Category: Musings

Real-Life Problems and Decisions

~ quantumdreamer ~ Leave a comment

Until around 10:20 this morning I felt that most of “my” real world things were in hand. The preparation had been going smoothly though I did wonder about using the word “awry” the other day.

As I lay in bed before the alarm was due to go off, I thought that the only real problem I had was to put my underpants on the right way round when getting dressed in darkness. Later in the day some young person would ask me to strip to my pants and take X-rays of my spastic hip. We did not want to have a “professor pants” moment. I did not want unknowingly to advertise M&S.

As it turned out I could have put them on inside out with full impunity. It is a missed pants opportunity.

Now because of the unilateral and unnotified cancellation of an appointment a few more decisions arise. There is another early appointment for a full day of hospital based fun later in the week.

Do we need to telephone to confirm if it is still going ahead?

Do we do this the night before or call a little after 8AM before we leave the house the morning of the alleged appointment?

An ancillary line of thought is do I need to start exploring other contingencies for a hip operation in case this one falls through?.

I understand only too well that the universe does not owe me anything, that I have no “right” to surgery. It is at the kindness of the French exchequer. I do not believe in “deserving”. When I tried to get this sorted earlier in the year I met with many problems. Perhaps some more are starting now.

Is this the universe saying that I simply need to suck it up? That it is my karma to suffer from arthritis?

Or is this about patience and forbearance?

It looks like the whole of France is going into a another self-induced psychiatric meltdown. So who knows what is going to happen…They can lose the plot and badly so…They have volatility…

To me it is important to remain grounded especially with all these fancy highfalutin dreams…

Life here is pretty mundane; some would find it boring. Ideas notions and dreams are not the same thing as getting measured for some anti-thrombosis stockings like I just did.

I have learned by experiment that as a whole French timekeeping is loose and that an appointment is often written in the lightest of 4H pencil. I tend to take appointments as possibilities and not reliable fact.

I have another data point, milord.

All in all not a very satisfactory start to the day or the week…

It is all going a bit Pete Tong…

~ quantumdreamer ~ Leave a comment

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I mentioned earlier that the best laid plans of mice and men often go awry. I really don’t like having to make contingency for other people’s poor organisation. Experience has suggested that it is often wise so to do.

On Friday we received an automated SMS reminder of my appointment for a pre-operative X-ray this morning. This is something I organised well in advance to limit the possibility of last minute dot com fuck ups. When I got there at 10:30 on a Monday morning they told me that I did not have an appointment and that it had been set for later in the week. Nobody had the decency to advise me before I got up early and did a 40 minute drive to the hospital.

The Aspie part of my nature says that I may as well go ahead and cancel the hip operation because if they can’t organise this it does not bode well. What else is going Pete Tong and otherwise off-piste?

I have not cancelled the op.

My confidence as to if the scheduled operation will go ahead on time has fallen to 50:50. It is no longer mentally a firm date in the diary. I am already planning and scoping how I might cope with months more hip pain and deteriorating functionality.

I don’t know…

It is all going a bit Pete Tong…

Gedankenexperiment – Quantum Telepathy Patent

~ quantumdreamer ~ Leave a comment

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Question:

Is it possible to get a “Quantum Telepathy” patent granted?

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As mentioned previously in the blog I am going to be physically incapacitated and will have some time on my hands after the hip-hop hip op. I will need something to do, to fill the time. One of the things which I enjoy is testing and finding out what may/may not be possible. I can lose interest quickly after that. I am more interested in possibility than execution. A vanity project might be to test if it is possible to get a “Quantum Telepathy” patent granted. A brief search suggests that there is no prior art. I am not sure how someone “skilled in the art” might be qualified and deemed expert. Aside from Marvel Comics there are no peer reviewed journals convinced that the parapsychological notion of telepathy is real and thereby measurable. Professor X might struggle to be believed. In effect such a patent would be for a phenomenon deemed imaginary by others. Patents are not about the already proven so imaginary or quasi-imaginary need not yet be a barrier to grant.

To dream up a tidy application would take quite a lot of work and effort

We are currently resident in France and have a right to remain which expires end of March next year. The government here is putting in place a mechanism to renew these rights for those allowed to stay under the Brexit withdrawal agreement. It is possible and likely that we will be allowed to remain. A change of government leaning towards the antimigration wing could happen and our future here might suddenly become much less certain. We could get booted out.

