sequestering carbon, several books at a time CLXII

The latest batch. (I'm trying to do these posts before the batches get too big, which means they are more frequent.)

sequestering carbon, several books at a time CLXI

The latest batch:

The photography book is in response to the recent attempts to capture images of insects in the garden.  My other half wants to learn how to do it better.  Which will probably include a new fancy lens or two.

sequestering carbon, several books at a time CLVII

The latest batch, including a few belated Christmas presents that were ordered well in advance, but delivered less so.

sequestering carbon, several books at a time CLVI

The latest batch, before the Christmas batch arrives.

sequestering carbon, several books at a time CLV

The latest batch

ALife 2025 day 5

The final day of the conference: it's been a great event.  The day yet again started with some parallel sessions of contributed papers, and I went to the session on Cellular Automata. I was chairing the session, so couldn't take a full set of notes, but I remember the talks being interesting.

Then the final keynote, by Anna Ciaunica, a philosopher, on the importance of embodiment: why we need our toes (and the rest of our body) to think.  We associate the mind with the brain; why not with the rest of the body? Why is the brain not a part of the body? Why do we have a "Brain and Body Institute", but not a "Liver and Body Institute"?  Why do we imagine Mary in her black and white world not understanding seeing red, rather than not understanding eating a red apple?  Why do we have an adult-centric neuro-centric bias, a male embodiment bias?  Think about pregnancy, not just from the mother's point of view, but from the point of view of the embryo: pregnancy is a universal experience, we have all been inside another person.  The opposite of death isn't life, it's birth.  We should think beyond autopoiesis to co-poiesis.  Currently our philosophical tools have been mostly invented by male philosophers.  Consider a parallel world, with a Renée Descartes, who is pregnant.

Well, after that mind-altering experience, it was time for the final boxed lunch.  And then the closing ceremony, bast paper awards, and thanks to everyone!

Next year, in Waterloo! 

sequestering carbon, several books at a time CLIII

The latest batch, comprising his'n'hers birthday presents.

sequestering carbon, several books at a time CL

The latest batch:

 

The company who I have been with for over 40 years for insuring house contents is no longer insuring house contents.  So we are looking for a new insurer.  

We have a lot of books (no!)  This causes issues: everyone who is quoting wants to insure them as "antiques", in danger of being stolen.  No, there are a lot of individually not very valuable books (some are indeed old, but not that old, and not rare).  No-one is going to steal these: it would take forever, and they have very little resale value.  We can't be the only ones in this situation, surely?

sequestering carbon, several books at a time CXLVIII

 The latest batch:

book review: The Big Picture

Sean M. Carroll.
The Big Picture: on the origins of life, meaning and the universe itself.
Oneworld. 2016

---

In this ambitious work, Carroll covers an enormous range: fundamental physics, cosmology, epistemology, complexity, consciousness, morality.

He shows how (our best current understanding of) fundamental physics allows no room for any ghosts in the machine. He explains the philosophical position of “poetic naturalism”, and how it can be used to tell (well-founded, scientific) “stories” about the emergent macro-world that don’t need to reduce everything to quantum physics, but how this necessarily means we have to omit certain aspects when telling these stories. And he introduces Bayesian reason as a technique for improving understanding at all levels.

This is a bold endeavour, cramming much profound material into 50 chapters, each less than 10 pages, but adding up to over 400 pages of fascinating material. He has interesting insights on a wide range of topics, not just his own speciality of quantum physics, but also epistemology, emergence, complexity, and more. It is a deeply humanistic account, yet grounded in the cold hard light of the constraints of physical reality.

Highly recommended.

sequestering carbon, several books at a time CXLVII

The latest batch before the Christmas presents drop (which means I'm up-to-date on databasing, for a day or so at least!):

sequestering carbon, several books at a time CXLIII

Our Edinburgh bookshops purchases: (yes, I am very behind in databasing new books, but hoping to catch up soon!)

Amusingly, on that one morning we bought two different books, in two different bookshops, by two different Daniel Chandlers.  Neither appears to have a disambiguating middle name.

sequestering carbon, several books at a time CXLII

 Our Inverness bookshop purchases:

sequestering carbon, several books at a time CXLI

While the birthday presents were accumulating, other books not slated to be birthday presents were also accumulating.  Here's that batch:

No, the 43 Visions for Complexity book isn't upside-down.  It just has the title on the spine running upwards, rather than downwards.  I know this is more traditional in other languages, but it makes the bookshelf annoyingly inconsistent when it's done in English-language books.

sequestering carbon, several books at a time CXL

 The latest batch, comprising his'n'hers birthday presents.

sequestering carbon, several books at a time CXXXIX

The latest batch:

sequestering carbon, several books at a time CXXXVIII

 The latest batch:

sequestering carbon, several books at a time CXXXVI

The latest batch:

 

sequestering carbon, several books at a time CXXXIV

 The latest batch:

The Systems Engineering book is a bit weird.  On the spine it says "Blanchard et al", implying at least two more authors; on the front cover it says "Blanchard Fabrycky", which sounds like a single author.  It's actually by Benjamin S. Blanchard and Wolter J. Fabrycky, who are multiply credited in the table of contents as the authors of every individual chapter (so, 25 times).

sequestering carbon, several books at a time CXXXI

 The latest batch, being his'n'hers birthday presents: