Tag: “they”

Name Dropping – Power by Association

~ quantumdreamer ~ Leave a comment

The two cormorants and one heron are, as is usual these days, stood around the pond. Mr & Mrs cormorant seem now settled and it is Heron the larger today. I can get within 10 metres of  the male cormorant before he can be arsed to take any evasive action. We might say that we have integrated with the French wildlife. We could put our feathered friends down on our citizenship application. There cannot be many fish left in the pond!! These are wild birds.

The prefecture has opened up the process of renewal of right to stay for those admitted under the Brexit fiasco / deal / bullet in the foot. The chances are we are OK. But there is a small significant risk that we will be refused and booted out. I have no names to drop, am not affiliated with any society or institution. I have nobody to vouch for me or act a guarantor. I am in no way special and thereby subject to the normal rules for normal people. Our fate lies securely in the hands of the French administrative system. We will provide them the kilograms of paper work they seek. Mild OCD can sometimes be helpful.

A few years back ~ 2017 I was attending an Institute of Physics { IoP } Entrepreneurship event. A geezer from a Southampton uni. fibre optic laser spin out was there talking, as were other tech transfer people from uni. and institute. They were talking about the start-up funding valley of death. My affiliation was down as “freelance”, the usual euphemism for unemployed. I did mention in passing the ancient history of the laser spin-out I was involved in in order to secure an invitation.

{Strangely the event in no way made use of me.}

It was one of those prolonged slow death by finger buffet events. As is my custom my event name tag was pretty much in my trouser pocket. I mentioned to a bloke that I had been at Imperial and he then proceeded to name drop my name, to me. He claimed to have met me and implied that I was even some kind of loose pal or associate. I had no recollection. I encouraged him to provide more information and was told that I was something of a controversial figure with the CEO and investors. I was not gifted the subtle aroma of roses. It became apparent that the CEO had claimed that he had done and invented many of the things which he had not. This geezer was claiming some kind of power by association with me, to me, without knowing who I was. I resisted the temptation to really drop him in the shit and made my excuses for another irresistible prawn in crispy breadcrumbs. I had always thought that the CEO was a bell end and this was more anecdotal proof.

There is a certain type of person who cannot resist the temptation to name drop and claim power by association. In martial arts circles it is to some master or great thousand year old lineage. The association is almost invariably exaggerated. Some of these are impossible given the unidirectional flow of time and age at death. But hey, what is a mere detail? Why let it get in the way of a good story or narrative?

People once used to drop the name Epstein to claim power by association, Prince Andrew is now out of favour and the pile on ramps up. People who claimed power by association to him now drop him like a lead balloon. People can’t wait to pile on like a bunch of piranhas. Those that fed on his name now feed on his disgrace. Human beings are great, are they not?

With the reliability of a politician’s promise I could name drop whoever I want. Probably the most famous person I ever met was George Best. I once pissed next to him at a urinal in the Dover Street Wine Bar when we were both under the influence. I saw him several times there in the wee small hours after pub closing time.

If I listen to what one of the voices in my head told me then I was a very close disciple of Siddhartha Gautama. Which means that I can claim to have met him and maybe hung out. I doubt that such a thing merits either kudos or power by association. There is no way of checking with a dead and cremated person from 2500 years ago. The vast majority of people would not believe me. Therefore there is no power associated with such a thing.

More people may have believed the geezer who claimed that he knew me. My stock now is low. So it would be a bit of a waste of breath to make such a claim of association.

People pay a lot of attention to names and reputations. A referee from a top Johnny university is deemed good. People rarely check if things are made up. They believe reputation until such time as the tarnish arrives and the pile on starts. Previous association then becomes a big negative. Plague sets in and any association even by extended barge pole denied.

People are fickle and the herd-made reputation is both time varying and impermanent.

The great Gods of “they” are punitive and vengeful. They also lack self-awareness and honesty.

It is all a bit shabby really…

Mainstream Thinking – They

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Many find some comfort if their thinking and opinion is shared with others. What the peer group believes and what “they” say can have a very strong influence on individuals. If someone is in a position of authority or power others take on board whatever it is they say no matter how well considered that might be. These days being adamant can be mistaken for being accurate. There are many who are dogmatically insistent. People can gob-off without thinking about consequences.