This means legally we are under a French jurisdiction and our governing body is Institut National de la Propriété Industrielle {INPI}. Even if I wanted to file an application in English to the UK or European patent office I am legally obliged to go through them first. I do not know yet if I can file in English at INPI.

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“The patent application can be filed in any language but a French translation is required within two months following receipt of a Communication issued by the French Patent Office (INPI) shortly after the filing date.”

Cabinet Beau de Loménie

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“But, for national security purposes, the Minister of National Defence, via the Intellectual Property Office of the General Delegation for Armaments (“DGA“ in French) has the right to review all applications for the protection of inventions made by natural or legal persons having their domicile or registered office in France, in order to authorize or not the exploitation of such inventions and thus avoid the possible leakage of so-called sensitive technologies, regardless of the country where the protection is sought.

Article L612-8 of the French Intellectual Property Code

Consequently, the applicants have: An obligation of first filing with the INPI. The applicant whose domicile or registered office is located in France cannot proceed outside of France with the first filing of a patent application. There is no exception to this provision.

The first filing must be submitted to the INPI, and for patents for which protection is sought outside France, the INPI must act as a receiving office and only transmit patent applications to foreign offices once the DGA has delivered its authorization for disclosure and exploitation.”

Oyat Law web site.

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Until this morning I was not aware of this.

To file a patent in French and get it granted adds an extra layer of complexity. Patent attorneys are not well know for pro bono work. That makes the challenge even more difficult / interesting.

I don’t know how the French system works. So that would be a complete unknown for me. I’ll wager that there are protocols and regulations. England might be a nation of shop keepers; France is a nation of administrators and dossier lovers.

I have no idea what kind of can or worms I might open in starting a French process. The possibilities for miscommunication are fairly vast.

In the UK things are a tad more familiar.

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From Gov.uk

National security checks on patent applications

All patent applications filed at the IPO are checked to identify any which could be prejudicial to national security or public safety.

We screen every application filed to check whether it should be placed under directions according to Section 22 of the Patents Act 1977. This includes applications such as:

  • UK national applications
  • European patent applications under the European Patent Convention (EPC)
  • international applications under the Patent Cooperation Treaty (PCT)

If such directions are imposed, we will write to you within six weeks of filing your application. You must provide an address for service within the UK for all applications placed under section 22 directions.

The directions under section 22 may only be lifted after your application has been inspected by the Ministry of Defence. You must file a Form DP2 to request such an inspection (we will send a copy of this form to you when we notify you of the directions); it is in your interest to return this form to us as soon as possible if you think the directions should not remain in force.

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From DP2 Form

Note In view of the prohibition under Section 22(1), the application should be provisionally treated as

“SECRET”. The copy of the specification should be enclosed in two envelopes, the inner envelope being marked “SECRET”

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SECRET

Definition:

Very sensitive information that requires enhanced protective controls, including the use of secure networks on secured dedicated physical infrastructure and appropriately defined and implemented boundary security controls, suitable to defend against highly capable and determined threat actors, whereby a compromise could threaten life (an individual or group), seriously damage the UK’s security and/or international relations, its financial security/stability or impede its ability to investigate serious and organised crime.

Threat Profile:

The threat profile for SECRET anticipates the need to defend against sophisticated, well-resourced and determined threat actors with higher levels of capabilities than would be typical for the OFFICIAL tier. This includes but is not limited to: capable state actors; sophisticated state sponsored actors such as cybercrime groups; some serious organised crime groups; and, staff who pose insider risk. Proportionate technical capabilities, user behaviours and security controls will be used to protect information and services from compromise by these actors, including from targeted and bespoke attacks.

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I have had a quick check on the published list of things deemed worthy of considering secret and although cryptography and cypher are listed, there is no reference to telepathy. I did not see the Q word either.

It all sounds more than a little heavy and intense.

Provided that telepathy is entirely imaginary then there is no security threat.  So this is perhaps a hypothetical. It is kind of hard to imagine someone taking such an application seriously.

Dr Whacko McNutjob, The Shed, 1001 Unicorn Jockey Drive, Camelot-sur-Mer, Narnia is not the kind of address that people take seriously so there is a good chance that anything I write will simply be waved through security checks. I do not have a bedlam.ac.uk corporate email address any longer.

