Theo Todman's Web Page - Notes Pages
Status Reports
Status: Summary (2026 - September)
(Text as at 15/10/2026 21:53:17)
Rationale for this Report
- This is a summary report with links to my various on-going projects. Detailed progress is shown on the sub-reports.
- This summary report should highlight whether my focus has become unbalanced or otherwise inappropriate to the achievement of my major goals.
- As these reports are rather a pain to generate, I produce them quarterly, rather than monthly. I’ve also improved the automation and am reducing the amount of narrative comment.
Projects in Progress
- I have ten projects on which I would like to spend my time, which is too many. I currently split them into three groups.
- The first group relates to my primary (project) life-goals; the second relates to things I really want to address; the final group1 relates to those I’d like to look into if I get ahead on the other projects.
Primary Projects
- Personal Identity2: This is the subject that ought to grab most of my attention, as it is the topic of my yet-to-be-completed PhD Thesis3 (see also the Consolidated Version4). I need to achieve something in philosophy, as this is the only one of my endeavours that promises a professional outcome (in the sense of being one of more than merely personal interest).
- Web-tools5: This project is intended to assist with the prosecution of philosophical research. It is fundamentally an enabling project, though one I hope will have general metaphilosophical implications. The other projects are test cases of the method, as well as worthwhile studies in their own right.
- Philosophy of Religion6: On and off, this represents the main preoccupation of my adult life (work and family aside). Eventually, I intend to follow up in some detail interesting topics from the Philosophy of Religion module from the MA in Philosophy and Religion at Heythrop College, London University that I tasted at the end of 2010, though nothing much has happened in the last decade and a half!
Secondary Projects
- Music7: Improve my competence as an oboist. I have managed regular oboe-practice in my den for over a decade now though oboe lessons terminated with the onset of the pandemic. I have purchased an electronic piano – also installed in my den – so progress ought to be made on piano-playing, though there’s little time for it. Recently, I’ve taken up the Tenor Recorder, which is a more realistic prospect for competence.
- Bridge8: I still want to become an expert player but have recognised that this isn’t going to happen without it becoming my main priority, so I’m effectively just playing for fun.
- General Culture9: Engagement with cultural and political issues is an important part of life so it’s worth recording and reflecting on what I do in this regard and trying to connect it to my other concerns.
Other Projects
- Languages10: Gain at least a rudimentary understanding of 26 diverse modern languages – as well as sundry dead ones – for practical and philosophical purposes.
- Chess11: I returned to the chess scene in September 2018 (having not played since my school and Cambridge days) and played regularly for the Billericay first team in the Southend and North Essex Leagues until Covid put a stop to over-the-board games. My ultimate aim is to improve my standard of play so I can perform acceptably and actually enjoy the game, but I’m currently not even treading water, especially as there’s little over-the-board play to be had.
- Mathematics12: Revive / improve my mathematical competence with a view to the use of mathematics as a tool in my various other projects. Also – now that I’m 72 – it may be useful for keeping various bits of my brain functioning13.
- HiQ14: Enjoy and contribute to the intellectual society of ISPE and Mensa. Mostly in abeyance, though I re-joined ISPE15 in 2017 and have maintained my membership since then, but can spare no time to speak of for taking part.
- These projects are (approximately, in their respective groups) in order of decreasing priority, yet in practise the amount of effort expended on them has failed to respect this.
- I have ignored the various infrastructural elements of my life in these reports – in particular family life (including the grandchildren!), household management, walking the dog and such like.
- However, these “non-project” items – especially the dog16, and (mostly formerly) the house17 – tend to be time-consuming.
- This report and the sub-reports obtained by following the links immediately above show the current status. The report headings show the period the reports are for. Earlier reports can be found by following the links in the “Table of Previous Versions of this Note” further down this report, or in the sub-reports.
Actuals & Planning
- Actuals
- In 26Q3 I spent across my various projects 711.5 hours (3059.5 hours YTD) – where by "YTD" - Year to Date - I mean the academic year commencing in October 2025. "Actual versus plan" was 89.5%, (92.8% YTD).
- I worked hard during 26Q3, spending around 90% of my target hours (93% YTD), which were somewhat unrealistic, though somewhat reduced on account of a holiday in July. But for a couple of health issues – Double Vision and a suspected ‘Amyloid Event’, I’d have been mostly on schedule. I’ve documented these below18. However, as usual, time spent according to the plan across projects was not quite as planned.
- I’ve continued playing bridge online as well as F2F, so that was slightly under its budget. General Culture was 1/3 under budget – mainly because investigating housing developments near Coxes Farm came to little. I decided to give up on HiQ, Chess and Languages, but the other projects weren’t too far off budget.
- Work on getting my draft Thesis document into shape stalled somewhat – but I did put a much higher percentage of my time down to relevant items.
- The tables of actual versus plan are on separate pages, accessible below19:-
- For detailed breakdowns of time spent this year, by month and by study location, follow this link20.
- For a report by sub-project of time expended since my records began, follow this link21.
- For tables of Actual versus Plan, together with the high-level plan for the next quarter, see this page22.
Planning
I continue to proceed on a broad front and to allocate significant time to Bridge and Music, particularly to Bridge as so often in the past now Chess has been mothballed.
I’ve increased my average weekly total plan from 61 hours back to 65 hours. I expect to fall short, given Nat is over from Thailand for Christmas, and I don’t know how debilitating my cataract operation will be, but there are no other obvious impediments in the coming Quarter.
I’ve not yet been able to return the planned effort for my Thesis to 25 hours a week, which is what I’d schedule as a part-time PhD student23. It’s stuck at 16 hours / week. My aim in the coming quarter is to complete my research on the topic of arguments against animalism, investigate dualism and and to renew my focus on the works of Lynne Rudder Baker and Eric Olson.
I’ve reduced the time allocated to my regular Bridge-playing slightly to 20 hours / week. I play mostly with two regular partners (David P and Dave T) and do a fair amount of administration as Chairman & Secretary of Mayflower DBC. And am now a trustee of Mountnessing Village Hall, where we meet
I’ve increased the time allocation for my Web Tools project to 8 hours / week. There’s a lot of important work that needs doing fairly urgently, but it just doesn’t seem to get a look in.
I’ve decided to continue to try to play the Oboe properly, and improve my general musicianship, and have slightly increased my Music allowance for the coming quarter to 8 hours / week, which includes my administrative work in support of the Enigma Ensemble – increased by two new recruits and another ‘potential’ recruit – and attempts to engage with Aural work and learn the Piano and Tenor Recorder.
I’ve maintained the time allocated to Philosophy of Religion at 3 hours / week.
I’ve maintained the time allocated to Languages at 2 hours / week to continue improving my Classical Hebrew & Greek. A shame I can’t allocate more time to learning Thai as Nat and Fon visited us in September 2025; further study must await our visit to Thailand (if it ever happens).
My ‘General Culture’ project budget has been increased to 5 hours / week, mainly to accommodate time to be spent trying to investigate the latest ‘cracks’ but less so on predations of developers24 around Coxes Farm.
The other projects (Mathematics, Chess & HiQ) have been given a notional hour / week for the first Quarter of the new academic year, as is my usual policy.
“Fallow” time while walking Bertie is mostly taken up with reading philosophy.
So, the weekly plan (65 hours) for the next quarter is as below:-
- Priority 1: 27 hours
- Personal Identity: 16 hours.
- Web Tools: 8 hours.
- Philosophy of Religion: 3 hours.
- Priority 2: 33 hours
- Music: 8 hours.
- Bridge: 20 hours.
- General Culture: 5 hours.
- Priority 3: 5 hours
- Languages: 2 hours.
- Chess: 1 hour.
- Mathematics: 1 hour.
- HiQ: 1 hour.
Follow this link for a list of recently25 purchased books.
Detailed Interim Activities
- As these reports are now quarterly, at best, I include a link to a brief uncommented list26 of what I’ve been working on since the last report (ie. this one). It is generated automatically from my time-recording system.
- I also produce a fuller YTD List27, useful for getting a handle on what – if anything – has been happening to the minor projects.
- Their main utility (to me, at any rate) is as a quick jumping-off point for the various writings in progress or recently completed.
- The lists will, in general, be updated every few days.
Plans for the Near Future28
- Below is a sequence of long task-lists broken down by project.
- As a fairly recent innovation, I’ve decided to add a small subset of these as a ‘Top 10’ (or thereabouts) items that have been bugging me and ought to be completed in the coming Quarter. This list is not to include long-term on-going items, so doesn’t necessarily reflect the highest priorities; just things I want to get out of the way. The list is not to get longer and longer, nor are items to sit on it for Quarters on end. Unfortunately, things haven’t quite worked out thus far! I note that almost all of them relate to my Website.
- I also note here that there are rather too many tasks that – at least in principle – I set myself to perform EVERY DAY. Time accruing to them is mostly accounted for in my various projects, but they remain a considerable daily overhead which I’ve now restricted to 2.83 hours. The multiple ‘5 minute’ tasks represent averages reflecting the fact that it’s not really possible to address all these items ‘EVERY DAY’.