If you are a big cheese or have power by association you are given air time and taken more seriously. Your words may become gospel.

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It can be important to some to be seen as “right” and to “win” an apparent argument. They can get quite heated.

I have less of a need to agree and comply with mainstream thinking. Technically as a quasi-hermit I do not have a peer group. I do not have to worry about getting cancelled nor about career progression. I have often considered the so called wisdom of the omniscient “they” as flawed.

There is an experiment currently underway in the USA on the propagation of adamant opinion. It will confer quantifiable outcomes.

In principle free speech is a freedom of the democratic “west”. In practice social factors mean that this is not the case. You can lose your job for saying nigger or commenting on the right for Palestinians not to be starved and slaughtered. You can be arrested for calling out murderous bullies. People in frocks and with penises are no longer allowed into ladies toilets. There are many taboos which may not be strictly against the letter of the law, others have been legislated against. Freedom is curtailed. We cannot have anarchy…old chap…

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Peer pressure, the whims of the herd and hive, forbid certain ways of being, of thinking and certain elements of speech. I am not surprised if I am avantgarde and not immersed fully in the norms. I have always had an entrepreneurial orientation. I do things people have not done before. I get balls rolling and break new ground. Whoopee…That is past history and probably over for this lifetime.

You never know who is reading what you publish on this internet thingy. There is always a mild risk of things getting propagated, of people cutting and pasting, using things well out of context. The amount of cut and paste text on things alleging to be spiritual is large. This is a non sequitur. If someone is trying to promote a “spiritual” way of living they probably did not ought to nick stuff, rob it. But hey it is on the internet so it is free, fair game.

I personally am now finding the suggestions of algorithms on some internet platforms very boring and difficult to get past. The use of search engines gets a bigger and bigger waste of time day by day.

I do not type “please show me some paid for advertising or promotion”.

We are, because of these omniscient algorithms, presented with an ever shrinking pool of information and knowledge, suitable for the statistically significant click-sumption as measured by the lowest common denominator of the average “they”. It is yawn-some and sucks the will to live out of life. Before long we will be cloned by Facebook and X into a mind-numbing blob. A blob which does not think nor offend, which lacks any originality. A blob which is adamant of opinion and that arrived at by algorithmic consensus.

The wisdom of they will be monosyllabic and conveyed solely by emoji…

Mainstream thinking will be blob. The future is blob. Long live blob.

Covercule 18 – COVID 19 -“they”- British Expats Dream 15-08-2025

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De baard maakt geen wijsgeer; anders was er de bok goed aan.

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Here is this morning’s dream sequence.

The dream starts with me talking with a young medical practitioner. She is an advanced nurse but not a fully qualified doctor. She is wearing very dark blue scrubs and has an identity lanyard around her neck. We are sat at a hospital dining facility come café. I am talking with her about my philosopher’s chin. I have a habit when pensive of sometimes gripping my chin with lightly with my right hand and stroking the left side of my chin with the right index finger. I say that nearly every night just before I go to sleep it itches where the finger goes a little and I give it a brief scratch. It is a part of going off to sleep of a night.

She says that there is no need for concern. I was already unconcerned. She says that it is my covercule 18. The phonetics of the word covercule are explicit. That covers my 18. The philosopher’s chin.

She says that ever since COVID 19 humans have become split. There are those who believe and trust the medical profession and those who prefer half-baked conspiracy theories and internet remedies. “They” are more consulted and believed than is warranted. I say that given my chemistry background I tend to trust vaccination and think of the medical profession not as deity but qualified, trained yet human professionals. I note that not everything they say is evidence based, some is still anecdotal. She agrees that medics are not infallible. I say that I have the courage 18 of my own convictions and am not readily swayed by the advice of “they”.

The scene changes to a small town square in France. We have been considering a move back to the UK and have been chatting about this with some British expats. They point us towards a car parked on the square in which are two women. The window is wound down. I approach and speak with the woman driving. She says that if we are going to rent or buy a property in the UK there is some anti-squatter documentation that we need to fill in. We need to engage the services of a security company called ON. The documents are back at their place.

