Journal Entries
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Ten million green bottles......
Posted Oct 17, 2005
I very rarely get bored.
This is not necessarily a positive thing.
It means I spend large amounts of time doing things some people think are pointless: staring at things for example (though I do usually use the information for drawing at some point.
I have a theory: humans use boredom to prevent insanity.
I read some time ago that there is no way for a computer to tell how long a task is going to take: you only know the processing time once it is finished. I wonder if this is still true. If it is, artificial boredom needs to be invented.
Take the following experiment as an example:
"Computer, sing the song 'Ten green bottles'"
Computer: "Ten green bottles hanging on the wall, ten green bottles hanging on the wall, and if one green bottle should accidently fall, there'll be nine green bottles hanging on the wall. Nine green bottles..." (etc, down to no green bottles).
"Ok Computer*, now sing the song 'ten million green bottles'"
Computer: "ten million green bottles... nine million nine hundred and ninety-nine thousand nine hundred and ninety nine green bottles....."
and so on and so forth.
Whereas even if a human being couldn't guess the length of the task from the title of the song (using prior learning), they would surely give up from boredom (nature's safety valve) before getting to the end.
The alternative would be to waste an entire existence singing the song, and having to pass it on to the grandchildren, and their grandchildren's grandchildren to finish it off.
(Where such a person would find the time to find a mate and create the necessary offspring, assuming that any other person could put up with their constant singing, or even to find food for themselves and not starve in the process of keeping up the song is anybody's guess).
* Hitch-Hikers and Radiohead reference in one. Perfect!
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Latest reply: Oct 17, 2005
In at the deep end
Posted Oct 2, 2005
Have posted an entry. Will see if anything happens...
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Latest reply: Oct 2, 2005
sleep as an abstract concept
Posted Sep 29, 2005
Well I got to work on time, & I'm still going, have to get up early again tomorrow too. Baby daughter kept me up most of the night too with her new tooth & a runny nose (she's keeping one, & getting rid of the other fortunately) so bettter not type too much: I think I'm rambling
Saturday where are you when I need you?!
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Latest reply: Sep 29, 2005
Being a proper artist
Posted Sep 28, 2005
Started drawing at 10am today, & finished at 8.10pm!
Interesting working in a fenced off area. Felt like I needed a sign 'Do Not Feed The Artist'.
Had a few comments along the usual lines of, so you're a proper artist then.
Not as good as the one last week though
2 girls approx age eleven:
'Are you a proper artist'
'Yes, I am'
'So can you draw Winnie the Pooh?'
I wonder if Damien Hirst ever had this kind of test to pass?
(Visions of stuffed Winnie floating in shark tank)
Must go now. Teaching in the mornign (sa you can see my typing is going wonky)
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Latest reply: Sep 28, 2005
Temporal Anomalies- useful or pointless? Discuss....
Posted Sep 27, 2005
Had to get the train into Leeds today.
Amused myself whilst waiting by watching the digital clocks on the two neighbouring platforms tick off the seconds in their respective timezones: platform 2 is 13 seconds ahead of platform 1, and yet both are the same strip of concrete, between two tracks.
I was pondering: if they really were two timezones, becaues we can communicate across them, would this be any use?
I'm currently listening to Shaun Micallef's breakfast show via webcast: he's in Melbourne, Australia so it's already 6am Wednesday there, & it's 9pm Tuesday here. But I can't get him (or anyone else there of course) to ring me up with the lottery results for tonight, because, once it's 7pm there, it'll only be 10am here, & when it's 7pm here, that's too late to buy a ticket!
In other words, their Wednesday is our Tuesday. If this doesn't make your brain do backflips, think about the same principle applied to the stars, & lightyears. Where is 'now'?
I think I've strayed from my point (whatever it was...)
My theory is it isn't any help to see what's happening in another time, as by the time you communicate with that time, it's too late (or early, depending on which way round you're viewing history of course).
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Latest reply: Sep 27, 2005
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vividlyviv
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