“The real opposition is that between the ego-bound man, whose existence is structured by the principle of having, and the free man, who has overcome his egocentricity.”
Erich Fromm
Thursday
Nothing cheers an adult like smashing ten year olds in dodgeball.
Another week down.
The slow crawl to holidays.
I have finished Consciousness explained. There is plenty to take from this work by Dennett, but it is painful in its tautology and constant reference to computer hardware. It was a tough read.
“Since cognition and control—and hence consciousness—is distributed around in the brain, no moment can count as the precise moment at which each conscious event happens.”
Daniel Dennett
Dennett’s slow erosion and final dismissal of the cartesian theatre concept of consciousness is elegant and convincing. His multiple drafts model appears to be a much more reliable explanation for how consciousness is realised.
“writing it down” in memory criterial for consciousness: that is what it is for the “given” to be “taken” … There is no reality of conscious experience independent of the effects of various vehicles of content on subsequent action”
Daniel Dennett
There are some areas where he did lose me. His concept of the dichotomy of imagination, the ability to imagine something might exists as opposed to imagining how something would need to work to come into existence is a stretch when explaining how everything might exist if only we could imagine.
I have moved onto Intuition Pumps, which is much lighter and more enjoyable.
Friday
“After we came out of the church, we stood talking for some time together of Bishop Berkeley’s ingenious sophistry to prove the non-existence of matter, and that every thing in the universe is merely ideal. I observed, that though we are satisfied his doctrine is not true, it is impossible to refute it. I never shall forget the alacrity with which Johnson answered, striking his foot with mighty force against a large stone, till he rebounded from it, ‘I refute it thus.’”
George Berkeley
My Grandfather used to tell me to stop kicking stones when I was bored or in the doldrums.
As Shell and I walk to the gym this morning, we start kicking a stone along the gravel road and it occurred to me there is a literal meaning to this melancholy.
It is Eid. An even longer weekend.
Eid al-Fitr. Festival of the feast.
It is tied in with Hajj, the annual pilgrimage to Mecca. It seems all about the number seven for some reason.
Sabea.
There is the seven minute walk between Safa and Marwa. Throwing seven stones into the well filled from the Wadi Ibrahim. And seven laps around the Hajj.
Sabea.
The water from the well is called ZamZam water and is believed to have magical healing qualities. I felt remarkably the same despite Grade 4 insisting the Prophet was healing me.
We do the groceries and head home to read.
It might come as a surprise, but Rachelle is not the author of Dead Man’s Walk. You get the impression she is because every time you tell her that it is not a great read, she takes it as a personal attack.
I will push on, as it seems to be getting better.
“recent experience had shown him that men had to use what hope they could muster, to stay alive.”
Larry McMurtry
Saturday
“Difficulties strengthen the mind as labor does the body.”
Seneca
Training first thing.
There is no drug like the post work out endorphins.
Well, there is… moving on.
Every now and again my phone reminds me of my past.
I was in the habit of taking pictures of myself post-workout. These reminders of what a decade of age does to a body are a little heartbreaking.
Time is impossible to fight.
“The past is never dead. It’s not even past.”
William Faulkner
I spend the day reading.
Dinner tonight with a friend.
It will be the first time we have had wine in over a month.
“today, suffering from drawn out hangover, the world ran dry. Bukowski died and one third of the world’s winemakers will go broke.”
Scott C. Holstad
Dinner is excellent. One of those people who make you feel relaxed and comfortable speaking your mind.
An interesting person, who has overcome adversity to lead an extraordinary life.
I made a bean salad which was OK. Shell cooked down berries and soaked some sweet biscuits in the liquor. She layered the biscuits and compote with yoghurt into jars.
Delicious.
Fish tacos with tonight’s wines –
NV Gazella Vinho Verde (Vinho Verde, Portugal)
See previous notes.
2020 La Cheteau Vouvray (Liore, France)
I am not really a fan of sweet white wine. I make an exception for Vouvray. This went well with the blue cheese we had before dinner. Made from Chenin Blanc, lemons and apples on the nose. Butterscotch palate. Very good.
2020 Albert Bichot Beaujolais Villages ‘Parcellaire’ (Beaujolais, France)
Always good fun. Strawberries and gentle tannins. I love these Beaujolais.
Sunday
“Walking causes a repetitive, spontaneous poetry to rise naturally to the lips, words as simple as the sound of footsteps on the road.”
Frédéric Gros
Most mornings the call to prayer wakes me before my alarm at 4.20 am.
I enjoyed the call to prayer and missed it in Cambodia.
“Indeed, it’s futile to try and use Holy Scripture to support any political position. I deeply distrust anyone who does. Just look at what an Islamic Republic is like.”
Christopher Hitchens
With Eid comes the Hajj and the call to prayer shifts from a song to a ritual chant that does not seem to end.
This morning I could do without the call to prayer.
Game day.