Detailed Plans by Project
- Daily Tasks
- Top 10
- Thesis
- Website
- Religion
- Music
- Bridge
- GeneralCulture
- Languages
- Chess
- Mathematics
- HiQ
Detailed Lists
- Daily Tasks (2.83 hours) / day
- Bertie: Walk x 2: 75 minutes
- Blood Pressure Monitoring: 5 minutes
- Bridge: Handle / PlayMyBoard: 15 minutes
- Chess: "Chess - Chess dot Com" - Daily puzzles or rapidplay game: 5 minutes
- Computer: Read "PC Pro - Computing in the Real World": 5 minutes
- Coxes Farm: Read "LPOC - Listed Heritage: The Listed Property Owners' Club Magazine": 5 minutes
- Music - Aural: "Earmaster - Ear Training & Sight-singing": 5 minutes
- Music - Oboe: Practice: 30 minutes
- Music - Piano: Practice ("Faber (Nancey) & Faber (Randall) - Faber Piano Adventures: Adult Piano Adventures All-in-One Lesson Book 1: Spiral Bound"): 5 minutes
- Music - Recorder: Practice: 5 minutes
- NT Greek: "Wenham (John) - The Elements of New Testament Greek" & "Wenham (John) - Key to the Elements of New Testament Greek": 5 minutes
- OT Hebrew: "Lambdin (Thomas) - Introduction to Biblical Hebrew" & "Williamson (H.G.M.) - Annotated Key to Lambdin's Introduction to Biblical Hebrew": 5 minutes
- Rowing Machine: 5 minutes
- Top 10 Items
- Complete documentation and redevelopment of my Backup29 routines
- Complete documentation of Photos Timeline Software30 (Timelines to be added to this list when this task completed)
- Complete documentation of Thesis Technology31
- Import all recently-acquired pdfs into my database, Notes reading-lists and Thesis Chapters
- Complete the redevelopment of the ‘Internal Links’ Spider32
- Rewrite External Links Spider
- Move password management to Bitwarden
- Complete updating London Review of Books33 Note
- Restart / catch up with Aeon34 Note
- Learn the Tenor Recorder
- Thesis35 (16 hours per week)
- Continue with my Thesis36; in particular
- Spend an hour a day updating the Thesis Document37 itself.
- Spend half an hour a day writing something original; namely, essays on:-
→ The difference between Forward and Backward Psychological Continuity38.
→ The persistence of Androids39.
- Continue filling out those sections of my Thesis that I can write something on without further research, using books / papers already analysed.
- Continually review the Note describing my Current Beliefs40 on the topic of Personal Identity.
- Regularly review and update of the Notes I’ve created on Personal Identity.
- Complete the outstanding actions in the Appendix to my Thesis:-
- Priority 1 (42 items)
- Animalism41: Complete full analysis of "Olson (Eric) - The Human Animal - Personal Identity Without Psychology".
- Animalism42: Complete full analysis of "Olson (Eric) - What are We? A Study of Personal Ontology".
- Arguments Against Animalism43: Apply "Olson (Eric), Etc. - Abstracta Special Issue on 'The Human Animal'" to Thesis Chapter 7
- Arguments Against Animalism44: Apply "Olson (Eric) - Human Atoms" to Thesis Chapter 7
- Arguments Against Animalism45: Apply to Thesis Chapter 7:-
→ "Hudson (Hud) - I am Not an Animal!", and
→ "Bailey (Andrew M.) - The Elimination Argument"
- Biological View46: Complete thorough review of "Wilson (Jack) - Biological Individuality - The identity and Persistence of Living Entities".
- BIV47: Where does Paul Snowdon claim that no-one thinks that a BIV is an animal?
- Brain State Transfer48: Apply "Lawrance (John) - Hosting Andrew" & respond to the author
- Cartesian Egos49: Find papers on.
- Chapter 250: Should the Notes on Consciousness51, Functionalism52, Supervenience53 and Zombies54be placed in Chapter 455?
- Constitution View - Objections56: Considerably beef up this Note (and Chapter 9). Start with "Baker (Lynne Rudder) - Replies to Zimmerman, Rea & Pereboom" and links.
- Constitution View57: Complete a thorough review of "Baker (Lynne Rudder) - Persons and Bodies: A Constitution View".
- Constitution View58: Draw up a list of supporters. Does this include Trenton Merricks?
- Constitution View59: Follow up on References in "Baker (Lynne Rudder) - Materialism with a Human Face".
- Constitution View60: Move this Note (and some subordinates) to the top of Chapter 7.
- Constitution61: Follow up the references in the Note.
- Degrees of Personhood62: What does Parfit mean by ‘persons of reduced degree’? How does this relate to my Note?
- Exdurantism63: Read and review "Sider (Ted) - Four-dimensionalism: An Ontology of Persistence and Time".
- General Surveys64: Re-read and review "Noonan (Harold) - Personal Identity".
- Human Persons65: Read and review "Hudson (Hud) - A Materialist Metaphysics of the Human Person".
- I66: Conduct Further research its meaning and usage.
- Kant67: Re-read & Review:-
→ "Longuenesse (Beatrice) - Kant on the identity of persons", and
→ "Cassam (Quassim) - Kant and Reductionism"
- Language of Thought68: Convert Note to 'Language' (with LOT as a subsection)
- Metaphilosophy69: Complete draft Note and include in Thesis structure (Subordinate to the Introduction in Chapter 1)
- Methuselah70: Write up the background of David Lewis’s TE and sort out the Note thereon.
- Ontology71: Read and review "Van Inwagen (Peter) - Material Beings".
- Parfit72: Read & Review:-
→ "Parfit (Derek) - We Are Not Human Beings", and
→ "Johansson (Jens) - Parfit on fission"
- Perdurantism73: Read and review "Heller (Mark) - The Ontology of Physical Objects: Four-Dimensional Hunks of Matter".
- Persistence74: Read and review "Hawley (Katherine) - How Things Persist".
- Resurrection75: Update Note in the light of "Todman (Theo) - Resurrection"
- Sorites76: Determine what is wrong with Peter Unger's Sorites arguments for Nihilism77.
- Soul Criterion78: Focus on how souls (are supposed to) help with the problem of personal identity, and what problems they encounter in the attempt.
- Souls79: Determine what proportion of contemporary philosophers believe in immaterial souls.
- Souls80: What are they supposed to be, in contemporary philosophical thought, and what problems does the concept encounter?
- Substance81: Read and review "Hoffman (Joshua) & Rosenkrantz (Gary) - Substance: Its Nature and Existence".
- Thinking Animal Argument82: Write an essay and divide it between Chapter 6 and Chapter 9.
- Thought Experiments83: Complete full analysis of "Wilkes (Kathleen) - Real People: Personal Identity Without Thought Experiments".
- Thought84: Complete draft Note and include in Thesis structure (Subordinate to Mind85 in Chapter 4)
- Time86: Read and review "Mellor (D.H.) - Real Time II".
- Wiggins87: Complete thorough review of "Wiggins (David) - Sameness and Substance Renewed".
- Wiggins88: Complete thorough review of "Ferner (Adam) - Metaphysics and biology: a critique of David Wiggins’ account of personal identity".
- Ensure all Note snippets have at least one primary source cited in the text - and then make sure I've read and commented on it!
- Priority 2 (25 items)
- Priority 3 (11 items)
- Continuity and Connectedness118 feature often early in this Thesis before being discussed in Chapter 5. Add some signposting.
- Descartes119: Supply worthwhile Snippet Text, or treat as out of scope.
- Hylomorphism120: Replace the long Wikipedia quotation with my own work! Also, follow up on the references relating Hylomorphism to the CV121.
- Leibniz122: Supply worthwhile Snippet Text, or treat as out of scope.
- Quantum Mechanics123: Read & apply:-
→ "Everett (Hugh) - 'On the Foundations of Quantum Mechanics,' short thesis as defended, 1957", and
→ "Everett (Hugh), Wheeler (John Archibald), Etc. - 'The Theory of the Universal Wave Function,' long thesis as published, 1973"
- Race124: Read and apply:-
→ "Lambrecht (Felix) - Reparative Justice for Historical Injustice",
→ "Wikipedia - Slavery in Africa",
→ "Nwaubani (Adaobi Tricia) - My Great-Grandfather, the Nigerian Slave-Trader", and
→ "Edwards (Dave) - The concept of race is a social construct".
- Replication125: This note is a mess. Follow up on amoebic division and get the science right.
- Supervenience126: Write something sensible!
- Aristotle: Create Note and include in Thesis structure (Subordinate to 'Other Philosophers of Note' in Chapter 1)
- Paradox: Create Note and include in Thesis structure (Subordinate to the Introduction in Chapter 1)
- Sexual Identity: Create Note and include in Thesis structure (Subordinate to Narrative Identity127)
- Priority 4 (11 items)
- Make progress on specific Chapters of my Thesis, using the tasks outlined in my Thesis Dashboard138, using the materials listed139 in the Chapters and underlying Notes.
- Read and comment on140 the following remaining PhD Theses relevant to my own Thesis:-
- "Baggini (Julian) - Psychological Reductionism About Persons: A Critical Development",
- "Eddebo (Johan) - Death and the Self: A Metaphysical Investigation of the Rationality of Afterlife Beliefs in the Contemporary Intellectual Climate",
- "Gendler (Tamar Szabo) - Imaginary Exceptions: On the Powers and Limits of Thought Experiment",
- "Keles (Serap) - Personal identity and persistence over time : the hybrid view with regard to hylomorphism",
- "Kotak (Aakash) - The Hybrid Theory of Personal Identity" (MPhil Thesis)
- "Lechthaler (Manuel) - Composition and Identities",
- "Lybaert (Fauve) - Personal Identity and the Formal Self",
- "Paez (Eze) - Abortion: What We Ought to Believe - An Ontological and Normative Analysis",
- "Parsons (Josh) - Theories of Persistence",
- "Rau (Philipp) - The Author, Not the Tale: Memory, Narrative, and the Self",
- "Skow (Bradford) - Once Upon a Spacetime",
- "Southgate (Susan Jane) - Personal Identity: The Simple View",
- "Trakas (Marina) - Personal Memories", and
- "Woods (Evan Thomas) - The Problems of the Many".