People will pay less attention to Shrek from the swamp than a big cheese from a well know fromagerie.

Legally I must go through INPI or jeopardise residency. There are a lot of barriers even before beginning.

Hmmn… needs a bit more thought….

Medical Merry-go-round  etc.

~ quantumdreamer ~ Leave a comment

This morning I have had my pre-operative blood {oil level} check. As a part of this I will have a full blood group determination done. In case I need a transfusion. Despite having had a number of surgeries I do not know my blood group, aged 61. I could get a surprise tomorrow.

My mother was AB negative and my father was O type. Which means that I should come back A or B. AB negative is rare ~1%, my mum would have had to have shagged someone of a non O type of blood for me to come back AB too. If I come back O I have been swapped at birth. Something I have long suspected. 😉

This has the potential to alter my perception, a weird kind of lottery.

The amount of medical administration we have been doing is large. I have a preoperative X-ray and a day of appointments with physio, anaesthetist etc. next week. I’ll even get a tooth fitted to my titanium jaw implant. If I take bis-phosphonates for osteoporosis I can’t get any more tooth or hip implants. After the hip op I will have two bionic hips so the osteoporosis hip-fracture risk is low. Titanium does not break easily. The bis-phosphonates are likely to be delayed.

Hip op sounds a bit like hip hop.

I think I am mentally ready for the surgery. It will be around six months before they do the second joint. It might be strange being able to tie shoelaces and put socks on unaided. There will be a weird in-between. I can’t wait for the sexy anti-clot stockings and daily heparin jabs. They prescribe laxatives to go with the morphine.

Piss holes in the snow pin hole pupils are on the cards.

I should be out of the opium den by Christmas.

There are a few “must dos” left before the blade. But most is in hand.

Here there is a bit of last minute.com flurry mentality, there must be hectic dramas it seems. Place back of hand on forehead and swoon. We have tried to buck this trend and get things done in a more leisurely planned and timed manner. Of course there could always be that last minute spanner, but I hope we have built in time to flex and not rush about like a March hare on amphetamines.

But as we all know the best laid plans of mice and men often go awry. There are only so many contingencies which make sense…

We will know what at-home adjustments need put in place after the appointment next week…This gives us time to execute.

I am curious to see what the outcome will be.  I have a good idea about the pain etc. because of the prior hip fracture repair. My guess is that the healing will be easier. I had to wait three days immobile to get the pin fitted in my hip which can’t have been good for prognosis.

We shall see…it will be what it will be…

Is Being Negative Clever?

~ quantumdreamer ~ Leave a comment

This topic was raised in a dream last night.

Some imagine that being highly sceptical and picking holes in everything is the hallmark of intellect and perhaps cleverness. Please understand that when I use the word clever I do not do so in a positive sense. Clever for me is a derogatory term implying an arrogant perhaps smug self-satisfaction, a know-it-all misplaced glee. It is very easy to pick holes, much harder to mend them. I’ll suggest that it is a flaw of human sociopolitical mindset to be negative. To always find fault and thereby prove just how bad and terrible things are. It is a prejudice. A crowd, perhaps baying, will get behind a negative sentiment easily.

Back when I used to do personal and team development courses my favourite piece of personal feedback was, “Alan’s ability to constantly find positives in every situation was tiresome and irritating!” This was from young Ph.D. students at a Complexity doctoral training centre in UCL. Young people full of negativity are hard to motivate. Can’t is a self fulfilling prophecy. Eeyore is alive and tolerably well, not too bad, getting by, moping.

One of the things which has surprised me about France is just how negative people collectively are. They are inert, they complain and find fault. They are actually more negative than cynical Brits. They have shit loads of great technology which nobody outside of France buys. This is because they seem too shy and embarrassed, perhaps arrogant and lazy, to meanigfully address non Francophone markets. There is a cloud of negativity and little encouragement. The medical profession here lacks warmth and is process driven. It is very good but mostly soul less. Few understand my post hip operation career at the Bolshoi. Graveyard humour is lacking and as a result things can be dour and sullen.

