RobinFaichney.org » announcements

DTMD abstract and slides

Robin Faichney — Wed, 07 Sep 2011 09:52:20 +0000

My talk at the DTMD workshop (see recent posts) is this afternoon, and I thought I’d make the abstract and slides available.

Dissertation comments

Robin Faichney — Thu, 21 Jul 2011 15:14:06 +0000

Throwing caution to the wind, I’ve decided to publish selected markers’ comments on the MSc dissertation. I’m striving for a degree of balance, here, but I’m not claiming to have achieved it. There were two markers, who wrote about 3.5 sides of A4 paper between them. (“Selected” in the first sentence applies to the comments, not the markers.)

…a novel and highly original theory of consciousness and its relationship to empathy… Overall the last part of the dissertation was one big mess…

The dissertation is impressive, well written, and covers a lot of ground… The candidate’s position is bold, original, and cleverly defended. One disadvantage of the impressive sweep is that the dissertation covers too much ground… Despite this, the dissertation delivers a great deal of its promise.

Dissertation

Robin Faichney — Sun, 19 Jun 2011 14:34:49 +0000

In a complete turn-around from The Last Post (that’s what it’s called), I’m working on an abstract for The Difference that Makes a Difference conference. (I sometimes think that the more decisively I make up my mind about something, the better the reasons I’ll soon find for rethinking the decision.)

Anyway, sliding back into academic ways, as I seem to be doing at the moment, and in the interests of scholarly openness, I’ve decided to put my dissertation online. I am not particularly proud of it, I procrastinated quite drastically then had insufficient time to do a proper job, and I shoehorned loads of only barely relevant ideas into it just because I’m so keen on them. Even so, it remains the best account yet of some of these ideas, so here it is, exposed for all to see (in theory, though I don’t expect that many will in practice).

The Last Post (maybe)

Robin Faichney — Tue, 07 Jun 2011 15:08:02 +0000

I recently read William Gibson’s Zero History, and it convinced me of the need to do some kinds of creative work privately, for integrity, among other reasons. So, while I will be working along the lines indicated in the previous post, I won’t be blogging about either the writing process or the ideas. I might even remove what’s on the site now. Gibson’s an influential chap!

For different reasons, I won’t be doing anything academic either, such as attending (much less seeking to speak at) The Difference that Makes a Difference: an interdisciplinary workshop on information and technology in September at the Open University (which I was thinking about doing). I’ve come to the conclusion that there’s a fundamental mismatch between my approach to philosophy and the one that’s currently dominant in the analytic tradition. While that is my background, and I feel much more comfortable with it than with the Continental variety, I don’t like the quasi-scientific tendency to focus on ever finer detail. My approach is much more synthetic, attempting to integrate big ideas into ever-bigger pictures—putting together a jigsaw puzzle, rather than examining the pieces under a microscope. This means that the typical reaction to my ideas among academics is to see them as wildly over-ambitious and not worth taking seriously. Thus my decision to go over the heads of the professionals.

As I’m not into blogging on purely personal stuff, that leaves me with nothing to blog about, so this might well be The Last Post!

Feeling my way forward

Robin Faichney — Sat, 19 Mar 2011 14:00:50 +0000

I was slightly shocked to realise that it’s been nearly ten months since my last post. I suppose I got out of the habit while working on my MSc dissertation. The eventual submission date was 22nd December, and since then I’ve been trying to decide what to do next. For a number of reasons—mainly the same ones that got me a four month extension—I don’t expect the result to be good enough to let me do a PhD, but I’m far too keen on the information-related philosophy just to let it drop, so I’ve been looking at doing another MSc, this time part-time from the start, so I can keep on earning.
However, another possibility is to return to my previous plan of trying to write for a non-specialist readership. Ideally, I’d do both, but I feel quite dubious about the prospect of two years of trying to fit in both MSc work and non-academic writing around computer repair jobs. Nor do I want to postpone the non-academic work for two years.
If I tried to put down all my thinking on this here, it would probably be unreadable. Suffice it to say that, compared to embarking on another degree course, writing for a general readership feels like “the path with heart.” I have not decided definitely to ditch the MSc—I don’t actually have to make that decision for several months yet—but that’s now looking quite likely.
So what about the non-academic writing? It will mainly be about information as the bridge between mind and matter, so thoroughly philosophical, but explaining everything from scratch in my own words, and ranging well beyond what I’d be able to cover in any academic writing short of a PhD thesis. And of course I’ll be much, much freer style-wise than I would in that.
What I have in mind tends to take the form of a book, but for various reasons, not least being the possibility of useful feedback, I might well publish chunks here as and when they seem suitable. So be warned!
Just as a taster, here’s a quote from Valentino Braitenberg