The wife and I go to their home. The relationship between the women is unclear, query lesbian. We go in and one of them retrieves a document from the office. I am sat at the kitchen table now without a shirt. In the sink are a pile of dishes from the night before. The wife and I exchange glances. One of the woman goes to find a pen. There is other debris in the house. It is a bit of a shit tip yet these women are claiming to be experts. Their house is not at all in order. I have my cheque book out and have started to fill out the form. The woman says that I need to write a cheque for £100 to the security company. Everybody knows “they” say that it is a good idea. I am unconvinced. I motion to the wife and we leave. The women are not happy and entreat us not to miss out. I doubt the wisdom of “they”. They live in a shit tip.

The scene changes and now still in France I go for a walk along the canal. It is early autumn and the canal-side plants are grown green near waist high. It is difficult to see the gravel path. I step off the tarmac road onto the path. I walk along the canal. In the distance I can see a young French man fishing with a roach pole. He has two light brown mongrel dogs of medium size with him. I see by the canal a discarded round warning road sign, which I pick up. As I approach the youth, he makes a playful dog yapping and barking noise to suggest that the dogs will do this. He and I lock eye to eye in mirth. Sure enough as I approach the dogs bark and yap around my legs. I steer them with the road sign using it as a shield. Once passed the dogs return to the fisherman.

I find a path off the towpath up and around the small road bridge over the canal. Aside the bridge is an old toll cottage. I knock on the door and it is answered by a middle aged, fat balding British man in shorts. Over the stable half door I pass him the once discarded road sign which he adds to his collection. He thanks me for helping him stay useful and for adding to his collection.

The dream ends.

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* Because of where I spent a fair part of my childhood I was exposed to expat {British} communities. I saw the shenanigans and how some struggled with living far from home in a quasi-incestuous partially suffocating community. I am therefore naturally sceptical about expat “wisdom”…

Memories – Alzheimer’s – Still Alice

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The other night we watched a film “Still Alice” the purpose of which was to get the viewers to empathise with the Columbia University professor Alice who develops early onset Alzheimer’s disease. It portrayed the impact on her and her family as she lost cognitive function and recall. There was no CGI, sex or violence in the film and it was engaging, well written and well-acted. A nice change from the glitzy, violent and insubstantial. It was a bit sentimental drawing on the American idealism of family and career. It showed how when someone devotes all life to career it can be taken away. Where value is placed can be fragile.

It is pretty easy to prematurely self-diagnose Alzheimer’s as one moves towards dotage. In our case the need for linguistic engagement outside of our proximal relationship is minimal. One could say that I am out of practice talking shite.

Modern psychology is very normative in its approach and there are a series of behavioural norms which, if there is divergence from, evokes a label of illness or syndrome. I don’t know where the set of societal norms are garnered from, what the statistical evidence is or whether the ultimate arbiter of “they” decrees what is normal. I don’t know who drew up and populated the Venn diagrams.

In the film there was mention of “memory makes us who we are”, there was thumbing of family photo albums and old holiday film footage was played in the narrative.

Human perception is never 100% objective and any recall of past events is subject to selective perception and selective memory. Humans are biased. We have selective recall. The memories, the bedrock upon which we build our re-collection of life are not entirely sound. In the film the protagonist identified as a clever university professor. That identity was removed when she started to lecture poorly. Her entire personal legend fell into question. The film suggested she suffered during this process, trying to cling on to her faculties and her legend.

A saccharin rose-tinted view of the past is perhaps the tearful key to enjoy the twilight years according to many. Looking back wistfully sustains as incapacity and incontinence sets in. Our past “glories” provide a nice warm feeling which is not a leaking catheter. The ability to live partially in the past is seen good as the quantity of future available fades.

I am certain that how I hold memories of the past differs from many because I have recapitulated my life numerous times and worked hard at erasing my personal history {not in a browser}. I’ll speculate that were a psychologist to investigate my recall of life memory they might note a difference to norm.

I am not beholden to past nor do I cling on to it. Nevertheless, it has a causal relationship in how I interact in the now. I have a decent scientific training and could, if pushed, sustain a scientific conversation or persona.