- Apply the issues raised by recently-read PhD Theses relevant to my own Thesis to my various Notes:-
- "Atkinson (Thomas) - Human organisms and the survival of death: a systematic evaluation of the possibility of life after death given animalism", see also the Section on Resurrection below
- "Hodson (Sommer) - A Hybrid View of Personal Identity",
- Follow up on Keith Augustine's comments on my review of "Hershenov (David) - Review of Nancey Murphy's 'Bodies and Souls, or Spirited Bodies?'".
- Teletransportation141 (Update Note using the following):-
- "Science Unbound - Teleporters: The Death Machines You Don't Want": Complete reading / reviewing relevant passages in these follow-up items
- "Hanley (Richard) - The Metaphysics of Star Trek"
- "Gribbin (John) - Schrodinger's Kittens and the Search for Reality"
- "Kaku (Michio) - Physics of the Impossible: A Scientific Exploration of the World of Phasers, Force Fields, Teleportation and Time Travel"
- "Krauss (Lawrence M.) - The Physics of Star Trek"
- "Penrose (Roger) - The Emperor's New Mind"
- "YouTube - Video - The Trouble with Transporters"
- AI142
- "Birch (Jonathan) - The Edge of Sentience: Risk and Precaution in Humans, Other Animals, and AI",
- "FT, ChatGPT - Five Books - The Best Books on Artificial Intelligence",
- "Google DeepMind - The Thinking Game: The inside story of the AI breakthrough that won a Nobel Prize",
- "Korhonen (Anna), Woodward (Sarah) - This idea must die: 'AI will outsmart the human race'",
- "McBain (Sophie) - Are we living in a golden age of stupidity?",
- "Milliere (Raphael) & Buckner (Cameron) - The Philosophy of Language Models",
- "Peckham (Jeremy) - Masters or Slaves?: AI And The Future Of Humanity",
- "Peckham (Jeremy) - AI, humanity and Christian ministry",
- "Peckham (Jeremy) - Living virtuously with AI chatbots",
- "Rawlinson (Nik) - ChatGPT vs The Rest",
- "Uria-Recio (Pedro) - How AI Will Shape Our Future",
- "Wikipedia - Large language model",
- "Wooldridge (Michael John) - This is not the AI we were promised"
- Resurrection143
- "Atkinson (Thomas) - Human organisms and the survival of death: a systematic evaluation of the possibility of life after death given animalism", a PhD Thesis noted above
- "Ayers (Michael R.) - Locke's Theory of Personal Identity",
- "Ayers (Michael R.) - Personal Identity Before the Essay",
- "Craig (William Lane) - Review of N.T.Wright - The Resurrection of the Son of God",
- "Cullmann (Oscar) - Immortality of the Soul or Resurrection of the Dead?",
- "Forstrom (K. Joanna S.) - John Locke and Personal Identity: Immortality and Bodily Resurrection in 17th-Century Philosophy",
- "Gasser (Georg), Ed. - Personal Identity and Resurrection: How Do We Survive Our Death?",
- "Graves (Shawn), Hereth (Blake) & John (Tyler M.) - In Defense of Animal Universalism",
- "Johnson (Mark) - Researchers have developed a model to explain the science of near-death experiences. Others have challenged it": Annotate
- "Locke (John) - Of Identity and Diversity",
- "Loose (Jonathan) - Constitution and the Falling Elevator: The Continuing Incompatibility of Materialism and Resurrection Belief",
- "Loose (Jonathan) - Materialism Most Miserable The Prospects for Dualist and Physicalist Accounts of Resurrection",
- "Marston (Paul) - After Death: The Intermediate State"
- "Marston (Paul) - Can Dead Believers Interact with the Living?"
- "Marston (Paul) - Death and ‘Hell’: What the New Testament Does and Does Not Teach",
- "Marston (Paul) - Hellfire and Destruction: What Does the Bible Really Say about Hell?",
- "Mavrodes (George I.) - The Life Everlasting and the Bodily Criterion of Identity",
- "Mooney (Justin) - The possibility of resurrection by reassembly",
- "O'Connor (Timothy) & Jacobs (Jonathan D.) - Emergent individuals and the resurrection",
- "O'Donnell (Patrick S.) - Death & Dying: A Select bibliography",
→ Also "O'Donnell (Patrick S.) - Human Nature, Personhood, and Personal Identity: A Select bibliography",
- "Olson (Eric) - Immanent Causation and Life After Death",
- "Olson (Eric) - Life After Death and the Devastation of the Grave",
- "Quinn (Philip L.) - Personal Identity, Bodily Continuity and Resurrection",
- "Quinn (Philip L.) - Some Problems about Resurrection",
- "Ramakrishnan (Venki) - Why We Die: The New Science of Ageing and Longevity",
- "Stevenson (Ian) - Children Who Remember Previous Lives: A Question of Reincarnation",
- "Thompson (Evan) - Dying: What Happens When We Die?",
- "Thompson (Jon W.) - Individuation, Identity, and Resurrection in Thomas Jackson and John Locke",
- "Thompson (Jon W.) - Personal Identity and Resurrection: Early Modern Philosophical Perspectives",
- "Van Inwagen (Peter) - The Possibility of Resurrection",
- "Zeleznikow-Johnston (Ariel) - The Future Loves You: How and Why We Should Abolish Death",
- "Wright (N.T.) - Mind, Spirit, Soul and Body: All for One and One for All - Reflections on Paul’s Anthropology in his Complex Contexts": Annotate
- "Wright (N.T.) - The Resurrection of the Son of God", Read relevant chapters, ie:-
→ "Wright (N.T.) - Shadows, Souls and Where They Go: Life Beyond Death in Ancient Paganism"
→ "Wright (N.T.) - Time to Wake Up (1): Death and Beyond in the Old Testament"
→ "Wright (N.T.) - Time to Wake Up (2): Hope Beyond Death in Post-Biblical Judaism"
→ "Wright (N.T.) - Resurrection in Paul (Outside the Corinthian Correspondence)"
→ "Wright (N.T.) - Resurrection in Corinth (1): Introduction"
→ "Wright (N.T.) - Resurrection in Corinth (2): The Key Passages"
- "Zimmerman (Dean) - Bodily Resurrection: The Falling Elevator Model Revisited"
- "Zimmerman (Dean) - The Compatibility of Materialism and Survival: The “Falling Elevator” Model",
- Dualism144
- "Swinburne (Richard) - Are We Bodies or Souls?": Read / comment
- "Loose (Jonathan), Menuge (Angus) & Moreland (J.P.) - The Blackwell Companion to Substance Dualism": Read, focusing on
→ "Loose (Jonathan), Menuge (Angus) & Moreland (J.P.) - Substance Dualism and Its Physicalist Rivals"
→ Review Abstracts of other papers
- Update Note.
- Complete analysing the following papers145:-
- "Cofnas (Nathan) - Research on group differences in intelligence: A defense of free inquiry",
- "Corabi (Joseph) & Schneider (Susan) - The Metaphysics of Uploading",
- "Evin (Allowen), Etc - The emergence and diversification of dog morphology",
- "FT, Baggini (Julian), Warburton (Nigel) - Five Books - The Best Books on How To Think (Like a Philosopher)",
- "FT, Coyne (Jerry A.) - Five Books - The Best Books on Evolution",
- "FT, Dennett (Daniel) & Warburton (Nigel) - Five Favorite Books",
- "Frary (Mark) - Beyond Repair",
- "Galton (Francis) - Visualised Numerals",
- "Giusti (Elena) & Derbew (Sarah) - Decolonizing Blackness, alongside the Classics Curriculum: A conversation with Dr Sarah Derbew",
- "Gradesaver - The Satanic Verses by Salman Rushdie: Study Guide - Introduction", Etc.
- "Harari (Yuval Noah) - Disruption, Democracy & the Global Order" (update in the light of YouTube video and CSER summary),
- "Hume (David) - Treatise I.IV.VI: Of Personal Identity",
- "Jones (Thomas), LRB - Lords of the World",
- "Kobie (Nicole) - Neuralink: an old idea that could be the future of medicine",
- "Middleton (Anna), Welford (Megan) - The Ethics of Genomics"
- "Moreno Figueroa (Monica), Jolin (Lucy) - A world without oppression to you",
- "Mulhall (Stephen), LRB - Non-Identity Crisis",
- "Olson (Eric) - The Central Dogma Of Transhumanism",
- "Paris (J.J.) & Elias-Jones (A.C.) - Do we murder Mary to save Jodie?",
- "Putnam (Hilary) - Brains in a Vat",
- "Stenger (Victor J.), Lindsay (James A.) & Boghossian (Paul) - Physicists Are Philosophers, Too",
- "Van Inwagen (Peter) - Materialism and the Psychological-continuity Account of Personal Identity",
- "Velleman (David) - Beyond Price",
- "Walker (Robert) - Mary And Jodie – The Case Of The Conjoined Twins",
- "Watkin (Christopher) - Christianity and critical race theory",
- "Zangwill (Nick) - Our Moral Duty to Eat Meat"
- Consciousness146
- "JCS - Journal of Consciousness Studies (Consolidated List)":
- This is a large project – I need to sort out all the volumes associated with author JCS. Some I have in hard copy. Others were once on-line for free, but now seem to have disappeared. Some I claim to have downloaded.
