This week I listened to “Speaking In Tongues” by Talking Heads
Listening – Pyromania
This week I listened to “Pyromania” by Def Leppard
Listening – Swordfishtrombones
This week I listened to “Swordfishtrombones” by Tom Waits
Ooh! Fancy!
Earlier I got chastised by my boss for using a fancy code editor.
“It’s not real programming. It’s a crutch for someone who isn’t very good. If you were any good, you’d write out your code long-hand and then type it in directly. And it’d work first time.”
Which is why he is currently at my desk asking if I have seen the WordPerfect and Lotus 1-2-3 discs.
“It’s not real accounting. It’s a crutch for someone who isn’t very good. If you were any good, you’d write out your balance sheet long-hand and then type it up directly. And the numbers would balance first time.”
Apparently I am the biggest asshole that walks this planet.
Tomorrow I launch my own development company.
Not because I was fired but because I quit.
Read – Tunnels & Trolls Solo Adventure #14 – Sea of Mystery
Today I finished reading “Tunnels & Trolls Solo Adventure #14 – Sea of Mystery” by G. Arthur Rahman
Listening – War
This week I listened to “War” by U2
Read – BBC BASIC
Today I finished reading “BBC BASIC” by Robert B. Coats
Listening – Power, Corruption And Lies
This week I listened to “Power, Corruption And Lies” by New Order
Read – The Hobbit
Today I finished reading “The Hobbit” by J.R.R. Tolkien
Listening – Synchronicity
This week I listened to “Synchronicity” by The Police
Read – The Last Battle
Today I finished reading “The Last Battle” by C.S. Lewis
Listening – Violent Femmes
This week I listened to “Violent Femmes” by Violent Femmes
Read – The Shape of Things to Come
Today I finished reading “The Shape of Things to Come” by H.G. Wells
Listening – Murmur
This week I listened to “Murmur” by R.E.M.
Read – Advanced Dungeons & Dragons Deities & Demigods
Today I finished reading “Advanced Dungeons & Dragons Deities & Demigods” by James M. Ward
Read – The Magician’s Nephew
Today I finished reading “The Magician’s Nephew” by C.S. Lewis
Pissing it all away
The only thing I plan to accomplish at work today is to turn a gallon of coffee in to a gallon of urine
Listening – Eye In The Sky
This week I listened to “Eye In The Sky” by The Alan Parsons Project
I am becoming more enlightened the more I interact with people
The first step on the path to enlightenment and inner peace and a disconnection from the drama that your family and friends bring into your life begins with but three words: “Not my problem.”
Listening – Mirage
This week I listened to “Mirage” by Fleetwood Mac
Listening – The Name Of This Band Is Talking Heads
This week I listened to “The Name Of This Band Is Talking Heads” by Talking Heads
Societal singularities
Having just read von Neumann’s obituary by Stanislaw Ulam he talks about the idea of a singularity. Something we cannot see beyond. Something where everything converges to an infinitesimally small point in time and space and we have no idea what lays on the other side of it.
There’s a lot of singularities that have happened throughout human history.
Concept of the afterlife.
Speech and the verbal transmission of ideas.
The written word.
Cities as places of relative safety.
Libraries as data warehouses.
The modern concept of childhood.
Telecommunications (information transmission) especially computer-to-computer perhaps in some global, planet spanning, packet-switched network that would allow all microcomputers to instantaneously communicate with each other.
Cheap microcomputers that leads to ever decreasing costs and ever increasing performance that will eventually lead us to strong AI that rivals near-human like intelligence somewhere around 2050 (hope I am alive.)
The very essence of a singularity is that we cannot see what lays on the other side of the singularity.
The changes that the singularity will bring are so profound and so utterly revolutionary to society that until we pass through the singularity we cannot understand what the world, what society and what our lives will look like.
I think there will be at least a half-dozen more singularities in my lifetime – changes so profound that we cannot even conjecture what the world will be like.