One could argue that I have forgotten who or what I once was and have morphed into an anti-social bumpkin. Look how far he has sunken! What a fall from intellectual grace! How sad, what a shame!

But that would be facile.

This addiction to creating “memories” or “Insta-stories” is counterproductive to the pursuit of liberation. The concretising enhances the urge for rebirth. The constant re-telling of “family means everything” is often a lie and something we are encouraged to provide in our PR stories for public consumption. There is a big illusion concerning “family”. To err from ideal is seen as bad even when the ideal itself is an illusory construct. We are complicit in the propagation and recounting of this illusion.

This means that although I can appear approximately normal, the underlying psyche in my case differs markedly in that a shared basis is not there. I do not think the way I am “supposed” to.

About a decade ago I had cause to re-learn university level physical chemistry. It took a while. I had big difficulty because some of the so-called proofs which I once accepted without question no longer seemed adequate to me. They seemed short-cut. Yet thousands of undergraduates receive degrees every year by correctly reproducing them and applying them mathematically to exercises generated by faculty. I have no doubt in the physical applicability of much science, because we can build rockets that work. I am not entirely convinced that the methodology is as perfect as we imagine and profess. There may be some element of kidding of self along the way.

Maybe I have lost my science ability, my science faculties.

The film touched briefly on the notion of identity, or self, and hence self-perception. Something which Alzheimer’s gradually erases, if I understand correctly. In some ways my notions of self are gone already even though I maintain some cognitive function and have near zero resident social-event memory. There is nothing which I cling to and not very much which keeps me here, incarnate, on earth.

This notion of self, seen as good, is also behind war and conflict. The gist of the film was that maintaining the sense of self and still being the same person underneath despite all the loss of function and memory was a good thing. I am still…despite…

I am not sure that it is, from the point of view of liberation. Karmically if you place a lot of stock in intellect and its application, then to have it withdrawn is a major challenge. One which could set you up well for the next life. Sometimes our worst fears manifest and that is not necessarily a bad thing. Our challenges at end of life can be the most profound and the most enabling for our onward evolution.

In the end, for all of us, our current notion of self must dissolve and pass whether quickly or otherwise.

Self is impermanent.

Messaging Assumption and Miscommunication

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Postulate.

The human ability to get entirely the wrong of the stick is close to infinite.

Herein lies the mystery of perception, bias and multiple failures in communication both as a purveyor and acceptor. People may not be aware that they are, whether consciously or not, sending messages which others are receiving and perceiving and assimilating.

I suspect that because I am largely silent and can be not expressive, people tend to imagine that I am judging and being critical. They may expect some verbal response / discussion / mutual bullshitting when talking and when none is forthcoming, they can get unnerved. The feedback mechanism is missing. They expect chit-chat. In the absence they can confer multiple meanings which simply are not there.

People can read all sorts of shit into things. They may imagine I am sending a message when I am not. People might read this blog and imagine that I am messaging them directly.

The likelihood of miscommunication in the context of different cultures and frames of refence is enhanced. People may imagine that their customs are transferable. The French attitude of laissez-faire can be interpreted as complete indifference, fence sitting and not giving a shit, disinterest. It can be read, “that person can’t be arsed, sod ’em, they are not serious. Let’s move on to someone who has a point of view or opinion.”

In trying not to impinge a different message can be received. “Waste of time.”

I’ll assume with a high confidence integral that many people have made hugely erroneous assumptions over the years as to my motivations, what I am thinking and where I am coming from. This {my} assumption is based upon my interpretations of their behaviours and could be invalid. There may be transference of their ways of thinking and prejudices onto me.

There are certain types of people who like to argue the toss and “win” arguments / debates. They like to “score” points.

If someone like this expresses a point of view and one does not counter it, remaining silent even. They can assume agreement and/or victory. The lucky recipient of opinion may disagree totally but cannot be arsed to verbalise. Agreement can be assumed and the illusion of being right /accurate taken from the non-intervention.

Many introverts cannot be bothered to do the thinking for gobby extroverts. It is not important to them nor is share of air time or limelight kudos. The introverts can be disinterested in interaction.

