Order has more significance than heat

03/12/13 06:04 [Tuesday]
I have just downloaded cryptlib which is a software library containing encryption algorithms made accessible to those who don't wish to get involved in the nitty-gritty of computation. What led me to do so was the desire to back up my stuff without having to plug in auxiliary devices, that is to back it up via wireless internet which means to, or via, 'the cloud'. Now 'my stuff' is stored in Truecrypted files which are 4000MB in size (or sometimes bigger) and backing up one of these files via WiFi would take a while and it would be desirable for every little update or alteration I made. My idea therefore was to split up the big files into segments and back up afresh only those segments which have altered since the last backup, or (simpler but not tying in with the way Truecrypt works) separately encrypt each file I work with and back up afresh only those which I have worked on recently. The main thing I wanted to do with cryptlib was not so much encrypt files as produce a trustworthy hash value to verify the files backed up (and perhaps to assess which files - or segments of the big files - have altered since last time).
This has led to me thinking about what the point is of life, or - because I'm pretty sure there is no point as such - what there is of significance to life, or in the universe. And myself, I think it's information. Some people are more physical, and do physical things to look after their bodies (play sports, for example) or do things which bring physical pleasure to their bodies; but the way my brain and body are, I am more mental than corporal.
I'm still working out just what 'information' is, but broadly speaking homo sapiens is constructed - more so than other animals - for processing it. Human processing of information has as a large component of it simplifying or summarising information. Part of this is pattern recognition: we observe things in the world around us which we categorise towards the end of processing all instances in a category much the same. Tables can be treated all very similarly, and so can dogs. Of course a lot of what makes for interest in life is that things even within a category are not identical: there is symmetry but imperfect symmetry.
Another way of saying it is that human processing of information is a battle against increasing entropy. This applies also to life in its physical aspects. The fact that animals reproduce versions of themselves - similar but not identical - is on the face of it a contradiction of the law which states that entropy (a measure of randomness or chaos) always increases. Of course it isn't in fact a contradiction because in putting things into order a lot of waste heat is emitted and that is an increase in entropy. I'm not so much thinking of hot air here as steam, that is in converting hot vapour into an ordered to-and-fro motion of a piston a steam engine is considerably less than 100% efficient.
Jedenfalls, this is what life is and specifically it's what human life is: on this planet circumstances have arisen whereby a lot of order comes into existence - order measured at a certain level of abstraction - at the same time as the creation of a lot of heat. I am with Sartre in noting that order - a piece of music for example - doesn't exist within the physical universe and as such for some of us more than others order has more significance than heat.

Twitter diary for November 2013

This is to be found at http://www.colinbrough.co.uk/November_2013.html

Mundane life

24/11/13 16:47 [Sunday]
I’m at a bit of a loose end so I thought I might take the opportunity to set down a few facts about my mundane life of late, and especially how we are getting on with selling the bungalow.
We had several viewings scheduled in October. According to my diary - filling in the details from memory - Mr and Mrs B were supposed to come on Sunday 13th but cancelled. Then later (possibly on the Monday) they re-made the appointment and came in the event on Tuesday 15th October. We were told (probably on the Wednesday) that they thought the bungalow too small for their needs.
Mr and Mrs C viewed at 6 pm on Thursday 17th October and I think this must have been their second viewing, because we accepted an offer from them put to us via the estate agent on Saturday 19th and my recollection is that they told us at the viewing that they would put in the offer - which we said at that time we would accept - and we thought we might hear from the estate agent on the Friday but were disappointed. But, as I say, that disappointment was reversed the following day Saturday.
We were therefore able to phone the estate agent in Bawtry (near Doncaster) and say that we could proceed with the offer accepted earlier in the year for the house in Harworth to be near Dawn’s relatives. I think it was after the weekend that we heard back that both parties to that sale - a separated or divorced couple - had been informed and had given the nod. However the lady moving from the property had still to find somewhere to buy.
She was looking over a period of perhaps three weeks and the estate agent kept in touch, saying several times that she had put in offers but they had not been accepted. Eventually she put in an offer which was accepted - quite quickly if you think about it, the time she took to find a place - and yesterday I heard that the chain was complete in that everybody - the people she was buying from, the people they were buying from, and so on (although it isn’t a very long chain in fact) - had found funding and provided the evidence necessary to the lending companies. The last I heard the Bawtry estate agent will any day now send out the memorandum confirming the acceptance of our offer and we shall be one more step along the road to Harworth (because up to now the house we are buying has not been listed as ‘Sold’). The expected timescale - which we have mentioned to Mr and Mrs C buying our bungalow - is for exchange of contracts just before Christmas and moving day just after Christmas.
Mr and Mrs C came last Saturday - a week ago yesterday - to do some measuring up and any day now we expect their mortgage valuation surveyor to make an appointment. We trust this will go without a hitch especially as seemingly only a small mortgage is required. We have heard from the Cs’ solicitor with minor queries and out of that we are having our central heating serviced this week, as when it was done (less than a year ago) no confirmatory paperwork was left with us.
On the evening of Wednesday 6th November Dawn and I retired to bed at a reasonable time - not perhaps as early as sometimes - but I was rather annoyed (let’s call it) not to get any proper sleep because Dawn was tossing and turning. Finally she woke me up fully around 1 am saying she had been sick eight or nine times and had terrible tummy pains. I suspected appendicitis and phoned 111 (the successor to NHS Direct), and I must say despite what I have read they were spot on with us that night. I imagine they thought it might be a heart attack, and they sent for an ambulance without much ado. First to arrive was a paramedic, who could see much better than I how much pain Dawn was in. He gave her morphine and sent for a transport ambulance, which arrived about 1.30 am. There was a lot of waiting before getting into the ambulance and actually in the ambulance, as Dawn was given more morphine and they have to give it slowly interspersed with intravenous water (saline solution, I suppose).
They did then convey us to hospital - Dawn’s daughter who is now living with us holding the fort at home (or in truth asleep with the dog in her room) - and we arrived about 2.30 am.
The upshot was that there was a strong supposition that it was gall-stones (either that or very bad indigestion, the doctor said) and for gall-stones thy don’t like to do emergency operations if they can be avoided. But we were to go urgently to the GP next day and arrange for a scan (an ultrasound scan, it is) so that’s what we did.
The GP said it might take up to six weeks before the scan but in fact it was last Wednesday (20th November) that I went with Dawn to the old Guest Hospital and she had the scan. The technician told her there and then that it was gall-stones (and the gall-bladder was inflamed) so this coming week we are going to the GP expecting him to arrange for an operation. We hope it will be before we move - otherwise Dawn might have to start on a fresh waiting list in Bassetlaw - and if we remind the GP that we are moving very soon they might bring the operation forward.
The other fact of life for me at present is Dawn’s daughter living with us (as I said) and her dog. The dog has developed a fondness for jumping and biting at Dawn if she hasn’t seen her for half an hour (or overnight, say) and Dawn finds this difficult. As a result of this I am not able to go out - Dawn is quite scared of the dog - unless my step-daughter is in (and out of bed and able to take charge of the dog).
So that covers the salient features of my practical life the past two months or so.