Pies get the win coming back from 54 points down. Under normal circumstances, this is a remarkable win. But not today. Surrendering a 50+ lead to the team coming last in the competition is nothing to brag about.
A rare night out for dinner tonight.
I am not really the dressing up type, but I do love it when Shell wears something nice.
We head into the Marina and Shell looks stunning.
One of the problems we are experiencing here is the cost of living somewhere nice. We live in an industrial estate because it is all we can afford. As we drive into the into the Dubai Marina, we see what money gets you.
“I shall never use profanity except in discussing house rent and taxes.”
Mark Twain
The cost of living here is high compared to Kuala Lumpur and Phnom Penh. We knew it was higher, but not as high as it is.
When you consider we are being paid less here than in Australia and rentals are more expensive than Sydney, Dubai is no longer the expat cash cow it was ten years ago.
Sushi for dinner with our good friends Wenche and Graeme.
Graeme recruited Shell for the position here and as we come to the end of the first year of our two year contract, the future and how we like Dubai is high on the order of business.
His disappointment is clear when we explain the financial aspect of our stay is limiting our experience.
We don’t state outright that we may not intend to extend our contracts, but he is reading between the lines.
“the rent is a little higher here
Charles Bukowski
but so far I’ve been able to
pay it
and that’s a miracle too
like still maybe being sane
while thinking of guns and sidewalks
and old ladies in libraries.”
The only thing better than sushi is all-you-can-eat sushi.
We walk along the Marina and realise there is a beautiful side to Dubai and we cannot afford it.
Monday
“The only reason why we ask other people how their weekend was is so we can tell them about our own weekend.”
Chuck Palahniuk
The long; long weekend for Eid.
We hit the gym and head out for a coffee.
The coffee shop is closed so we head to Al Jawareh for Arabic coffee instead.
It is already 40 degrees at 10.00 am so it will be another day inside reading.
Intuition Pumps was going so well. Chapter 24 saw the return of the computer discussion.
And on it droned for two chapters.
Don’t get me wrong, I admire the genius of Alan Turing and John von Neumann, but I am reading these books to understand human consciousness. While the relationship between computers and consciousness is the cornerstone of Dennett’s theory on consciousness, spare me the chapters on computer language and the evolution of software.
“Let’s start with simple addition. Suppose you wanted the register machine to add the contents of one register (let’s say, register 1) to the contents of another register (register 2). So, if register 1 has contents [3] and register 2 has contents [4], we want the program to end up with register 2 having contents [7] since 3 + 4 = 7. Here is a program that will do the job, written in a simple language we can call RAP, for Register Assembly Programing:
Daniel Dennett
program 1: ADD [1,2]”
The afternoon drifts into evening and I just can’t deal with this computer programming writing.
I finish Dead Man’s Walk. It was a slow burn, but the second half picked up and was very good reading. I will head straight into Comanche Moon.
It was always going to be difficult reading McMurtry after McCormac, with a similar genre yet very different prose.
“Death is no more than passing from one room into another. But there’s a difference for me, you know. Because in that other room I shall be able to see.”
Larry McMurtry
Tuesday
“Time exists in order that everything doesn’t happen all at once…and space exists so that it doesn’t all happen to you.”
Susan Sontag
I am excited to see McMurtry has dedicated Comanche Moon to Susan Sontag.
Sontag is one of my favourite authors. Her works, Against Interpretation and Illness as a Metaphor were two of the key books that started my journey into philosophy and ethics.
I consider Sontag one of the most insightful intellectuals of the last century.
McMurtry dedicating one of his books to her just makes me want to read his novels even more.
“So far as we feel sympathy, we feel we are not accomplices to what caused the suffering. Our sympathy proclaims our innocence as well as our impotence. To that extent, it can be (for all our good intentions) an impertinent- if not inappropriate- response. To set aside the sympathy we extend to others beset by war and murderous politics for a reflection on how our privileges are located on the same map as their suffering, and may- in ways we might prefer not to imagine- be linked to their suffering, as the wealth as some may imply the destitution of others, is a task for which the painful, stirring images supply only an initial spark.”
Susan Sontag
The Eid break was scheduled for an extra three days. At the last minute it was shortened to two.
Something about the moons. Honest;y, our capability in measuring moon phases has come a long way since the time of the Prophet, you would think the Mufti would get it right.
Gym and then home for more reading.
I have finished Intuition Pumps. A much better book than Consciousness Explained despite the chapters on computer language.
The dedication in Comanche Moon to Susan Sontag has me wanting to revisit her work instead of reading my last Dennett book, Darwin’s Dangerous Idea.
I will read Dennett and move on to Sontag next.
“Our fundamental tactic of self-protection, self-control, and self-definition is not spinning webs or building dams, but telling stories, and more particularly connecting and controlling the story we tell others – and ourselves – about who we are.”
Daniel Dennett
“Since cognition and control—and hence consciousness—is distributed around in the brain, no moment can count as the precise moment at which each conscious event happens.”
Daniel Dennett
And another day passes.
Work tomorrow.