I am reasonably confident that I have by accident, thrown a spanner into the works, with my interactions with the French medical profession. I have not behaved in the manner to which they are accustomed and they have not had the skill or experience to handle it. There has a result been extensive miscommunication and they have made assumptions about what might transpire, what I understand and how I perceive them. It can be very hierarchical. Most medics have not interacted as I have. My need to chat and discuss is vanishingly small when viewed from the angle of French customs. If I want to find out my first port of call is research which I will do thoroughly.

Once miscommunication has gone beyond a certain point the situation becomes very difficult if not impossible to salvage. This is because face and pride have now come into play and dominate, often unilaterally, subsequent interpersonal dynamics.

Postulate

The human notion of face and implicit loss of face is one of the most expensive bits of human folly in terms of relationships and loss of human life.

Face in this context is illusion, a socio-political construct which sells gossip magazines, tabloid newspapers and underpins the scripts of television soap operas.

“Face” lies aback assumption and miscommunication. People get offended, an emotional overaction, if things do not comply with assumption and social expectation. People can assume that the {their} worldview is common and that everyone holds similar prejudices to them.

Once people have gotten hold of the wrong end of the stick the tendency is to grasp this ever more tightly. Mis-perceptions and mis-assimilations of reality are more concrete and fixed than one might imagine.

There is no better demonstration of miscommunication than the game of “Chinese whispers”. Yet surprisingly, given this knowledge, the faceless and ubiquitous “they” are somehow the font of all truth and knowledge….

There is not a lot you can do or say which is contrary to the omniscience of “they”. No matter how well you communicate it, it cannot be perceived accurately because “they” dogmatically forbid it.

The wrong end of the stick beckons with the gravitational pull of a supermassive black hole…

The Illusion of Communication

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Shaw suggested that the primary problem with communication was/is the illusion that it is taking or has taken place.

People rarely bear this in mind. They tend to imagine and assume. They can imagine communication to be good and effective when it is anything but.

There is a big problem in groups. Communication within a group feels like communication has happened but communication outside of the group has not even started. That decided in a group is rarely discussed or conveyed outside the group. Acceptance and agreement is assumed outside the group because consensus has been arrived at in group. It can be a huge surprise that no inclusion outside of group has ever happened. It is a group-mind illusion.

We might call this the crony problem.

As a speculative example. It is possible that health care professionals are discussing my case amongst themselves and maybe one day, someone will have to present it as a fait accompli to me. I will not have been involved in the discussion and therefore very unlikely to trust or accept the fait accompli just because someone said so. If I feel by-passed or ignored then my response is unlikely to be compliant-acceptant. Because discussion has occurred within peer group the illusion of communication is solid and held to be true perceptually. There is in this case a national and language barrier to boot and add icing. Inter group consensus amongst the French is important to them as far as I can see. Foreigners are less important.

I have noted multiple variations on this theme over the years. Where “they” discuss me, maybe conclude and then never even mention it to me or check their understanding of me with me. I am not being paranoid. I have anecdotal evidence in a number of cases.

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Last Monday I had a CT scan of my chest and lungs prescribed by a lung specialist. Given my asthma, COPD and past history as a smoker, this is not a routine low risk screening. There are some results in my spirometry which need an explanation.

I am yet to receive the narration of the results from the consultant radiologist.

I have had a week in which to down load the images, start a loan of some medical CT imaging software and investigate the CT data. I have access to fibre broad band and can do AI image searches on CT snapshots. I have used the software to measure the dimensions of the (hopefully) bony growth on my thoracic spine and can see that it impinges upon my right lung. {This explains a slight niggle I have had there for a number of years.} I can read articles in medical journals like “The Lancet” and have a fair understanding of the gist.

I have watched videos of radiological grading of COPD, lung nodules and lung cancer staging. I have investigated diagnosis of the bony growth and it looks as though diffuse idiopathic skeletal hyperostosis (DISH) is the best putative diagnosis. I already know that this growth cannot be reversed. I have identified one lung nodule and think I can see where my ribs, broken in a rugby injury, have healed.

 I have no idea who is meant to follow up, if at all. I am in a vacuum.