- For volumes I have in either hard copy or electronic form I need to 'burst' them into their constituent papers (at the least for the usual suspects).
- Ingenta seems to have the latest issue of JCS for free download: Ingenta - JCS.
- Imprint Academic - Journal of Consciousness Studies says its archive is available on Ingenta and is free for current subscribers. So, If I wanted to go ahead with this, it might be best to subscribe for a year (£102; £122 including print [not worth it]); but only if I can spare the time to address the archive!
- Aeon147: Read & annotate papers as they arise, especially ...
- "Chittka (Lars) & Wilson (Catherine) - Bee-brained": Write-up
- "Frankish (Keith) - The Consciousness Illusion": Write-up
- "Frohlich (Joel) - Frames of consciousness": Write-up
- "Parks (Tim) & Manzotti (Riccardo) - You are the world": Write-up
- "Pigliucci (Massimo) - Consciousness is real": Write-up
- "Seth (Anil Kumar) - How we build perception from the inside out": Write-up
- "Seth (Anil Kumar) - The real problem": Write-up
- Panpsychism:-
- Set up Note on Panpsychism (as above)
- "BBC, Bragg (Melvyn) - In Our Time - Panpsychism": Review / revise.
- "Goff (Philip) - A Change of Heart on Fine-Tuning": Re-read & comment
- "Goff (Philip) - Galileo's Error: Foundations for a New Science of Consciousness": Book. Read.
- "Goff (Philip) - Is the Universe a conscious mind?": Re-read & comment
- "Goff (Philip) - Panpsychism is crazy, but it’s also most probably true": Re-read & comment
- "Goff (Philip) - Purposeful universe": Re-read & comment
- "Goff (Philip) - Why? The Purpose of the Universe": Book. Read.
- "JCS - Journal of Consciousness Studies, Volume 13, Issue 10-11 (2006)": Book. Read.
- Action the following Books and Papers:-
- "Bonhomme (Vincent), Etc. - General Anesthesia: A Probe to Explore Consciousness": Read & write-up
- "Crane (Tim) - Elements of Mind - An Introduction to the Philosophy of Mind": Re-read and review notes.
- "Dehaene (Stanislas) - Consciousness and the Brain: Deciphering How the Brain Codes Our Thoughts": Read.
- "Dennett (Daniel) - Illusionism as the Obvious Default Theory of Consciousness": Read.
- "Donald (Merlin) - A Mind So Rare: The Evolution of Human Consciousness": Read.
- "Eliot (Lise) - What's Going On in There?: How the Brain And Mind Develop in the First Five Years of Life": Read.
- "Kammerer (Francois) - The Hardest Aspect of the Illusion Problem - and How to Solve it": Read.
- "Koch (Christof) - The Quest for Consciousness: A Nurobiological Approach": Read.
- "Metzinger (Thomas), Ed. - Conscious Experience": Burst out Papers and add Metzinger's Abstracts
- "Seth (Anil Kumar) - Being You: A New Science of Consciousness": Read.
- "Shapiro (Lawrence) - The Mind Incarnate": Read.
- "Strawson (Galen) - The Consciousness Deniers": Read & write-up
- "Tegmark (Max) - Life 3.0: Being Human in the Age of Artificial Intelligence": Write up Chapter 8: Consciousness
- "Veit (Walter) - A Philosophy for the Science of Animal Consciousness": Read.
- Ensure the annotations from recently-read Papers are added to the relevant Notes:-
- "Ayers (Michael R.) - Locke on Living Things"
- "Baker (Lynne Rudder) - Materialism with a Human Face"
- "Baker (Lynne Rudder) - Review of 'What Are We? A Study in Personal Ontology' by Eric T. Olson"
- As background tasks:-
- Ensure all items in:-
- "Various - Papers on Desktop", and
- "Various - Papers in Desk Drawer"
are either addressed or re-filed.
- Maintain "Various - Papers & Books Yet To Be Logged", and log papers therein if they become important.
- Convert old PDFs to Notes:-
- Review the two reports:-
- PDF-précis,
- PDF-essays148.
- Determine how the first is produced, and why the pdfs aren't highlighted, and compare with Write-ups Notes Jump Table
- Convert outstanding Essays & Précises.
- Complete cataloguing the books downloaded from Springer,
- Read and comment on149 the Short Stories in "Somerset Maugham (W.) - Collected Short Stories: Volume 2".
- Continue / complete reading / annotating various books150 that have landed in my in-tray:-
- "Ball (Philip) - How Life Works: A User’s Guide to the New Biology",
- "Barash (David P.) - Through a Glass Brightly: Using Science to See Our Species as We Really Are",
- "Berns (Gregory) - What It's Like to Be a Dog: And Other Adventures in Animal Neuroscience",
- "Biggar (Nigel) - Colonialism: A Moral Reckoning",
- "Biggar (Nigel) - Reparations: Slavery and the Tyranny of Imaginary Guilt",
- "Blatti (Stephan) & Snowdon (Paul), Eds. - Animalism: New Essays on Persons, Animals, and Identity",
- "Bliss (Rina) - What's Real about Race? Untangling Science, Genetics, and Society",
- "Bostrom (Nick) - Superintelligence: Paths, Dangers, Strategies",
- "Bradley (Ben), Feldman (Fred) & Johansson (Jens) - The Oxford Handbook of Philosophy of Death",
- "Clark (Andy) - The Experience Machine: How Our Minds Predict and Shape Reality",
- "Daeva (Elisha) - Before War: On Marriage, Hierarchy, and Our Matriarchal Origins",
- "Dennett (Daniel) - Intuition Pumps and Other Tools for Thinking",
- "Dennett (Daniel) - I've Been Thinking",
- "Edmonds (David) - Would You Kill the Fat Man? The Trolley Problem and What Your Answer Tells Us about Right and Wrong",
- "Erber (Joan T.) & Szuchman (Lenore T.) - Great Myths of Aging",
- "Green (Joel B.) - Body, Soul, and Human Life: The Nature of Humanity in the Bible",
- "Harari (Yuval Noah) - Nexus",
- "Hofstadter (Douglas) & Dennett (Daniel), Eds. - The Mind's I - Fantasies and Reflections on Self and Soul",
- "Kagan (Shelly) - How to Count Animals, more or less",
- "Korsgaard (Christine) - Fellow Creatures: Our Obligations to the Other Animals",
- "Levitin (Daniel) - The Changing Mind: A Neuroscientist's Guide to Ageing Well",
- "Loke (Andrew Ter Ern) - The Origin of Humanity and Evolution: Science and Scripture in Conversation",
- "Lyons (Siobhan) - Death and the Machine: Intersections of Mortality and Robotics",
- "Martin (L. Michael) & Augustine (Keith) - The Myth of an Afterlife: The Case against Life After Death",
- "Miller (Kristie) - Issues in Theoretical Diversity: Persistence, Composition, and Time",
- "Price (Huw) - Time's Arrow and Archimedes' Point: New Directions for the Physics of Time",
- "Ricard (Matthieu) - A Plea for the Animals: The Moral, Philosophical, and Evolutionary Imperative to Treat All Beings with Compassion",
- "Ritchie (George G.), Sherrill (Elizabeth) - Return from Tomorrow", also
→ "Ritchie (George G.) - Ordered to Return: My Life After Dying",
→ Reply to Faith Darch
- "Rowlands (Mark) - The Philosopher and the Wolf",
- "Sapolsky (Robert) - Determined: The Science of Life Without Free Will",
- "Schechtman (Marya) - Staying Alive: Personal Identity, Practical Concerns, and the Unity of a Life",
- "Schneider (Susan) - Artificial You",
- "Seung (Sebastian) - Connectome: How the Brain's Wiring Makes Us Who We Are",
- "Shermer (Michael), Gould (Stephen Jay) - Why People Believe Weird Things: Pseudoscience, Superstition, and Other Confusions of Our Time",
- "Spinney (Laura) - Proto: A New History of Our Ancient Past",
- "Walker (Matthew P.) - Why We Sleep: The New Science of Sleep and Dreams",
- "Wasserman (Ryan) - The Paradoxes of Time Travel",
- "Wyatt (John) - Matters of Life and Death"
- Continue reading and reviewing papers issued by Aeon151 (and the occasional spin-off). In particular,
- Complete write-ups152 for 206 items: Follow this Link153.
- Add new items to the database as and when I have time to read and comment thereon, maintaining a 'top ten' Priority 1 items.
- Keep up with the Journals I have access to as a Cambridge Alumnus via via JSTOR, Cambridge Core & Project Muse. Update my Journals Note154.
- Listen to Royal Institute of Philoophy podcasts - usually while doing some tedious task. Update my RIP Note155 to show what I've audited, and add footnotes when I get the time.
- Keep up with the philosophical world by regular reviews of "Interaction - Philos-List", but only seriously pursue156 items relevant to my research.
- London Review of Books:-
→ Update my LRB157 Note to reflect the fact that I've downloaded all relevant items up to the end of 2024.
→ Develop a method of importing them into my database.
- Website158 (8 hours per week)
- Own Website: Priority 1 Items By Category:-
- Architecture
- Complete XRef-re-engineering project:-
- Ensure all links and link-pages use the new XRef table, and pension off the old tables where appropriate.