In the dream last night I was talking with a British GP doctor. She was posh upper class and old school, roughly my age. She was tweedy and clearly had an intimate relationship with gin and tonic. You could imagine her on a pheasant shoot equipped with cognac filled hip flask. She was looking at all my extensive medical tests. On the basis of these she wanted to know why I had come to see her. I explained that I was concerned about getting a post cold chest infection. She said that I should not be such an idiot. All my tests showed that aside from my arthritis I am in a very good state of health for my age and considering my past consumption. She said that we was considering telling me to fuck off out of her office. I do not have COPD and my ticker works just find. I said that the constant pain puts a down lens on things. She said that in a half a year or so things would look more rosy. Cheer up!

It kind of highlights how the medical profession may send one off to be a lab rat and then forget to give you perspective. If you have 70 medical appointments in a year you will assume yourself to be severely ill, when you may not be. It shows how the big grey heavy mental cloud of negativity can drag you down suck out your spirit like a Potteresque dementor.  On Monday I stood in the “happy” queue at the pharmacy in the local village. Shiny happy people it was not.

“Sitting here eating my heart out baby, I need some hot stuff baby…” It was a shame that the radio was not on…

The world right now lacks direction, positive direction. It is a heavy and very negative space. Hope is a very rare thing just now. Division and negativity are the prevalent toxins.

Being overly negative is a very big downer…man…

Rapport and Communication

~ quantumdreamer ~ Leave a comment

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The single biggest problem in communication is the illusion that it has taken place.

George Bernard Shaw

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The above succinct quotation is a lot more apt than many are willing to acknowledge. It is widely applicable. It takes a lot of effort, willingness and practice to enhance communication so that one can be “en rapport” with another. One has to be on similar wavelengths and not too divergent in intellect. There must be some shared commonality of allegory and metaphor, usually some overlap of life experiences. There needs to be some kind of tie, perhaps emotional or deeper. The sharing of space and time with another helps, sharing trauma or profound experience can enhance a shared experiential which enables communication. One can communicate well with someone who one “hates” because that intensity adds focus to communication. This intensity can aid or degrade communication. There are a lot of assumptions and biases present in most attempts to communicate.

Above all one needs to listen attentively and try to communicate, to convey. My experience suggests that many are unskilled in listening. To tune in to another requires one to be passive like a radio receiver. One needs to find the wavelength of transmission on the dial.

If there is poor rapport using conventional methods such as talking it is not surprising that unconventional methods such as telepathy are not well experimentally proven. I like the analogy of an electronic instrument. If the noise in the instrument is high its ability to detect true signal is reduced. The “minds” of most are a cacophony of internal dialogue unable to pick up signal. If the mind is distracted and unfocussed the spoken word fails to register with any longevity in the consciousness. {Oh look a butterfly, my ‘phone has just pinged with a text, what is for tea?}

I’ll speculate that profound inter-human rapport is on the wane.

In the media when a psychic is consulted to solve a complicated murder case, perhaps find a body, they are given a piece of clothing, a photograph. This enables the psychic-seer to tune into to the missing person or object. Logically the rapport gained from a scarf or a photograph cannot be as strong as that gained from a genuine relationship with that individual. Perhaps by taking time to immerse into the life, the bedroom, the friends of the missing person a non-proximal rapport can be gained. But it would not be the same as if they worked together for a decade and shared life’s highs and lows. There may be some more predisposed to such a skill. We have the notion of empath on one hand and trained skilled psychological profiler on the other hand. One uses a subjective rapport and the other builds from a quasi-objective evidence base.

The notion of rapport is of course subjective and perhaps elusive. Rapport must vary in a temporal sense. For example I am markedly different in outlook now than I was two decades ago. Any rapport people had with me from back then has probably passed its expiry date. I can still put on my Worzel-Gummidge science head if needed. It is at the back of the barn behind the haystack.

Because we may lack a genuine rapport we can easily assume that we understand people and their motivation much better than we actually do…

Rapport has cultural elements too. This has been clear here in France. I have had conversations where I know we are not on the same page, in the same book or even the same library. I have noted the case. The other person has not. There is no way that you can convince the adamant that they have gotten the wrong end of the stick, even when you know they have.

Communication is way trickier that we imagine.