Any subsequent conversation is unlikely to be aware or informed by/of the scope of my investigations. I’ll speculate that it will not be assumed to be thorough.

Any initial point of subsequent communication will have assumptions on each side.

I have asked that if there is anything important someone gets in touch. Silence suggests that there is no problem. This assumption could be fundamentally flawed in a clinically significant manner. People are busy and in medicine often pressure prompted. The body on the table in front of you is more important that the one in a computer file and the end of a telephone line.

The whole thing, like so many things here grinds to a halt of inertia. Who knows who is responsible or is in charge of taking this forward?

Loose…means that balls get dropped…and then it is very hard to overcome the inertia once more…

Laisser tomber – BOF….

Atlantis and Kneejerk Adamant Assertion

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I’ll wager that if I raised the notion of an advanced civilisation on Atlantis many tens of thousands of years ago in certain circles, I would get the kneejerk adamant assertion that this is made up, fictional, delusional and that no evidence has ever been found. With an implicit nor is there likely to be any found, ever. Just like you can’t find evidence for unicorns, there is no evidence for Atlantis. Yet in the media, tales and recreations of Atlantis exist.

People who are fond of opining like their soap boxes and to hold court thereupon to an {admiring} crowd. The tendency to assert without due consideration is recently pandemic and can be found everywhere and all over the font of wisdom a.k.a. the internet.

The following quotation is there to be found attributed to Kelvin.

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There is nothing new to be discovered in physics now. All that remains is more and more precise measurement.

Lord Kelvin

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This sentiment was proven inaccurate. Those keen to uphold the hagiography of science can be found stating that there is no evidence he ever said this. {There is no evidence that he did not.} A founding prophet of a religion must not be tarred with the brush of quotable dogmatism. The faithful are defending the prophet who helped to inscribe the laws of thermodynamics upon the tablet given from the mountain top.

Knowing humans and scientists like I do, I think it is entirely possible that someone would opine thus, particularly if they were enjoying themselves holding court or relaxed after a few ports in the club.

In 2023 an additional chamber was found under the great pyramid.

“Precise characterization of a corridor-shaped structure in Khufu’s Pyramid by observation of cosmic-ray muons.”

Nature Communications 14, 1144, (2023)

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Using a very esoteric scientific technique something thought not to exist was “proven” to be there. Speculation as to purpose follows. Maybe it was the Aliens or Patrick Duffy a.k.a. the Man from Atlantis who built it?

Truth is nobody knows for sure how it was made nor what it was made for.

Kneejerk adamant assertion is at best lazy. It is all about face and being aligned to the current status quo unwilling to risk heresy or apostasy as measured by the omnipotent “they”.

Socio-political conformity encourages adamant assertion.

It is not very open-minded.

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Are you prone to kneejerk adamant assertion?

If so, why, what do you get out of it?

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A Fondness for Thought Experiments

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I speculate that many like to “win” an argument and be “right”. Some dread being demonstrably wrong. But the diamond sutra advises against seeking the absolute…

Our schooling demands answers which correspond in alignment to the quasi-consensual mark scheme. I have seen “A” level students marked wrong because, even though their answer was correct and accurate {according to my expert opinion}, it did not comply with the dogmatic mark scheme prepared by the thought police. Straying from the agreed dogma yields a poor grade and can prohibit further education.

There is an ethos to conclude, to be right, and to want to know where one stands. People can seek certitude when in fact there is none. They may misconstrue adamant assertion with accuracy and broad applicability. In fact, over simplification can be very attractive. There is a bit of laziness. Many rely on the imagined omniscience of “they”. If the herd deems it so, then it must be. Individual thinking and the expression thereof can lead to prompt and irrevocable social isolation.

One of things, I like to do is to take some kind of conceptual framework and then apply it to my life, to see if there is any fit. I don’t do this in a quantitative way rather I try it on like a moccasin. If it appears to fit as a thought experiment, I note the fit and then like a child with a sandcastle rub it out. I am really not fussed if I am right or wrong, nor with the quality of fit. I am fluid and don’t need fixed descriptors nor to be corralled by a conceptual framework. I am mindful that were the outcomes of these experiments accurate and those within the framework aware of this, implications might follow. Some of these within the model could be wide ranging.