And we won’t even realise it is happening to us. It will only be when we look back will we realise the quiet revolution we have wrought.
Listening – The Nylon Curtain
This week I listened to “The Nylon Curtain” by Billy Joel
The universal simulation
Assume the universe is a big computer simulation.
A really good simulation.
If whoever created the simulation is mindful enough to prevent the intelligent and self-aware inhabitants of the simulation from realizing or even conjecturing that the universe is a simulation, then they cannot be sure that the intelligent inhabitants of the simulation are incapable of reasoning whether they live in a simulation. i.e. you cannot be sure that your simulation doesn’t realise it is a simulation.
This is a variation on the halting problem.
The universe (the one we live in) is the classic halting problem of computability.
Think about it.
Read – Advanced Dungeons & Dragons World of Greyhawk Boxed Set
Today I finished reading “Advanced Dungeons & Dragons World of Greyhawk Boxed Set” by Gary Gygax
Listening – Chronic Town
This week I listened to “Chronic Town” by R.E.M.
Read – Rocket Ship Galileo
Today I finished reading “Rocket Ship Galileo” by Robert A. Heinlein
A binary world
The world is binary and holds two values, both of which are false.
There are only two types of people in the world.
Those that say all religions are false.
And those that say all other religions are false.
Listening – Coda
This week I listened to “Coda” by Led Zeppelin
Read – The Moon is a Harsh Mistress
Today I finished reading “The Moon is a Harsh Mistress” by Robert A. Heinlein
Gutenberg press-ganged
Pre-Gutenberg the scarce resource was knowledge in the form of books.
Post-Gutenberg the scarce resource is the attention needed to acquire that knowledge.
Listening – Hot Space
This week I listened to “Hot Space” by Queen
Read – Starship Troopers
Today I finished reading “Starship Troopers” by Robert A. Heinlein
Read – Farmer in the Sky
Today I finished reading “Farmer in the Sky” by Robert A. Heinlein
Read – Time Enough for Love
Today I finished reading “Time Enough for Love” by Robert A. Heinlein
Listening – Asia
This week I listened to “Asia” by Asia
Listening – 1999
This week I listened to “1999” by Prince
Listening – Toto IV
This week I listened to “Toto IV” by Toto
Listening – Milo Goes To College
This week I listened to “Milo Goes To College” by The Descendents
Read – Dungeons & Dragons Players Manual
Today I finished reading “Dungeons & Dragons Players Manual” by Gary Gygax
Read – Dungeons & Dragons Expert Rulebook
Today I finished reading “Dungeons & Dragons Expert Rulebook” by Gary Gygax
Listening – Songs To Remember
This week I listened to “Songs To Remember” by Scritti Politti
Read – Red Planet
Today I finished reading “Red Planet” by Robert A. Heinlein
Assistance device
“Ohmigod you really can’t see shit without these!” declared my friend to another who wears thick bottle rimmed glasses.
“No shit. Do you take a cripple’s wheelchair and roll around in declaring ‘Ohmigod, you really can’t walk for shit without this!’?” I asked.
Listening – Love Over Gold
This week I listened to “Love Over Gold” by Dire Straits
Listening – The Gift
This week I listened to “The Gift” by The Jam
Listening – A Kiss In The Dreamhouse
This week I listened to “A Kiss In The Dreamhouse” by Siouxsie & The Banshees
Read – ZX Spectrum Basic Programming
Today I finished reading “ZX Spectrum Basic Programming” by Steven Vickers
Listening – Thriller
This week I listened to “Thriller” by Michael Jackson
Simulated self-awareness
Assume the universe is a big computer simulation.
Assume that any intelligent, self-aware inhabitants of the simulation are capable, at some point, of creating a simulation of the universe populated by intelligent, self-aware inhabitants.
So where in the chain of simulations do you stop?
Going in either direction?
This is the “turtles all the way down” argument.