The concept of information, properly understood, is fully sufficient to do away with popular dualistic schemes invoking spiritual substances distinct from anything in physics. This is Aristotle redivivus, the concept of matter and form united in every object of this world, body and soul, where the latter is nothing but the formal aspect of the former. The very term “information” clearly demonstrates its Aristotelian origin in its linguistic root. (In Luciano Floridi, ed, Philosophy of Computing and Information: Five Questions, 2008, p16)

The Naked Truth

Robin Faichney — Sun, 30 May 2010 14:46:14 +0000

I’ve been thinking about what I now see as dressing this up: looking for the serious angle, preferably philosophical, but if not then sociological or whatever—and it does have that sort of potential, but I don’t have time to get into that sort of thing now—I have to write 20k words over the next couple of months or so for my dissertation, so everything else has to be minimized. But when all the seriousness is stripped away, one thing remains: call it exhibitionism if you like, and I dare say I do have a streak of that in me, but whatever underlies it, I most certainly have an urge to come clean about what I’ve been doing recently.

Which is, basically, lying naked on a beach. Also standing, and walking, and swimming in the sea. But mainly lying on a towel, basking in the warmth of the Mediterranean sun, and getting an all-over tan.

Having gotten that off my chest, it doesn’t seem like such a big deal, and I’m not sure where to go from there—as if the urge had been satisfied. But this does seem a bit short, so maybe I’ll just add some practical information.

Where was this? The strip of public beach that parallels the car park at the end of Chemin de la Matarane, Ramatuelle, France. If you zoom in on that Google Map you can make out, not actual sunbathers, quite, but one of their big parasols, made obvious by the shadow it casts. (I should perhaps mention that the beach is usually much busier than when this satellite shot was taken.) If you zoom out, you can see that this is just south of St. Tropez, on the Côte d’Azur.

This particular stretch of beach is one of two or three along the bay on which public nudity is accepted. I first visited it in 1981, on a package holiday, camping at St. Raphael. The couriers organised a coach trip one day to Port Grimaud and St. Tropez, with a visit to a nudist beach. I wasn’t awfully impressed, back then, though, perhaps because, inhibited by the people I was with, I didn’t strip off myself. But I did, and do, when the opportunity arises, sunbathe naked back home. So when I revisited the area last year (September 09), I remembered that beach, and paid it another visit, this time throwing caution to the winds, and enjoyed it immensely. So much so that I made sure my accommodation was much more convenient for my return in May this year—last year I did rather a lot of driving, much of it through heavy traffic, and in that respect my latest visit was a vast improvement. I got to the beach every day but one (when I took a train into the mountains), and on every day that I got to the beach but one (the first, when there was a really quite cool breeze, perhaps the Mistral) I got butt-naked.

Well, there it is, out in the open. I won’t add “at last”, because in fact I “came out” as a naturist a while back, elsewhere on this site. But that wasn’t broadcast to Facebook and Twitter, as this will be. I would actually like to write about a couple of more-or-less serious related issues, but that will have to wait. I’m due back on the Côte not much more than a week after my dissertation is due in, so might not manage much, or any, blogging for quite a while, but we’ll see how it goes…

Opposite extremes in psychotherapy?