- Check all link-types still work and fix any errors.
- Complete the auto-triggering of regeneration of “associated” link pages.
- Fix Bug whereby PaperSummary pages seem to have “Works-” and “Books/Papers-” Citings that refer to the same link-pages.
- Complete Documenting159 the process!
- Authors
- Creep-check for duplicate authors & fix
- Backups
- Determine why flag on directories "not to be backed up" gets reset
- Document and enable regular running of the de-duplication function ('pruning') of the backup disk. Keep a full record of deleted duplicates.
- Enable Backups to be undertaken on both my PC & Laptop and write reconciliation software.
- Incorporate new 5Tb WD Backup Drive into backup system.
- Investigate historic error messages
- Investigate Record-count discrepancies:-
- How do website files work as far as counts are concerned?
- Why aren't they recorded in Backup_History, nor the fact that the website was backed up?
- Different counts depending on whether new or old laptop is backed up. Investigate 63k discrepancy - lower on new laptop.
- Review architecture to improve performance; Need to document160 first
- Sort out the contents of my C:Drives, OneDrive and Emails as documented in my Backup Documentation
- Books/Papers
- For Books and Papers - add link pages - analogous to:-
→ BooksToNotes_
→ BookCitings_
→ PapersToNotes_
→ PaperCitings_
linked to from:-
→ BookSummaries_
→ PaperSummary_
and (maybe) from:-
→ BookPaperAbstracts_
→ Abstract_
But, the links are FROM the Book / Paper, rather than TO
For Books, ensure that all the links from all the Book's Papers are also included
- Import pdfs downloaded from "LRB - London Review of Books" into databases (& update LRB_Files table).
- Sub-Topic ID has reached 996: What happens after 999? Research and Fix
- Documentation
- Website Generator Documentation - Audio161: Review & Complete Documentation
- Website Generator Documentation - Author Narratives162: Complete Documentation
- Website Generator Documentation - Backups163: Complete Documentation
- Website Generator Documentation - Citations164: Complete Documentation
- Website Generator Documentation - Code Documenter165: Complete Documentation
- Website Generator Documentation - Create Notes Web Pages166: Complete Documentation
- Website Generator Documentation - Cross-Referencing167: Complete Documentation
- Website Generator Documentation - Functional Overview168: Review & Complete Documentation
- Website Generator Documentation - Language / Ling Pages169: Complete Documentation
- Website Generator Documentation - Links & Link-Pages170: Complete Documentation
- Website Generator Documentation - Monthly Reporting171: Complete Documentation
- Website Generator Documentation - New Items172: Complete Documentation
- Website Generator Documentation - Note References & Reading List173: Complete Documentation
- Website Generator Documentation - PID Note, Book & Paper Usage174: Complete Documentation
- Website Generator Documentation - Precis Export175: Complete Documentation
- Website Generator Documentation - Prune Website176: Complete Documentation
- Website Generator Documentation - Spider177: Complete Documentation
- Website Generator Documentation - Thesis Dashboard178: Complete Documentation
- Website Generator Documentation - Thesis Technology179: Complete Documentation
- Website Generator Documentation - Time Recording180: Complete Documentation
- Website Generator Documentation - Timelines (Photos & Blog)181: Complete Documentation
- Education
- Read "PC Pro - Computing in the Real World".
- Read "White (Ron) & Downs (Timothy Edward) - How Computers Work: The Evolution of Technology".
- Infrastructure
- Migrate from Chrome to Bitwarden for password management
- Notes
- Allow the option to embed blocks of re-usable text in Notes (ie. linearly embed them essay-style) rather than using hyperlinking. Slightly analogous to Note_Snippets or Sub_Notes, but more flexible.
- For use as "disclaimers".
- The identical block of text in the Dashboard182 to that in the Note Thesis - Method & Form183 that describes the Thesis.
- For Thesis / essays: the difficulty here is the need for linking passages to make the text run smoothly.
- As a more controllable alternative to 'Printable Notes'.
- Correct processing for 'References & Reading List' section in Thesis - References184. There are over 7,000 but only 7 items appear!
- Determine why all my Status Reports from September 2021 are missing from Notes_Archive. Seek to recover them from backups.
- Develop method for (manually) deleting otiose Archived Notes: ie. ensure links work for remaining Notes!
- Enhance PID Note, Book & Paper Usage185 to include a section listing works cited in my Thesis but not read
- Investigate Note_Links: Section references seem to be incorrect
- Notes_Links: Segment & Provide Jump Table (Eg. For Thought186)
- PID Thesis References - De-duplicate / suppress and / or change sort order / aggregation for non-anthology book chapters
- Temp_Note_Timestamp column in Notes table not working: introduced to correct Active Note Groups with Notes Updated in the last 7, 14, 28 days (JumpTableTitles_Recent_Control). Should be x 1,000?
- Update Personal Page187 & Home Page
- Upgrade Auto_Reference_Notes to reference Sub-Notes: Used to only affect one note - Somerset Maugham - but now may be urgent
- When using the '#' reference to Notes, allow the omission of the Note ID for links within the same Note.
- Papers
- Split PDFs Available on Local Website188 page into alphabetical sub-pages
- Photos
- Timeline software189: Generalise processing and add photos for Henry's Biography
- Process
- Determine why Recalculation & Changed Book/Papers produce unneeded regeneration.
- Spider
- Investigate reduction in size of Web_Generator_Performance database that holds Raw_Links.
- Suppress MsgBox for 'Near to 2Gb' database size check (just use Debug).
- One-off deletion of rather useless links: EMail, TheosStyle.css, TT_ICO.png, #Top, ...
- Remove code that generates these links, and check them.
- Investigate removal of website 'root' (C:\Theo's Files\Websites\Theo's Website\) from Raw_Link and Full_Link. This would save 200Mb, but needs careful checking - especially against the Directory_Structure and related tables and code.
- If the above 'root' change is to go ahead - one-off updates + code changes required.
- Use Edge rather than Internet Explorer for External Links Spider (use Bing AI)
- Status
- Status: General Culture190 for March 2025 has 29 hours assigned to "FT - Five Books - Various Subjects not covered elsewhere" rather than just 0.75 hours with the bulk to "BBC - Miscellaneous iPlayer and Podcasts". Also in Status: Summary Task List191 and Status: Summary Task List - YTD192.
- Reorganise Status Reporting:-
- Merge Consciousness Project193 with Thesis194 (as a sub-project).
→ Merge historic plan & actuals
→ Adjust current Thesis plan, actuals & task list.
- Create a new Project: Culture & Politics
→ Move 'Thesis background reading / writing and 'Aeon' to this new project.
→ Create project plan and move historic actuals to it.
→ Adjust 'Thesis' historic actuals and task list: move relevant items to new project.
- Make sure the Status reports - both manual and automatic - still work
- WebRefs
- Create a page showing the use of WebRefs more clearly. The pages accessed via Theo Todman's Web-Links Test Webpages are of little use other than as an audit. Also, there are many broken links not picked up by the Spider. Need pages that use meaningful names.
- Documentation & Bug-fixes: Phase 2
- Re-document the procedures in the light of recent changes.
- Resolve issues generated / revealed by the spider.
- Investigate - and fix where possible - broken links.
- Find a way of recording Missing / Unknown Webrefs (eg. Webrefs 8395 and 8342 in Archived Notes 1292 and 1317) other than debug.print: create table, then suppress message for known problems
- Investigate items flagged as defunct. Populate Defunct_Explanation in WebRefs_Table. Consider use of FairUse (Link (Fair Use)) for documents no longer available that I'd downloaded.
- Investigate WebRefs with Issue = 'URL Translated OK': does the translation really work? How?
- Visitor Stats - cmdVisitorStats_Click (and following) - loops and requires 'DAO.DBEngine.SetOption dbmaxlocksperfile,1000000' to be typed in the Immediate window. Re-engineer.
- Other Websites: Priority 1 Items By Category:-
- Religion195 (3 hours per week)
- Philosophy of Religion:
- "Antony (Louise M.) - Philosophers without Gods: Meditations on Atheism and the Secular Life": Continue reading,
- "Davis (Stephen T.) - The Mad/Bad/God Trilemma: A Reply to Daniel Howard-Snyder": Annotate,
- "Ginn (Roy) - According to the Scriptures": Complete write-up
- "Groothuis (Douglas) - Review of N.T.Wright - History and Escatology: Jesus and the Promise of Natural Theology": Read,
- "Howard-Snyder (Daniel) - Does Faith Entail Belief": Read,
- "Howard-Snyder (Daniel) - The Skeptical Christian": Read,
- "Howard-Snyder (Daniel) - Was Jesus Mad, Bad, Or God?…Or Merely Mistaken?": Annotate,
- "Hume (David) - Of Miracles": Annotate,
- "Insole (Christopher J.) - Realism and Anti-Realism": Read,
- "Kandiah (Krish) - Faitheism: Why Christians and Atheists have more in common than you think": Read,
- "YouTube - Video - Atheists deny reality": Annotate,
- "YouTube - Video - 'It’s impossible for atheists to do this!' …but It’s Not": Annotate.
- Science & the Bible:
- "Barbour (Ian) - When Science Meets Religion: Enemies, Strangers, or Partners?",
- "Instone-Brewer (David) - Science and the Bible: Modern Insights for an Ancient Text",
- "Loke (Andrew Ter Ern) - The Origin of Humanity and Evolution: Science and Scripture in Conversation",
- "Plantinga (Alvin) & Dennett (Daniel) - Science and Religion: Are They Compatible?",
- "Polkinghorne (John) - Encountering Scripture: A Scientist Explores The Bible",
- "Polkinghorne (John) - Science and Religion in Quest of Truth",
- "Spencer (Nick) - Darwin and God"
- Middle East:
- "Chapman (Colin) - The Israel-Hamas war and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict",
- "Chapman (Colin) - Whose Promised Land? The Continuing Conflict over Israel and Palestine",
- "Grossman (David), Schoffman (Stuart) - Lion's Honey: The Myth of Samson",
- "Naziri (Micah Ben David) - Arabs Called 1927 Al-Aqsa Mosque Collapse God's Punishment": Read
- "Stackhouse (Ian) - Beyond Christian Zionism: A Travelogue of a Former Idealogue": Read
- Hell:
- "Fudge (Edward William) - The Fire That Consumes: A Biblical and Historical Study of the Doctrine of Final Punishment"
- "Hilborn (David) - The Nature of Hell"
- Bible Reading:
- "Bibleworks - Bibleworks: OT & NT", and
- "Lanier (Gregory R.) & Ros (William A.) - Septuaginta: A Reader's Edition - Volume 1".
- Qur'an / Islam:
- "Asad ( Muhammad), Qur'an - The Message of the Quran: The Full Account of the Revealed Arabic Text Accompanied by Parallel Transliteration",
- "Burton (John), Qur'an - The Collection of the Qur'an".
- "Jones (Alan), Qur'an - Arabic Through the Qur'an", Note196
- "Omar (Abdul Mannan), Qur'an - The Dictionary of the Holy Quran: Arabic Words - English Meanings",
- "Qur'an - Easy Quran: Arabic Text With Word For Word English Translation",
- "Wansbrough (John), Rippin (Andrew), Qur'an - Quranic Studies: Sources and Methods of Scriptural Interpretation".
- Hinduism:
- "Flood (Gavin D.) - An Introduction to Hinduism",
- "Mascaro (Juan) - Bhagavad Gita",
- "Narayanan (Vasudha) - Understanding Hinduism: Origins, Beliefs, Practices, Holy Texts, Sacred Places", and
- "Parrinder (Geoffrey) - Upanishads Gita and Bible: A comparitive study of Hindu and Christian Scriptures"
- Background:
- Aeon: Read & annotate papers as they arise
- "Dolganov (Anna), Cotton (Hannah M.), Etc. - Forgery and Fiscal Fraud in Iudaea and Arabia on the Eve of the Bar Kokhba Revolt": Read
- "Ferguson (Matthew) - March to Martyrdom! (Down the Yellow Brick Road…)": Read
- "Finkelstein (Israel) & Silberman (Neil Asher) - The Bible Unearthed": Continue reading
- "Hick (John) - The Myth of God Incarnate": Read
- "Hick (John) - The Metaphor of God Incarnate": Read
- "Instone-Brewer (David) - Church Doctrine and the Bible: Theology in Ancient Context": Read
- "Instone-Brewer (David) - Techniques and Assumptions in Jewish Exegesis before 70 CE": Read
- "Longenecker (Richard) - Biblical Exegesis in the Apostolic Period": Read
- "McGrath (Alister) - Justification by Faith": Read
- "Moyise (Steve) - Was the Birth of Jesus According to Scripture?": Read
- "Schmidt (Thomas C.) - Josephus and Jesus: New Evidence for the One Called Christ": Read
- "Taylor (Joan E.) - Jesus and Brian: Exploring the Historical Jesus and His Times Via Monty Python's Life of Brian": Review KCL Conference videos
- "Wright (N.T.) - Jesus’ Self-Understanding"
- "Wright (N.T.) - Revelation for Everyone"
- "Wright (N.T.) - The Vision of Ephesians: The Task of the Church and the Glory of God"
- "Wright (N.T.) & Borg (Marcus J.) - The Meaning of Jesus"
- Incorporate downloaded David Instone-Brewer papers into my database.
- Music197 (8 hours per week)
- Administration
- Organise the Enigma Ensemble: dates, music & finances.
- MuseScore: Investigate MuseScore Scores database - Use to provide more music for the Enigma Ensemble:-
- Handel - O Ruddier than the cherry
- Purcell - Chacony in g minor
- Purcell - Dido’s Lament
- Oboe:-
- Practice the oboe for one 30-minute session each and every day198 – focussing on the items below and …
- Occasionally add an extra half-hour session to help build up stamina further.
- Read "Gebrian (Molly) - Learn Faster, Perform Better: A Musician's Guide to the Neuroscience".
- Enigma Ensemble: attend the fortnightly sessions and practice any difficult pieces.
- Continue to try to get a grip on the oboe's high notes, especially above high D. Use:-
→ YouTube: Oboe Files - How to play high notes; 2nd/3rd octave with Fingerings!, and
→ Oboe Files - How to: high notes on the oboe (Fingerings and tips for the 2nd/3rd octave with video tutorial)
- Work through, and perfect, scales & arpeggios199 for Grades I-VIII, using
→ "Trinity Guildhall - Trinity Guildhall Scales & Arpeggios for Oboe (Grades 1–8)",
→ "ABRSM - Scales and Arpeggios for Oboe, Grades 1-8 (ABRSM Scales & Arpeggios)", and ... more entertaining ...
→ "Hinke (Gustav Adolf) - Elementary Method For Oboe".
- Improve sight-reading by playing through
→ "Trinity Guildhall - Sound at Sight Oboe Grades 1-8", and
→ "Davies (John) & Harris (Paul) - 80 Graded Studies for Oboe: Book 1".
- Occasionally review Grade VI pieces, in particular
→ "Boni (Giovanni) - Sonata in G" (Prelude, but also 2nd, 3rd & 4th movements for interest),
→ "Davies (John) & Harris (Paul) - 80 Graded Studies for Oboe: Book 2" (Blatt - Study No. 52),
→ "Morricone (Ennio) - Gabriel's Oboe (Piano Solo Or Oboe/Piano)"
→ "Miller (Vojislav) & Liebermann (Winfried), Eds. - Test Pieces for Orchestral Auditions (Orchester Probespiel) - Oboe" (Eroica, Aida, Der Freischutz),
→ "Nielsen (Carl) - Two Fantasy Pieces, Op. 2" (Romanze only)
- Prepare Grade VII pieces, in particular200
→ "Albinoni (Tomaso) - Concerto in D Minor Op. 9/2 for Oboe & Piano", 1st movement (but also 2nd & 3rd for interest)
→ "Bach (J.S.) - 105 Difficult Passages from the Works of J. S. Bach. For oboe", Items 49 & 70
→ "Cimarosa (Domenico) - Oboe Concerto in C minor", All, but particularly 1st & 4th movements
→ "Davies (John) & Harris (Paul) - 80 Graded Studies for Oboe: Book 2" (Ferling - Study No. 62)
→ "Fiocco (J.H.) - Arioso - Oboe + Piano",
→ "Head (Michael) - Presto for Oboe & Piano",
→ "Hinke (Gustav Adolf) - Elementary Method For Oboe", Items 14 & 18
→ "Miller (Vojislav) & Liebermann (Winfried), Eds. - Test Pieces for Orchestral Auditions (Orchester Probespiel) - Oboe" (Mozart Jupiter, Tchaikovsky Pathetique, Stravinsky Pucinella),
→ "Mower (Mike) - The Good Tempered Oboe" (Nos. 28 & 35: 'Jauntless Jig' & 'May The Fourth Be With You'; also No. 30: 'Answer the Question'),
→ "Nielsen (Carl) - Two Fantasy Pieces, Op. 2" (Humoresque),
→ "Saint-Saens (Camille) - Sonata Op.166 in D Major for Oboe & Piano" (1st Movement),
→ "Schumann (Robert) - 3 Romances, Op. 94 for Oboe and Piano" (1st & 3rd Movements; 2nd for interest).
- Prepare Grade VIII pieces, in particular201
→ "Bach (J.S.) - 105 Difficult Passages from the Works of J. S. Bach. For oboe", Items 62, 66 and 28
→ "Davies (John) & Harris (Paul) - 80 Graded Studies for Oboe: Book 2" (Harris - Study No. 74; Luft - Study No. 77)
→ "Miller (Vojislav) & Liebermann (Winfried), Eds. - Test Pieces for Orchestral Auditions (Orchester Probespiel) - Oboe" (try various),
→ "Mower (Mike) - The Good Tempered Oboe" (No. 44 - 'Dop Dop Doobah'; also No. 45: 'Enlightenment'),
→ "Saint-Saens (Camille) - Sonata Op.166 in D Major for Oboe & Piano" (2nd & 3rd Movements),
- Read and apply oboe practice techniques recommended by:-
→ Martin Schuring, and
→ "Benedetti (Nicola) - My five tips for learning an instrument".
- Read "Caplan (Stephen) - Oboe: The Breathing Book".
- Tenor Recorder: Learn to play the instrument!
- "Practice - Recorder - General Practice",
- "Nelson (Troy) & Currier (Scott) - Super Easy Recorder Sheet Music for Beginners: A Beginner Recorder Book for Adults and Kids", and
- "Oosthuizen (Amanda) & Oosthuizen (Jemima) - Learn Recorder through Famous Classics".