Thinking and politics

15/11/13 06:11 [Friday]
I have been thinking about one or two things but have not yet come to any proper conclusions. I have been thinking about my preference for understanding phenomena with less rather than more information. This ties in with the difficulty I have - and others with a similar mental make-up have - dealing with matters in physical reality while at the same time mentally 'processing' for them. One aspect of this is not finding it easy to converse or certainly not on any but small-talk topics (although there is an exception for conversations which are more talking to oneself in one's own thoughts even if in the presence of someone else and even parallel with someone else: that is philosophical discussions which are almost exclusively thinking and which typically do not involve eye contact).
When I was younger I couldn't even converse on small-talk topics, but now with experience having developed routines for such conversations without having to think, really, at all, I can perform them. I'm not able to gossip about people (or about such things as what was on TV) because to talk about people's motivations (or the plot or even just the sequence of a TV programme) we need to think to a degree while at the same time (if gossiping with someone else) interacting with the person we are discussing with. Again, the exception is if I am understanding people's personality according to some abstract philosophical theory and preferably one I have thought up myself, or understanding the plot of a piece of fiction (and even then, preferably one of my own fantasy) according to a theory similarly. These facts can amount to an impression that I am not interested in people (or in what's on TV, or in sport, or in countless other subjects a lot of people are centrally interested in) and there is a certain truth in that because it is the fact, I'm sure, that I spend less time myself thinking and gossiping about other people (or sports games played by people, etc) than the average person does.
I don't say exactly that I prefer thinking, but rather I have an inability to do both at the same time: think my thoughts and indulge external senses at the same time. This being so, it is comprehensible that if I can understand phenomena in the external world with little sensory data to go on, I enjoy it more. Twitter is one example of this, that is reading relatively few words from other people on the internet and piecing together my own understanding of what they are about or what they are like. A more general example from the world of the internet is to track down a person from the traces they leave on the internet, and piece together their life, or some aspects of their life. (I mention this because a friend I had at school has recently emailed me after more than forty years having tracked me down via the internet.)
I will add the obvious parallel with scientific enquiry, that is people like me make good scientists because we enjoy assembling scanty data and formulating a thoroughly explanatory theory based on that data. No-one has ever seen a quark but its existence and the theory behind it are inferred from what data there is.
The other topic I have been thinking about (of the 'one or two' mentioned) is democracy versus truth and good taste. Democracy - the decision of the majority - doesn't always give the right answer. Mathematics puzzles on Facebook have proved to me that often a majority get the wrong answer. However, democracy in politics seems a success, and certainly I am a believer in it. I have yet to think out how it works, though: for people overall not to vote into a position of power the type of candidate who might appear on the Jeremy Kyle Show - even though that show is very popular - but instead to bring forward and favour quite clever and sensible candidates (even though - another paradox - people when polled have a low opinion of politicians).
I am still thinking, on and off, about these matters.

Twitter diary for October 2013

This is to be found at http://www.colinbrough.co.uk/October_2013.html