It has been a while since I have blogged - mainly because I needed to sort something out with my google blogger account. But in the meantime - I have kept up with some reading!
I have escaped into Michael Connelly books - a good detective read. I started with The Last Coyote, moved on to Trunk Music and now I have downloaded Angel's Flight - yet to start. I have obviously enjoyed the Harry Bosch series that is covered by these books - a detective who is a little on the edge, a bit of a rough personality, honest with a good heart - on the wrong side of the bureaucrats - and mixed and varied love stories for our loner. I would like to find something deep in it all - but basically, its all just a good read and well constructed stories. So I read on - still a few to go in the series yet! The good thing about crime is that there is a lot of variety and a lot of scope for an author!
I did have a good read of my latest New Scientist - the Existential Issue (23 July 2011). The whole quantum thing blows my mind - the whole universe emerging from something smaller than a full stop! Entanglement where one object is affected by another simultaneously regardless of distance; Paralell universes?! and observers affecting the state of something. One interesting article was titled "How do I know I exist?" - and not a simulation! The artcile considers whether Descartes' maxim "I think therefore I am" is floored " "...there is no ghost in the machine; our actions are driven by brain states that lie entirely beyond our control" - so thinking therfore is argued to be an illusion - hence the maxim is floored! According to the author. Another article explores "why me?" It looks at the notion of consiousness being an emergent property of the brain (makes sense to me). The author considers whether consciousness can continue after death, and quotes an earlier philisopher (Metzinger) as saying it is "extremely unlikely"! (wow - I thought he would have said no chance at all!). The author also highlights that it is "extremely unlikely - but not impossible." He suggests that a machine could allow your consiousness to survive death. Raises some interesting possibilities!
Another author (Lawton) describes how our body changes and is replaced over time - "Imagine being given a new car the day you are born. Over the next 70 years you gradually replace almost every part from the tail pipe to the headlights. A few bits and pieces remain, buts is it really the same car? Think about it."
Anyway - I have started an interesting book by a new unknown author - Donato Carrisi - called The Whisperer - likened to the Steig Larsson phenonomena. I am now half way through it - a serial killer hunt thriller - very well done and lives up to the cover endorsements! I shall report on this in the next blog.
In the meantime, keep reading!
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