Robin Faichney — Sat, 27 Feb 2010 12:37:58 +0000

I’ve both studied and experienced psychodynamic psychotherapy (“talking therapy”, like psychoanalysis) so I’m very interested in the fact that it’s gaining a good evidence base at last. Similarly, having experienced psychedelic drugs, I was interested to read that they are again being considered for therapeutic use. (This is the first time that I’ve publicly owned up to “recreational” drug use, but I’ve been encouraged by Susan Blackmore‘s attitude.)

Meta-philosophy

Robin Faichney — Fri, 26 Feb 2010 15:00:17 +0000

I’ve been reading up on information, again (John Collier’s Intrinsic Information), which has nothing to do with what I’m supposed to be studying, and, probably as a consequence, thinking deep thoughts about my future in philosophy, and whether I really want to do a PhD (and if not, whether I still have reason to complete the current course). It can’t be instrumental: I’d be over 60 by the time I finished it, and not likely to be more willing to relocate then than I am now, which is very reluctant, so a philosophical job is very unlikely.

So what it comes to is: do I want to do a PhD for its own sake, regardless of what I might or might not do with it? An important consideration is that my philosophical interests tend to be in the big picture, the broad sweep, and philosophers these days seem to be like scientists, focusing on smaller and smaller issues. I want to develop a sort of philosophical (as opposed to scientific) theory of everything: matter, meaning and mind from the bottom up. What are my chances of getting to do a PhD on that? Not good, I’d guess—but that’s all it is, a guess, I really don’t know.

So leaving aside the question of what I’d do it on, for now, ask this: would I be likely to enjoy the process of doing it, the life, as it were? Umm, don’t know that either, so how could I find out? If only I could do the next best thing, the nearest to a PhD that’s currently open to me, an MSc by research, and see what that’s like. Wait a minute, that’s what I’m already doing! Except, as long as I’m thinking about my future in philosophy, or studying other things like information (or blogging), I’m not. I suppose I better get on with it then…

[In a "senior moment", I forgot I supposedly committed myself to completing the MSc and going on to do (or try to) a PhD on information last week. That's fairly typical these days. Would having a memory like that compromise my ability to do a PhD? Let's see what effect it has on an MSc...]

Second Annual Online Consciousness Conference

Robin Faichney — Tue, 23 Feb 2010 13:51:31 +0000

This might seem a bit gimmicky (or maybe I’m just behind the times—I certainly am as regards this announcement) but some big names are taking part.

My study plans

Robin Faichney — Sat, 13 Feb 2010 12:01:04 +0000

After much cogitation, mainly about PhD possibilities, but also (very briefly) about whether I even want to complete the MSc, yesterday I reached some firm conclusions, which I’m publicising to confirm my commitment to them (ie for my own benefit even if nobody else is interested, which is entirely possible).

The main development yesterday was my realisation of the link between the MSc dissertation and what is now my main aim for a PhD project. So here’s my favourite expression of what I very much hope to do a PhD on:

It is tempting to suppose that some concept of information could serve eventually to unify mind, matter, and meaning in a single theory. Daniel Dennett and John Haugeland.

My thing always used to be consciousness, but having a much clearer view of the state of the art since starting the MSc course, I don’t believe there’s very much left to do there. Information is something else, and I have some very definite ideas, which remain intact even after studying Dretske and others last semester, and spending much of this week looking at philosophy of info on the web.

The link between the MSc dissertation (see the proposal) and the proposed PhD project is memes, as items of information. I’m now thinking that it might be possible to explain the difference between Blackmore’s and Dennett’s concepts of consciousness largely in memetic terms. That’s basically because Blackmore, unlike Dennett, provides a convincing account of how memes get going in the first place (though she didn’t make the link between that story and consciousness). That unfortunately reduces the emphasis on meditation (probably, I think), but you can’t study everything!

If that works out as I hope and expect it will, it’ll make a great jumping off point for the PhD project. The timing isn’t so great, though, because as yet I’ve no idea who might be willing and able to supervise it, so I’ll probably have to take a year out, and start the PhD in September 2011, which seems a long, long way away! But of course I don’t have to wait until then to get working on it…

[Later: I should maybe make it clear that my commitment to this plan isn't absolute, but any alternative would have to be very good to compete. Short of sheer fantasy, I can hardly think of anything better!]