In Buddhism the notion of mind to mind transfer is active in the hagiography and key in the Zen lineages. Things are passed on non-verbally. This strays into the parapsychological notion of telepathy. In such instances the follower and teacher have shared considerable time, they have had grumbling bellies when the alms bowls were sparsely filled. They have meditated together. Their way of life has been shared, their philosophies have converged, their wavelengths have become similar and synchronised. Under such circumstances the likelihood of mind-to-mind transfer must be enhanced. They did not go home to their wives nor watch Strictly of a Saturday night. They are not worried about losing their jobs nor distracted by the next vagaries issuing out of Trump’s jumbled mind.

Rapport then is an unquantifiable but when shared is a common subjective experience. Communication is less difficult and mutual understanding more easily reached.  A convergence of being enables rapport.

I liken this mental rapport to the phenomenon of quantum entanglement. Two photons created as an entangled photon pair have their wavefunctions coupled, they are en rapport with each other. When one photon is “asked” about its state of polarisation and answers. The other photon telepathically knows what its state is too, despite any geometric distance between them.

Rapport can be thought of as a form of entanglement, a loss of harsh individuality, where a shared outlook is held, however briefly. During full rapport communication is “instantaneous”. The separate I, me, is melded into an us. In full rapport we might think as one.

The wavefunction contains everything we might want to know about a photon {or pair}. The mind contains everything we might want to know about the non-biological part of a being. Two minds fully en rapport share. Of course mental rapport is unlikely to be total though it could be significantly partial. A shared mental rapport might enable a telepathic transfer, being to being. Physical plane distance need not hinder.

If one studies an individual for an extended period one might get to know them and have a measure of predictivity concerning their thoughts and behaviour. This could be an ersatz rapport when you think you know but don’t really. The grey area between advised intuition and genuine telepathic rapport is probably experimentally inseparable. A stalker thinks they know the victim, a spook understands the target. To generate an accurate rapport with someone personally unfamiliar is not facile. We may imagine we know. We may be overly optimistic as to extent.

What we wish for and what is actual, can differ.

Hmnn…

The Cormorant Totem – Morvran – Morfran – Bilidowcar

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“Cormorant is a contraction probably derived from Latin corvus marinus, “sea raven”; in the early 19th century, the similarly derived spelling “corvorant” was sometimes used. Cormoran is the Cornish name of the sea giant in the tale of Jack the Giant Killer. Indeed, “sea raven” or analogous terms were the usual terms for cormorants in Germanic languages until after the Middle Ages. The French explorer André Thévet commented in 1558: “the beak [is] similar to that of a cormorant or other corvid”, which demonstrates that the erroneous belief that the birds were related to ravens lasted at least to the 16th century.”

Of late we have had a cormorant on the bank of the pond between it and the river. Today there were two, they looked to be a breeding pair. At the same time heron the larger has been in the water. The heron is more nervous than the cormorants who must be Breton morvran. Having a pair in the garden is a first for us. I can get within twenty metres when they are on land. They just watch me. The heron would have flown off if I get that close. Cormorants fly better than herons and take off is quicker.

I should look to the cormorant totem.

Cormorants are diving birds at home in water and air. They dive deep into the watery depths. They co-parent. They shit good fertilizer. The Chinese train them to fish for them. They are at the smart end of the bird family.

Depending on whom you read this totem is about diving deep into the unknown confident that you will find morsels there. It is about looking deeper for solutions and answers. Looking deeper to fathom more profound meaning. It also about balancing air and water.

I am a little bit puzzled because it is tricky for me to imagine something which is far into the unknown for me. Perhaps I am blasé. I have had some experiences that many might consider strange, weird etc…

At first pass whatever it is that might be unknown seems likely to be proximal unknown as opposed to distal unknown. That is the sort of unknown which lies well within the normal remit of human folly and various sociopolitical interaction. There may be unexpected but that can differ from completely unknown.

Personally I have no pressing things which need to be solved. I am not in need of answers or explanations.

Upcoming on the cards is, for now, still my hip operation. This could bring up something unknown from the depths and need hidden reserves from me. I am due another prostate specific antigen test and a whole heap of preoperative blood tests. I expect that my iron levels will have increased a bit more in line with the general rustiness of my body.

An obvious unknown or rather a forgotten might be living without pain in my right hip.

The thing about the unknown is that it is by definition unknown. The deep unknown lies close in perceptual “space” to the unknowable. That would be an interesting turn up for the books. I am game.

