he removes them to continue gambling.
	# Every Friday Séverine takes Jacque's morning express to Paris to "consult with a doctor about a bad knee" but in reality to spend the day with Jacques. This Friday, it is already snowing hard, but she makes the trip anyway. The train gets stuck near Misard's house and Séverine and several of the other passengers take refuge there while a team dig the train out. Flore sees Jacques kiss Séverine.		# Every Friday Séverine takes Jacque's morning express to Paris to "consult with a doctor about a bad knee" but in reality to spend the day with Jacques. This Friday, it is already snowing hard, but she makes the trip anyway. The train gets stuck near Misard's house and Séverine and several of the other passengers take refuge there while a team dig the train out. Flore sees Jacques kiss Séverine.

			[[Category:Books]]

La Curée

Robert.adlington — Sun, 26 Jul 2026 15:51:21 GMT

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	* VI:		* VI:
	* VII:		* VII:

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The Society of Mind

Robert.adlington — Sun, 26 Jul 2026 15:50:59 GMT

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	* Sensor - An agent whose inputs are sensitive to stimuli that come from the world outside the brain.		* Sensor - An agent whose inputs are sensitive to stimuli that come from the world outside the brain.
	* Suppressor - A censor-like agent that works by disrupting a mental state that has already occurred. Suppressors are easier to construct than censors, and require less memory, but are much less efficient.		* Suppressor - A censor-like agent that works by disrupting a mental state that has already occurred. Suppressors are easier to construct than censors, and require less memory, but are much less efficient.

			[[Category:Consciousness]]
			[[Category:Books]]

The Emperor of All Maladies

Robert.adlington — Sun, 26 Jul 2026 15:50:28 GMT

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	***By the mid 90s she can be screened earlier and then have intensive follow up screening. Her daughters can even opt for preventive surgery		***By the mid 90s she can be screened earlier and then have intensive follow up screening. Her daughters can even opt for preventive surgery
	***In 2050, personalized targeted therapies may be tailored to the exact mutations detected in her genome.		***In 2050, personalized targeted therapies may be tailored to the exact mutations detected in her genome.

			[[Category:Books]]

The Book on the Taboo Against Knowing Who You Are

Robert.adlington — Sun, 26 Jul 2026 15:50:06 GMT

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	* In looking out upon the world, we forget that the world is looking at itself - through our eyes and IT's.		* In looking out upon the world, we forget that the world is looking at itself - through our eyes and IT's.
	* To come on like IT - to play at being God - is to play the Self as a role, which is just what it isn't. When IT plays, it plays at being everything else.		* To come on like IT - to play at being God - is to play the Self as a role, which is just what it isn't. When IT plays, it plays at being everything else.

			[[Category:Consciousness]]
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Everything is Predictable

Robert.adlington — Sun, 26 Jul 2026 15:49:48 GMT

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	* You can see the genome of an organism as a prediction about the world. Evolution is slow, blind, and inefficient - it might take hundreds of generations to solve a problem a human designer could solve in an hour - but it's an approximation of a Bayesian process: it works to minimize prediction error.		* You can see the genome of an organism as a prediction about the world. Evolution is slow, blind, and inefficient - it might take hundreds of generations to solve a problem a human designer could solve in an hour - but it's an approximation of a Bayesian process: it works to minimize prediction error.
	* When we're young we have very little data about the world, so our priors are weak and new information can shift them easily. We can learn quickly, because we don't have a very precise model of the world that makes good predictions. As we get older, we gain more information, we get a richer, more precise model of the world, and new information must logically shift our priors less. So older people are wise but inflexible.		* When we're young we have very little data about the world, so our priors are weak and new information can shift them easily. We can learn quickly, because we don't have a very precise model of the world that makes good predictions. As we get older, we gain more information, we get a richer, more precise model of the world, and new information must logically shift our priors less. So older people are wise but inflexible.

			[[Category:Consciousness]]
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The Man from the Future

Robert.adlington — Sun, 26 Jul 2026 15:49:29 GMT

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	* Teller: "To most people thinking is painful. Some of us are addicted to thinking. Some of us find it a necessity. Johnny enjoyed it. I even have the suspicion that he enjoyed practically nothing else.		* Teller: "To most people thinking is painful. Some of us are addicted to thinking. Some of us find it a necessity. Johnny enjoyed it. I even have the suspicion that he enjoyed practically nothing else.
	* Klari: "I would like to tell about the man, the strange contradictory and controversial person; childish and good-humored, sophisticated and savage, brilliantly clever yet with a very limited, almost primitive lack of ability to handle his emotions - an enigma of nature that will have to remain unsolved.		* Klari: "I would like to tell about the man, the strange contradictory and controversial person; childish and good-humored, sophisticated and savage, brilliantly clever yet with a very limited, almost primitive lack of ability to handle his emotions - an enigma of nature that will have to remain unsolved.
	*
			[[Category:Consciousness]]
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Chemistry: A Very Short Introduction

Robert.adlington — Sun, 26 Jul 2026 15:49:10 GMT

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	*** A complex is held together by bonds formed by the sharing of a pair of electrons provided by each ligand, so the metal ion is acting as the Lewis acid and each ligand as the Lewis base		*** A complex is held together by bonds formed by the sharing of a pair of electrons provided by each ligand, so the metal ion is acting as the Lewis acid and each ligand as the Lewis base
	*** Breathing is a Lewis acid-base reaction, as is suffocation by carbon monoxide poisoning.		*** Breathing is a Lewis acid-base reaction, as is suffocation by carbon monoxide poisoning.

			[[Category:Books]]

How Life Works

Robert.adlington — Sun, 26 Jul 2026 15:48:15 GMT

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	* We humans are probably anomalous. One of the attributes that most distinguishes us from other animals is our construction of complex cultures, which rely critically on systems and technologies for passing on information and learning) and thus causal influence - between generations through means other than genes. But all this is really just another way in which life has evolved to free itself from genes through an upward transition of power and authority. We are perhaps the prime example of how cognition does that: our minds are capable of promoting profoundly counteradaptive behavior, such as committing suicide at an early age or choosing celibacy.		* We humans are probably anomalous. One of the attributes that most distinguishes us from other animals is our construction of complex cultures, which rely critically on systems and technologies for passing on information and learning) and thus causal influence - between generations through means other than genes. But all this is really just another way in which life has evolved to free itself from genes through an upward transition of power and authority. We are perhaps the prime example of how cognition does that: our minds are capable of promoting profoundly counteradaptive behavior, such as committing suicide at an early age or choosing celibacy.
	* The anatomy-generating core system is highly conserved in metazoa: it doesn't change much between different species, simply because that would be disastrous. These DNA regions are effectively excluded from the list of targets at which genetic change could generate viable selectable phenotypic variation. They just cannot be tinkered with.		* The anatomy-generating core system is highly conserved in metazoa: it doesn't change much between different species, simply because that would be disastrous. These DNA regions are effectively excluded from the list of targets at which genetic change could generate viable selectable phenotypic variation. They just cannot be tinkered with.

			[[Category:Consciousness]]
			[[Category:Books]]