Some might find this annoying.

“Tell me the answer!!!”

I also like the idea of all or nothing situations in which there is no negotiable middle ground. Herein lies a problem. Whenever I mention that I do not negotiate people immediately see it as a negotiation strategy which it is not. I am not responsible for the perceptions and conclusions of others. If they like to interact transactionally via negotiation, they may transfer their preference onto their interpretation of me. They may see me through their lens, which may have aberration and distortion.

Which model, which thought experiment applies? The answer is quite a few.

It would be very easy to characterise me as a spendthrift quasi-functional alcoholic who threw it all away, and as a result is a socially isolated loser eking out his end of days in self-induced poor health.

This model has only a very local implication and using Occam’s razor, paraphrased:

Entia non sunt multiplicanda praeter necessitatem.

As a model which fits it is the simplest and the best.

Therefore all other models are speculations and by way of embellishment.

People like complexity and may not be satisfied, though it is possible to leave things here with this characterisation. My (our) physical plane life does not impinge beyond a small geographical radius and a set of healthcare professionals. I very rarely travel more than 35km in radius. I have only travelled more than 150km once in six years.

There is no need to invoke any other explanation. I have played with various alternatives.

This then is a nothing situation, a null, a default

There are various other interpretations which may be a tad more grandiose, but although there is a hint of applicability, they are inconsistent with observable circumstance. These interpretations may further be inconvenient. Any model must have use or else it cannot be tested thus a theoretical possibility remains speculation and likely to fade into the mist. There is no point developing a use-less model, when viewed from one angle. Inconvenience is also not a desired property of a model. This can lead to jettison.

Reductionist thinking can limit but it also simplifies.

The thought experiment in the absence of tangible and measurable data often leads back to the null or near null hypothesis, which is the safe conclusion.

We all often unconsciously apply the model or bias which suits us best, which is easiest for us to assimilate and has little inconvenient implication for us.

Raman Spectroscopy – Lost Marbles – Dream 02-08-2024

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In no way did I think about any of these individuals during the day. I have not met any of them in person for nearly two decades and in two cases more than that.

I am in some kind of office / seminar room taking with AP. He wants to know why I am there. I say that I am following up on an ex-student of mine and how things are going with the Raman spectroscopy.  Tony says that they have switched him to a rig with a CW laser of lower power which will mean longer acquisition time. I say he will just have to count for longer.

In walks DP, my Ph.D. supervisor. He seems a little anxious. He says that he would like to have a frank conversation with me. I say that I am fine with that. He comments that “they” thought I had completely lost the plot, lost my marbles and gone off the rails. I say that I always note that the collective noun for a group of academics is a gossip of academics.

He reiterates that they thought I was psychologically ill.

 I say, “And you did nothing?”

He says that they were nervous and did not know how to handle the situation.

I say that that was a bit shit and demonstrated a very low level of courage and poor interpersonal skills. It was a bit pathetic and all Basil Fawlty.

He says that they thought I had gone a bit pikey.

I gesture with my right hand at my immaculate suit and shiny black leather shoes. I point at my oxford button down collar shirt and neat tie. I can see that this does not fit his perception.

I walk out of the room and head out of campus onto Exhibition Road. I light up a cigarette whilst at the edge of campus. A security guard admonishes me. I mentally give him the finger.

I walk down towards the tube and after I have finished the cigarette I walk into the foyer of the science museum.

There is a pair of light blue handled aluminium walking sticks available for use and I use these to help with my arthritis. As I walk deeper into the building I bang into RC. He clearly recognises me and searches for a name.

“Martin?”

“No, I was in you tutor group at UCL about 400 years ago.”

“Alan, how are you?”

He shakes my hand effusively and greets me warmly. I say that I am fine.

He thanks me for finding Barony Castle which they have used as a venue ever since. Just as they are renting space from the science museum now.

I move on into a library at the back. Still using the walking sticks only I am carrying one and using the other. As I walk into the library, I see LB hosting a seminar. She recognises me but does not acknowledge. I go to the back and then leave. As I am leaving, I brush past DK who does not recognise me until I am well past the now closed door.

Dream ends.