Something which is just another unfamiliar variant of human folly is the more likely.

We shall see…

Unacceptable Hypotheses

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How we view and to an extent assimilate our notion of world is underpinned by a number of hypotheses which we may deem fact or gospel. Counter hypotheses are therefore cognitively unacceptable. This is because they can literally change our world and view thereof. Different hypotheses can upset the mundane power balance. And we cannot allow that can we.

For a long time, according to history, mankind imagined a flat Earth with earth at the centre of all things heavenly. Others suggested a heliocentric solar system and a quasi-spherical planet. Such views were considered heretic and punishable. For a long time the hypotheses of heliocentricity and orb-like planet were totally unacceptable especially to those in power, in the church. The infallibility of a human pope kept bums on seat and pennies on the collection plate. The infallibility of the pope was deemed factual and not hypothetical. It was the sort of “fact” that was enforced at the end of a blade or a noose.

Human history is littered with old hypotheses which have been used as the reason for slaughter. Hypotheses can be used to justify blood and murder.

The implications of a spherical globe are significantly different from a flat “2d” world. There is no edge off of which to sail. Without a round planet we would not have satellite TV nor surveillance satellites. A flat earth would be bad for NSA and CIA. The hypothesis of a quasi-spherical planet is game-changing in its implications.

An example of a hypothesis which is unacceptable to some is that Jesus was and is the long promised biblical messiah, the saviour. A significant population in the world find such a hypothesis unacceptable. No rabbi could accept this hypothesis and others see him more as a significant prophet. Were a rabbi to accept such a hypothesis it would radically change the assimilation of world and the recounting and recollection of history. You can argue that there is a vested interest not to accept such a hypothesis.

Some hypothesis cannot therefore be accepted because the implication of accepting them is too vast, it changes far too much.

Scientific causality and locality was a notion of Newtonian mechanics. Quantum entanglement kind of fucked with this idea and people like Einstein found this a swede masher and difficult to accept. Nowadays there is a burgeoning quantum aspect to science, business and technology.  

One could argue that there is precedent for old, dated hypotheses giving way to newer more widely applicable ones. Things of significant implication always face resistance and slow uptake.

I like the idea of a how a change in hypothesis can fundamentally and significantly alter how a world is and has been assimilated. A benign example of this is when adopted children find out they have been adopted and search out the backstory. The world is turned upside down for a while, perhaps permanently. Modern DNA testing has scuppered many a dubious narrative about parenthood. The hypothesis that Bob was dad to Alice was incorrect, it was Sergei in reality.

A while back somebody insisted that I was a so-called Man of Action and for many years dozens of people interacted with me on the basis of that hypothesis. It underpinned their assimilation of our interaction. It was a hypothesis which may not have been well founded. People might struggle to re-assimilate the world and the nature of interaction given an alternate notion.

Hypothesis can be a close relative of assumption. The working assumption here in France is that I am “anglais”. It is the first “hypothesis”. It is pretty easy to change intellectual understanding of this but still people behave towards me as if I have the same orientation as an English. Although the hypothesis has changed its latent implementation remains.

Based on various visions and dreams I have had one can draw up at least two different hypothetical explanations. These might be radically different in implication both locally for me and more globally.

The simplest explanation is that the nocturnal dreams and waking visons are a form of hallucinatory psychosis. I am off  my trolley and provided that I don’t cause any discomfort / break laws there is no need to have me locked up in a psychiatric unit. I am not a threat to anyone and by and large understand my day to day reality such a taxes and medical appointments. Although socially isolated I am not dangerous to myself or others. This is a facile hypothesis with only a very local implication. It does not impinge outside of our immediate geo-location.

Another interpretation is that some of the dreams are to do with previous incarnations of mine. If we accept this as a hypothesis then we can assimilate an explanatory narrative which has me having several Buddhist flavoured lives etc. As this stands it  has no wide implication. It is the sort of thing someone well into their cups might claim down the local boozer. No drama. Just another hippy-trippy fruitcake believing something which cannot be proved nor directly unequivocally disproved. Disproof is implied from lack of proof. If however this points at a tulku incarnation of a high lama, this has wide implication in at least one context. Some would struggle to accept this as a hypothesis specifically because of the way they see me and have behaved towards me. It would need a rewrite of life narrative.