- Piano: Try to develop some minimal competence as an aid to theory, so:-
- Continue practicing "Rhodes (James) - How to Play the Piano" (Bach's Prelude #1),
- Work through "Faber (Nancey) & Faber (Randall) - Faber Piano Adventures: Adult Piano Adventures All-in-One Lesson Book 1: Spiral Bound",
- Work through "ABRSM - Selected Piano Exam Pieces 2009-2010: Grade 1", and
- Try to play by ear, using for inspiration:-
→ "Cannel (Ward) & Marx (Fred) - How to Play the Piano Despite Years of Lessons: What Music Is and How to Make It at Home".
- Theory: Prepare for Grade 5 Theory, so:-
- Study
→ "Taylor (Eric) - The AB Guide to Music Theory - Part 1", and
→ "Taylor (Eric) - The AB Guide to Music Theory - Part 2",
- Whiz through202 the exercises in
→ "Taylor (Eric) - Music Theory in Practice: Grade 1",
→ "Taylor (Eric) - Music Theory in Practice: Grade 2",
→ "Taylor (Eric) - Music Theory in Practice: Grade 3",
→ "Taylor (Eric) - Music Theory in Practice: Grade 4", and
→ "Taylor (Eric) - Music Theory in Practice: Grade 5",
- Aural:
- Run through:-
→ "Trinity Guildhall - Trinity College London Aural Tests Book 1 (Initial to Grade 5) 2017", and
→ "Trinity Guildhall - Trinity College London Aural Tests Book 2 (Grades 6 to 8) 2017".
- Get a grip on the process of ear-training by
→ Reading "Deutsch (Diana) - Absolute Pitch", and related material203, and
→ Seriously engaging with "Earmaster - Ear Training & Sight-singing".
- Read "Sutton (Christopher) - Musicality: How you too can learn music like a gifted prodigy, unlock your musical instinct, and unleash your inner natural" for inspiration and enlightenment.
- Also follow up items in:-
→ "Various - Music - Aural - Various On-line Training".
- Bridge204 (20 hours per week)
- Play:-
→ Mayflower: Weekly on Tuesdays, with David P.
→ Milton Keynes - RealBridge - Wednesdays with Dave T.
→ Cumbria - RealBridge - most Sundays with Dave T.
→ EBU On-line One Day Pairs / Teams GP events - monthly with Dave T
→ NICKO 1st Round, with David P.
→ Crockfords 1st Round, with David P.
- Play "Bridge - Handle" daily.
- Directors' Training - Read (or re-read):-
→ "World Bridge Federation - The Laws of Duplicate Bridge 2017"
→ "EBU - Club Director Training - Days 1 & 2 course books & Assessment"
→ "EBU - Blue Book: EBU Player Handbook: Revised 2024"
→ "EBU - 2024 White Book: Technical Matters"
→ "EBU - Various Papers on Duplicate Bridge Movements"
- Bridge Admin:
→ Chairman, Secretarial, Scoring and Website duties for Mayflower Bridge Club.
→ Mountnessing Village Hall Trustee - familiarisation and general duties.
→ Maintain website for Hutton Union.
→ Maintain my Bridge Page205.
- Study: Re-read Hand-counting papers, focussing on
→ Papers on Counting the Hands206,
→ "Bourke (Tim) & Smith (Marc), Bird (David) - Countdown to Winning Bridge"
→ "Lawrence (Mike) - How to read your opponents' cards: The bridge expert's way to locate missing high cards", and
→ "Lawrence (Mike) - How to Play Card Combinations"
- Read "Kelsey (Hugh) & Glauert (Michael) - Bridge Odds for Practical Players".
- "Reading - Bridge - Magazines".
- GeneralCulture207 (5 hours per week)
- Continue / complete reading various books that have landed in my in-tray208:-
- "Allison (Graham) - Destined for War: can America and China escape Thucydides’ Trap?",
- "Doyle (Andrew) - The New Puritans: How the Religion of Social Justice Captured the Western World",
- "Freedman (Sam) - Failed State: Why Nothing Works and How We Fix It",
- "O'Sullivan (Maurice), Forster (E.M.) - Twenty Years A-Growing",
- "Ryback (Timoth W.) - Takeover",
- Aeon209: Restart, catch up, and continue collecting, reading and reviewing papers issued by Aeon & Psyche (and the occasional spin-off).
- "FT - Five Books - Various Subjects not covered elsewhere": Continue collecting, reading and reviewing relevant books.
- "BBC - Miscellaneous iPlayer and Podcasts": Continue listening / watching and try to write up brief notes.
- Sort our "LRB - London Review of Books".
- Coxes Farm: Read:-
- "Barratt (Nick) - Tracing the History of Your House: The Building, the People, the Past",
- "Brunskill (R.W.) - Vernacular Architecture: An Illustrated Handbook"
- "LPOC - Listed Heritage: The Listed Property Owners' Club Magazine",
- "Yorke (Trevor) - Timber-Framed Building Explained", and
- "Yorke (Trevor) - Tudor Houses Explained"
- "Todman (Theo) - Investigating Housing Developments near Coxes Farm"
- "Todman (Theo) - Investigating Problems & Developments at Coxes Farm"
- Languages210 (2 hours per week)
- Biblical Hebrew:-
- "Lambdin (Thomas) - Introduction to Biblical Hebrew", and
- "Williamson (H.G.M.) - Annotated Key to Lambdin's Introduction to Biblical Hebrew"
- NT Greek:-
- "Wenham (John) - The Elements of New Testament Greek", and
- "Wenham (John) - Key to the Elements of New Testament Greek"
- Chess211 (1 hour per week)
- Chess Training:-
- Chess.com: Puzzles & On-line play,
- "Studer (Noel) - Next Level Chess": Read new articles as they arise weekly, and catch up on the older ones.
- Complete review of 2018/19 season's games,
- Complete review of 2019/20 season's games,
- Train Tommy as opportunity arises. Also, maybe, Lili and Nia (aged 6 and 4).
- Chess Study / Reading212: Focus on ChessMood but hold the following in reserve:-
- "Hansen (Carsten) - Back to Basics: Chess Openings: A comprehensive guide to chess openings and opening play",
- "Kuljasevic (Davorin) - How to Study Chess on Your Own: Creating a Plan that Works… and Sticking to it!",
- "Ris (Robert) - Crucial Chess Skills for the Club Player: Volume 1",
- "Ris (Robert) - Crucial Chess Skills for the Club Player: Volume 2", and
- "Willemze (Thomas) - The Chess Toolbox: Practical Techniques Everyone Should Know".
- Update my Chess Page213.
- Why Play Chess?:
- Seriously consider the issues raised by "Ramon y Cajal (Santiago) - On Chess".
- Counter this with responsibiity to the local chess scene, now I've made contact, and with training Tommy
- Mathematics214 (1 hour per week)
- General
- Aeon215: Read papers as they arise.
- "Gowers (Timothy), Barrow-Green (June) & Leader (Imre), Eds. - The Princeton Companion to Mathematics": Browse.
- Competence improvement
- "Admin - Math Trainer": Try out216
- "Cummings (Jay) - Proofs: A Long-Form Mathematics Textbook": Read.
- "Polya (George), Stewart (Ian) - How to Solve IT: A New Aspect of Mathematical Method": Read.
- "UKMT, du Sautoy (Marcus) - The Ultimate Mathematical Challenge": Try the puzzles.
- Philosophy
- "Shapiro (Stewart) - Thinking about Mathematics - The Philosophy of Mathematics": Complete reading.
- "Smith (Martin) - Why Throwing 92 Heads in a Row Is Not Surprising": Analyze.
- "Yau (Shing-Tung) & Nadis (Steve) - The Gravity of Math: How Geometry Rules the Universe": Read.
- Probability217
- "Chivers (Tom) - Everything Is Predictable: How Bayes' Remarkable Theorem Explains the World",
- "Wikipedia - Normal Distribution",
- "Wikipedia - Cauchy Distribution",
- "Wikipedia - Prosecutor's fallacy"
- Bridge
- "Wikipedia - Principle of Restricted Choice", and relevant Chapters in:-
→ "Kelsey (Hugh) & Glauert (Michael) - Bridge Odds for Practical Players", and
→ "Reese (Terence) - The Expert Game"
- "Wikipedia - Monty Hall Problem"
- "EBU - Various Papers on Duplicate Bridge Movements"
- HiQ218 (1 hour per week)
- ISPE
- Investigate & take part in ISPE Ning.
- Investigate & take part in Tim Ryan's Sunday ISPE / TNS / Prometheus Zoom meeting.
- Investigate ISPE's use of Goodreads.
- Read "ISPE - The Thousander",
- Read "ISPE - Telicom",
- Consider submitting articles on my research to Telicom as a way of getting feedback.
- Mensa
- General IQ Investigation
- Review biography of William James Sidis and related topics:-
→ "YouTube - Video - The Sad Story of the Smartest Man Who Ever Lived",
→ "Wallace (Amy) - The Prodigy: A Biography of William James Sidis", and
→ "Towers (Grady M.) - The Outsiders"
- Read the autobiography of Norbert Wiener:-
→ "Wiener (Norbert) - Ex-Prodigy: My Childhood and Youth", and
→ "Wiener (Norbert) - I am a Mathematician: The Later Life of a Prodigy"
- Investigate the work in the IQ area of Devin Sanchez Curry (see web references in "Curry (Devin Sanchez) - Why academia should embrace ‘Grandma’s metaphysics’").
