1. UW
Update Saturday 6/6/15
a. Slept
in. Started writing up the formal proof involved in the CSE extra credit
problem. It was frustrating, but in the end I came up with the cleanest (not
very clean) way to logically capture all the permutations. I don’t think there
was a better abstraction that would have not been a ton of work to specify.
b. Ate
brunch at the 8. Ran into Winnie from linear; she was taking her lunch back to
the dorms, so we decided to grab dinner later instead.
c. Took
my lunch outside and ran into Roges from CSE 311 sitting in the solitary patch
of shade on the McMahon patio facing the lake, where a tree blocked the
blinding afternoon sun. Talked of 311 and of summer plans as we ate.
d. Returned
to Haggett, finished and turned in CSE hw.
e. Walked
to the Denny courts, which were packed with students trying to get in their
last game before the quarter ended. Got into a game of 5 on 5, then a bunch of
3-on-3 games. Very fun.
f. Returned
to Haggett, showered, did linear practice final. I got stuck on a few things,
but overall it went pretty well.
g. Headed
to the 8, grabbed a burger and headed to that same spot on the patio with
Winnie. Had a really interesting conversation starting with our backgrounds,
turning to the current state of Taiwan with respect to China (Winnie is
Taiwanese by ethnicity, but Canadian for the last 9 years). Then we got into
philosophy and books we’d read in physics. (Winnie is a philosophy-physics
double-major) She’d read the first volume of Asimov’s physics series, the same
volume I remember reading with great fondness, and she highly recommended A
Brief History of Time. I brought up A New Kind of Science wrt computer science
in general.
h. Returned
to Haggett, tried to finish linear practice final. I got frustrated near the
end with the sheer amount of hand calculations required, so I stopped, reviewed
concepts, fixed all the stuff I got stuck on, so I have a few more problems
left for tomorrow.
i. Took
a break and read Karenina. Took a short walk listening to This American Life.
j. Did
some CSE practice problems. Played a few games of chess with Red Mage (Alex)
while simultaneously doing practice problems and listening to upbeat Waterflame
songs. Very Leroy. I felt pretty pumped—the cognitive ease of having both chess
and logic intuitions in flow at once is intoxicating.
k.
Wrote this log and hit the hay.
Hi Spencer,
ReplyDeleteRegarding Jared Diamond book, June 10th posting, off hand it doesn't excite me. That's probably because I have never looked in depth at the bicameral mind. The issue that he addresses is What is the origin of consciousness? To the extent that I understand his answer, namely that it originates from outer space without greater detail, I cannot get excited.
Always good to hear from you and what you are thinking about. I'll keep my antenna attuned,
Tom
Hello Tom! I did think the thesis sounded crazy, but I was surprised at how many people found the book really thought-provoking. I haven't read it yet, but I'll let you know what I think when I'm through! I'm curious how Jaynes will define consciousness, because I've encountered several distinct meanings the word can carry. There's the sort of unmeasurable, scientifically ignored subjective experience that you and Dad talk about, then there's the more measurable idea of being aware of how one operates--having a model of oneself. I don't really see how Jaynes could argue that the first kind of consciousness comes from outer space, since his arguments have to be based on physical/behavioral evidence, which this kind of consciousness doesn't seem to supply. A reasonable argument for the second kind of consciousness coming from outer space might be plausible, but I agree this is a weird and not entirely satisfying answer :)
DeleteGood to hear from you as well! Hope to see you soon!
DeleteSpencer