This points at an obvious. Hypothesis can not ever be completely separated from context; they are nearly always highly context specific.

In 2009 I had a “conversation” early one morning walking around a wood near Tring. In that I was told that I was a very close disciple of Buddha, Siddartha. Implied that I had been a contemporary of him and spent time with him. The default hypothesis of psychotic hallucination or schizophrenic voice hearing explains this easily.

To accept the “conversation” as factual or hypothetically correct would be a push for some, particularly those who have made my acquaintance.

In 2011 I had a dream which pointed at Bakula one of Buddha’s closet disciples, a scholar who came late to the path according to text. He is named as arhat in scripture and hagiography has him as an enlightened being. I am less convinced that enlightenment of a disciple happens in a single lifetime just from hanging out with the Siddhartha dude. In certain circumstances he is revered as a kind of Buddhist “saint”. Prior to the dream I had no conscious memory of having heard the name Bakula.

The facile invocation of grandiose psychotic dreaming is easily made. Maybe I want to be important subconsciously and made up a story to make me significant.

For me to accept it as hypothetically possible is not tricky. For others it may be harder. For example what does one do with that? How does one treat a reincarnated person who actually met and hung with Siddartha? What is the precedent? What is the protocol?

Quickly such a hypothesis becomes cognitively unacceptable. It cannot be proven true and it would take more evidence than Mulder and Scully could ever furnish for it to be believed, no matter how much we may want to believe. I’ll suggest that there may be many hypotheses which describe an aspect of reality which are totally unacceptable. These hypotheses may be before their time. In time they may become less unacceptable until such time as people are ready to believe them.

Careful if you believe, you might fall off the edge of your world…

Different is Scary – Have you Forgotten Your Meds?

~ quantumdreamer ~ Leave a comment

Clearly along with Senior Service cigarettes and the odd whisky and ginger, my mum must have had too much N-(4-hydroxyphenyl)acetamide when she was pregnant with me. The Flintstones in the White House have so decreed. What does Wilma make of all this?

Last night we watched a film “The Accountant” in which Ben Affleck played a neurodivergent maths whizz who was a trained martial artist and special forces trained assassin sniper. He is a big bloke. His dad told him,

“Different is scary! Sooner or later different is scary and they don’t like it. Fight. Don’t be a victim.”

Or words to that effect. He encouraged his son to fight back when bullied.

I have experimental evidence gained from a FFT EEG; a fast Fourier transform {FFT} frontal lobe electroencephalograph that my brain waves differ from family and friends. The experiments were not exhaustive, they were indicative. The fact that I downloaded and worked through the patent for the device is unusual for others, not for me. I wanted to understand the instrument and its limitations. I know more about FFT than many because I did my undergraduate third year research project using a state of the art Bruker FFT infrared spectrometer on 77K solid state Platinum and Palladium mixed valence compounds. I looked into Fourier transformation. It had a tenth of a wavenumber resolution and could measure tiny site splitting in crystal lattices. We were particularly interested in very low frequency vibrations along the pseudo one dimensional longitudinal crystal axes.

On this basis it is safe to suggest that I could be classed as neurodivergent, without specifying in which manner.

As a further piece of evidence I cite the dream data catalogued here. It diverges significantly from normal.

Using the tag line from the film, some people might find me scary others just odd. I can say that when viewed from a neurotypical perspective I have trouble making and sustaining friendships. I do not engage in the highly transactional itchy back game and quasi-sycophantic behaviours often deemed necessary for career progression. I am not a toady or an arse licking nematode.

If an increasing number of people are being “diagnosed” on the spectrum is that indicative of an increase in the number of people who have passed the qualifying workshops to make such a diagnosis or is it a real thing? Is humanity evolving? Will neurotypicals become an artefact and extinct? The dinosaurs will die out from measles and COVID soon enough…

Of course if you are scared of people like me it is easy to prescribe chemical cosh medication to make the anomalous more compliant. The “monged” argue less. You could suggest that the entire reason I have such an active dreaming is that I have simply forgotten to take my medication like a good boy.

“Have you forgotten to take your meds again?

Just take a few of these and everything will be alright…

You will be normal and somnambulant like the rest of us.

Look here is a big new mobile ‘phone.

Pretty, shiny, precious….

There, there, don’t fret…”