The driver came 7:40; he was meant to come at 7, but India seems to be on Africa time.  If I'd known, I'd have tried sleeping in.  Got very little sleep last night, reeling from the news that I did not get the job in Luleå.  ...Which would be for the best if A. is interested in dating, but I've heard nothing from him since I left his place ( Read more... )

http://www.svd.se/kultur/understrecket/mannen-som-avskaffade-medvetandet_7432874.svd

Turing would have so hated having his "Imitation Game" called the Turing Test. :-)  And he pretty certainly, too, would have rejected the claim that one's "inner life" is irrelevant along with the suggestion that he "abolished" consciousness (ouch) -- though I can ( Read more... )

It is common to treat all dualism as Cartesian substance dualism and all dualism as consequently bad. However, dualism comes in a number of flavours, not just the well-known alternative of property dualism, where “mental” and “physical” reflect not distinct substances but distinct sets of properties of a common substance; or David Chalmers’ ( Read more... )

Call me young and naive :-), but I don't see why anyone thinks that either of these is, ceteris paribus, a bad thing.  But then, I see life and death -- in biological terms -- as two sides of one coin; without both sides, there is no coin.  I have no particular desire to hurry to my death but no obvious reasons to put it off, either.  Indeed, I'm ( Read more... )

Computer models of mind are one way of exploring and coming to a better understanding of human consciousness by creating an external “picture” of what we take our consciousness to be. Because human beings are embodied in a complex physical form and embedded in an environment with which they richly interact - if not, as the enactivists would have it ( Read more... )

We once spied a young lad from Venus
Whose body was only a penis.
No arms, legs, or torso --
Or head even moreso! --
We're certain that he didn't see us.

...Are pretty good when things work as they're supposed to, at least so long as you stay on the main lines.  Branch lines are always a bit sketchy ( Read more... )

Dufton:Here Jamie and I ended our Pennine Way section hike part three ( Read more... )

Back from holiday, I am self-tasked with finishing the work on my little cottage (just less than 9 sq. m.) and making it properly livable.  Thursday evening I assembled the (bunk, so I can have friends over or host couch surfers) bed and Friday bought myself a wardrobe and a storage chest.  I am looking at a food prep table online and, having ( Read more... )

There is a fashionable myth these days that the right wing in Sweden is way to the left of the left wing in the States.  Perhaps once on a time this was true, but not anymore!  There is another fashionable myth that both left and right in Sweden have drifted to center.  If so, it's a "center" that's shifted pretty drastically to the right.  So, ( Read more... )