- Investigate the controversies over IQ-testing, in particular read and review:-
→ "Gould (Stephen Jay) - The Mismeasure of Man",
→ "Herrnstein (Richard J.) & Murray (Charles) - The Bell Curve - Intelligence and Class Structure in American Life", and
→ "Devlin (Bernie), Fienberg (Stephen E.), Resnick (Daniel P.) & Roeder (Kathryn) - Intelligence, Genes & Success - Scientists Respond to The Bell Curve"
- "Grove (Greg A.) - Dicey 1, Dicey 2, and Dicey 3 — Verbal Analogies IQ Tests": Do quiz
In-Page Footnotes:
Footnote 1:
- Since the contents of the groups changes over time, this justification for their segregation isn’t entirely accurate.
Footnote 13:
- Mind you, the mathematical bits didn’t function very well in my youth, so what hope is there now?
Footnote 15:
- Due to administrative confusion, I needlessly took their latest entrance test. After chasing them up I was told I “passed with flying colours” but could get no more information.
Footnote 16:
- As it has turned out, once the dogs – initially Henry and now Bertie – grew out of puppyhood they haven’t been that much of a drain on my time in one respect, in that I can utilise my time when out walking for project-related matters.
- Initially this was languages on my iPhone, but latterly it’s been Aeon papers (or more serious philosophy papers or even books) on my Kindle or Kobo eReader. Sometimes even physical books, if they are of an appropriate size and it’s not raining!
- What I have found, though, is that this distorts what would otherwise be my priorities.
- Languages required grammatical follow-up, and philosophy books and papers require writing up. This can be time consuming and – though rewarding – takes me away from the central concerns of my Thesis.
Footnote 17:
- The situation with the house turned out to be much worse than we first thought and we appointed Bakers of Danbury to sort it out. Things have gone well, and the three phases of the work have been completed. We’ve given up seeking redress from the surveyor.
- Coxes Farm originates from the start of the 16th century, or possibly earlier, and is very “wonky”, requiring continual maintenance.
- In December 2017, a base to roof crack appeared in the render at the front.
- Subsequent investigations revealed that the frame at the front – which had been added in the 17th century – has rotted away, so the front façade was held up by the brick infill and an impervious cement render, the cause of the rot.
- The front of the house has now been rebuilt, as has ¾ of the rear.
- A third project was to rebuild the lower part of two side walls.
- I’ve written a Blog Item on this saga, with some theoretical thoughts. Photos appear in this Timeline.
- The main outstanding issues were with the roof. I have had various roofers take a look at them, and while there’s been a lot of tidying up, there’s still water ingress through the master bedroom ceiling during some storms.
- Another set of cracks have appeared and are currently being investigated. I’ve now added time spent on the latest issues on the house to General Culture.
- There are continual maintenance issues, and – regrettably – various problems with people using my address.
Footnote 18:
- I developed double vision in my left eye while on holiday in July 2026. This has been diagnosed as down to a cataract, and I’m due to have an operation at Spa Medica in Chelmsford at the end of October. I’m not looking forward to it but am told it’ll be fine.
- On 9th September, while playing bridge on-line (and winning) I had what seemed like a heart attack – felling too faint to continue, and with a pain down my left arm. I phoned Julie who phoned 999. An ambulance turned up 40 minutes later and conducted tests: my heart seemed fine, but my blood pressure was high, so I was advised to go to Basildon hospital by ambulance. Thereafter:-
- I had an ECG followed by a CT scan on my brain in A&E and was recalled a couple of days later for an MRI scan on my brain and other tests and then saw the stroke consultant. I was called back a second time for another CT scan – this time an angiogram on my brain – whereby they pump an iodine-based dye into you. That’s to check the blood vessels are OK. I’ve not heard back, so I’m hopeful all’s OK and I’ll just see the consultant again in another couple of months.
- The ECG indicated that my heart is fine, though proteins in my blood suggest that I’ve had a heart attack in the past without realising it (presumably one of those ‘it’s only indigestion’ moments). The letter from the stroke consultant put the episode down to an ‘amyloid event’ – presumably, a cardiovascular blockage caused by those nasty, folded proteins that cause Alzheimer’s if in the brain tissue rather than in the blood stream.
- I’ve always been considered high risk for cardiovascular problems as my father had a near-fatal heart attack aged 39 and a stroke whereby he lost his speech aged 42. I thought I’d escaped any such problems, but it seems I’ve had them without knowing it.
- The letter from the consultant said that I’d had a sub-arachnoid haemorrhage sometime in the past (that’s a brain haemorrhage that’s often fatal). And the MRI scan also revealed a ‘micro-haemorrhage in the right frontal lobe’ (which the AI tells me is responsible for emotional regulation, impulse control, social awareness, spatial reasoning, and adaptive problem-solving). Make of it what you will.
- On the plus side, my brain looked otherwise in excellent shape (no shrinkage or gaps or any nasties) and the consultant said if I got my blood-pressure down I’d live to 100. I’m not sure about this diagnosis as my blood pressure hasn’t been high, historically speaking. I took it several times back in May last year (there must have been a reason, but I can’t remember why) and it was around 128 / 77 which isn’t too bad (I’m to keep it below 140 / 90; it was 166 / 96 in A&E, so maybe higher earlier; 152 / 90 when I saw the consultant a couple of days later). It’s averaged 124 / 69, which is near ideal, since I’ve been taking the tablets.
Footnote 19:
- If these link to the wrong version, ie. the current one, you’ll need to go the “previous versions” and select the correct one.
Footnote 23:
- 25 hours / week represents the amount of time that I’d need to spend if I were pursuing my research part-time at Birkbeck – which would be something like 5 hours / day, 5 days a week.
Footnote 24: Footnote 25:
- Or at least those recently added to my database, in the case of electronic items that sometimes arrive too fast to be catalogued immediately.
- As my purchasing has now dropped to a relative trickle, I’ve extended the selection range to cover the last 6 months.
- Some of these are random purchases from charity shops, or presents. Others are selectively purchased in support of my various projects.
- Poverty and lack of space is severely curtailing my purchasing power.
- The categorisation of my books has got out of hand, but follow this link for an alternative – categorised – list of recent acquisitions.
Footnote 28:
- In the light of the segregation of my projects into three tiers, items for tertiary projects are only to be addressed if everything of higher priority is in shape.
- If there are any changes to this list between quarters, they will appear in the Priority Task List.
Footnote 139:
- I used to itemise in this Note an ever-growing list of items accummulated over time, broken down by Chapter and Note.
- However, now both Chapters and Notes are getting into shape, there is no need to list these items again here, so they have been cut after checking they are covered in their place elsewhere.
Footnote 140:
- There are rather a lot of these, so some will have to be skimmed.
- There were a few more on less central topics.
- I hope to whittle these down as time goes by!
Footnote 145:
- This list used to get inordinately long and has been culled.
- Ensure this doesn't happen again!
Footnote 149:
- This was supposed to be holiday reading, but there's little chance of me completing this project (and the two other volumes) unless I get a move on!
- My intention is to read and review a Story after each 'General' book read.
Footnote 150:
- This list is getting ludicrously long, and either needs addressing or pruning!
Footnote 152:
- I had managed to reduce the backlog of 'Priority 1' items on my Aeon page to the required 10 items (though it has now got out of hand again).
- To achieve this in an acceptable timeframe, as well as restricting the new additions, I've been either downgrading the priorities or reading the papers on my Kindle and then adding brief comments and logging them to my database.
- Consequently, most of them then get added to this list for more detailed investigation.
- I'll now - hopefully - start whittling down this list of 206 items, but there's a risk that it'll continue to grow ... as indeed it has.
- To help with the 'whittling' I've added both the date the item was added to this list and its current status, which is to progress down the following list:-
→ 1. Read, or ...
→ 2. Re-read
→ 3. Draft 'Paper' Notes
→ 4. Read Aeon Comments
→ 5. Update 'Paper' Notes
→ 6. Apply to PID Notes
- Above '2. Re-read' is a little directionless. It usually means 'Re-read with the intention of performing one or more of actions 3, 5 and 6.'
Footnote 156:
- Sadly, looking through the list diligently wastes too much time - there's very litle of relevanmce to my research - which is good to know.
- So - as of mid-February 2025 - I've decided just to dip in now and then to see what's going on.
- Philosophy seems very 'engaged' at the moment. Lots of conferences on AI and Climate Change.
Footnote 196: Footnote 198:
- Well, maybe with the occasional holiday, and excluding days on which I have the Enigma Ensemble.
Footnote 199:
- I don't intend to present these for the Trinity exams, as I can present Orchestral Audition pieces instead; but they are essential for technique.
Footnote 200:
- I've yet to decide which to present for the Exam, so this long list will get whittled down in due course.
Footnote 201:
- These are just the ones from the Trinity schedule that I happen to have. Some look rather fearsome.
- The only one I've had assigned is the Second Movement of the Saint-Saens.
Footnote 202:
- The earlier grades are very elementary, but I need practice writing musical notation.
Footnote 203: Ie. The following:- Footnote 208:
- This list had started to grow, so I've given it a very severe pruning.
- I may add culled books back in as and when.
Footnote 212:
- I have a lot of chess books, but there's no point listing them here as they aren't going to get read any time soon, if ever. See this list.
Footnote 216:
- Trying out Math Trainer ("Admin - Math Trainer") seems a bit eccentric, but I’ve found that – as the time has passed – I’ve got lazier and lazier with mental arithmetic, and could do with perking up a bit. The App seems of some use.
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