Coffeeneuring for 2025?

Starts October 11th.  This fall is not quite so crazy as '22, '23, or '24 (so far) so this might actually happen here this year.  Or not.  Details at Chasing Mailboxes.  More, and commentary on the matter later.

Sentience, Self-Awareness, and All That

Last month I listened to Nicholas Humphrey's interview on the Jim Rutt Podcast, and it was a real eye-opener.  So much so that I ran out and got a copy of Humphrey's book Sentience, read it, then listened to the podcast episode again.

Initially what captured my interest was the phenomenon of blindsight, where someone has lost the conscious ability to see due to brain damage, yet retains some vestige of vision at an unconscious level.  Here's a short video clip of a test subject, sans visual cortex due to stroke or injury, successfully navigating down an obstacle-filled hallway.  After such tests subjects often insist that they simply walked down the hall, having no conscious memory of dodging around objects.

This and other similar observations have led Humphrey to surmise that humans along several other candidate species have the capacity for conscious sensation layered onto a more primitive unconscious perception.  This follows naturally into some ideas about the meaning of self, others, and what is commonly termed theory of mind.  I won't further belabor the ideas, but simply refer you to the above-linked podcast for a much better brief introduction.

BTW & because someone's gonna ask: LLMs, conscious or not?  No, none, not at all.  Barely touched on, not even under consideration here.

One rough patch in this material is the lack of a brief glossary.  Humphrey and Rutt bemoan in the podcast how most conferences on these topics spend the first half simply trying to define the terms they're using.   Rutt mentions that he's now on the board of the California Institute for Machine Consciousness; go dig around at that site, maybe you'll find something glossary-ish.  Or perhaps keep a notepad at hand while reading in order to assemble a DIY glossary.  When I get around to a re-read, I'll do just that.

Anyway, they're making good progress, getting much farther than the old Turing Test, Chinese Room scenario, and those sorts of things.  Interesting stuff.  I won't even begin to publicly speculate if or how this bears on numerous observer-centric problems in physics, such as the measurement problem.  However, I wouldn't be surprised if Humphrey's lines of research ultimately converge there as well.

Flat Tire Wednesday

Grr.  And on the new gravel bike too.  Just one of those little thorns that causes a slow leak.  You finish the ride, but overnight it leaks down and the next time you go to ride you get a flat surprise.

While patching I took a little time and installed an ancient set of Spinskins.  On the old gravel bike these reduced the flat rate from one every two weeks to one every decade or so.  (YMMV)  Too bad they're not made anymore.  However, looks like Panaracer is making something comparable, so if these poop out I'll pop for a set.

Or maybe just convert to tubeless.  Honestly for these little thorn-pricks, tubeless + sealant gives effortless protection on the mountain bike.  Damned mess though if you get a real slash.  Let's see how this goes.

BTW, wicked thorn.  Presta valve cap shown for reference, and those grid squares on the workbench are 1/2".

ps: Nah, my bike came with the cheaper wire-bead Knards.  Not tubeless ready.  Maybe next round of tires.

New Statue of Franklin for Franklin County

In the sheltered north-west nook between the main building and the massive front stairs on the Franklin County Court House (a definite consideration here in hurricane country), a new statue of Benjamin Franklin was dedicated today by Gov. Ron DeSantis.  Full Story at WOYS's blog, but similar statues of the Founding Fathers are being dedicated all over Florida in counties with corresponding names: yes, Franklin, and also Jefferson, Washington, Hamilton, Madison, and Monroe Counties as well.

Walking around the statue this evening, it's well done.  Seemingly life-size and more or less at ground level, it gives the impression of standing in front of the actual man.  Though I must say, I vastly prefer my picture (inset; click to embiggen) to the one at WOYS.  Click through and compare for yourself.

An Interesting Little Collection of Heinlein Short Stories

Last Friday over at viewfromtheporch, Tam posted a sexy pic of Sally Rand's 1938 Packard along with a link to a collection of Heinlein's short stories which has some peripheral connection to said car.  I clicked through and discovered – for the deep bargain price of $0.99 – eleven stories I'd already read and four that I hadn't!  Specifically, these are:

• Let There Be Light, about the invention of the Douglas-Martin sunscreens that figure so prominently in RAH's Future History series.  Glad to finally read it, but I can see why he omitted it from various short story collections throughout his later life.  Being his second story published, it's just not all that good.
• The Year of the Jackpot, another stinkeroo, as Heinlein termed his early fumbling works.  Still, it has some interesting ideas about what would happen if a mathematician devised a way to predict the future.  SHGT anyone?
• Project Nightmare, an early Cold War thriller about a hastily concocted team of psychics staving off nuclear blackmail – if they can just keep from falling asleep.
• Sky Lift, in which a pair of pilots give their all to deliver vital medical supplies – to Pluto.

I can vouch for the remainder of the stories.  Because they're better than the four listed, they've shown up in various other collections, most of which are on my living room shelf.  Click through to the above link and click through to Amazon for the complete list, or to buy, in which case Tam gets her affiliate cut.

Now about the publisher and illustrations, I'm not so sure.  Most of the stories seem to be from the late 30's to about 1950, so maybe the copyright has timed out?  Don't ask me, I'm not a lawyer.  The publisher and copyright are both from Ukraine, which is slightly suspect.  The illustrations are few, probably machine-generated, and don't really add much.  Maybe those are a copyright fig leaf?  Again, not a lawyer.  Will Heinlein or his spouse miss out on any royalty payments because of these (possible) shenanigans?  Pfft, they've been dead 37 and 23 years respectively, so that's not a concern.  I like to think that they'd just be glad to see some early works getting a little more airplay.  Let the dead sleep and the living read.  Onward.

Overall and despite those concerns, I'm glad to have finally read these, especially Let There Be Light.  The Douglas-Martin sunscreens are in so many of Heinlein's Future History stories that not having read this always felt like a big hole in my literary knowledge.  Turns out it wasn't, but for $0.99 the itch has been scratched.

Weirdness Gap Filled

Last spring I lamented about how the late night paranormal radio show Coast to Coast was difficult to receive here on the Forgotten Coast.  The three closest AM stations broadcasting it are 450, 590, and 800 miles away, making skywave reception doable but unreliable, and we fall into an unfortunate gap in the line-of-sight FM coverage.  Well good news, WSB Atlanta has now picked up C2C.  At a mere 290 miles distance, the reception is much better.  You can tell it's skywave propagation, but it never quite drops out.

Life – and judging by some of the guests, possibly the afterlife – just took a turn for the better.

From Nashville to Apalach

I see that Mark Wills will be on the Grand Ol Opry both tonight (Friday) and tomorrow.  You can listen on WSM 650 AM or figure it out for online.  I'm sure it'll be for just a couple of songs.  Then, he'll be the headliner at the Seafood Festival on Saturday Nov. 1st.  See y'all there.