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And now my car fails me
Nov. 10th, 2019 12:17 pmNot sure if user error or not. The AA are coming to check it over. I hope it’s not a fuel problem. I put the requisite £30 on Friday and drove for a bit. Pretty sure I didn’t misfuel it, but... and it has been not idling properly on and off for a while; normally after I have refuelled. I’m beginning to wonder if some supplies of petroleum spirit are slightly, er, um, adulterated. Of course if it turns out the fuel tank is full of diesel it is definitely user error, else it points to some other problem in the car, or externalities. I await the verdict of the experts. Of course if it is user error I will start thinking that cognitive decline is approaching; and double-checking myself on all accounts. Here’s hoping I’m not headed for dementia quite yet; that would have left me such a small window for intellectual activity of a level appropriate to my ego.
Oh well. That any of us lose our cognitive abilities at any time is a tragedy. Give me a couple of thousand years of existence and I will eventually understand how great Ramanujan was, or Gödel. I have an inkling of how great Wittgenstein was in a slightly different field; and Shakespeare in another; and Goethe, and Homer, et al ad infinitum. And we lost them without much fuss.
But when it comes to losing yourself while still living; I would not lose myself, given a choice. Indeed, if given a choice, in such circumstances, I would find the ideal balance between enjoying life, being independent within reason, and the descent into imbecility; with the option to end the process quickly and painlessly at any point along the paths, even on a whim; and fold myself into the embrace of the infinite before the drawing of a veil over my brief period of lucidity.
I’m not sure what any of the organised religions would say about that attitude. I suspect they would excommunicate me had I been a member of any of them. I was born into the Catholic faith but found it impossible to continue in it beyond my teens, though some of the church’s prejudices remained with me longer, to my shame.
Methinks Omega is of an order of magnitude only appreciable to the arithmeticians of infinity. So I guess Georg Cantor is a prophet who unlocked some of the secrets of the multiverse and the universe in which we find ourselves. Mapping the shape and size of the potential/possible god is such a presumptuous thing to do I’m surprised we are allowed to exist... mind you if I were god I’d have given Georg a handclap and merit-badge rather than the short existence he had, poor lad. I guess to make up for that, this universe did contain Bach, so Omega may not be entirely beyond redemption.
To be Manichæistic should be the default position of existence; for we should hold our gods to account.
update:
According to the AA guy it is one of the car’s head gaskets. I didn’t misfuel. Not demented yet.
Oh well. That any of us lose our cognitive abilities at any time is a tragedy. Give me a couple of thousand years of existence and I will eventually understand how great Ramanujan was, or Gödel. I have an inkling of how great Wittgenstein was in a slightly different field; and Shakespeare in another; and Goethe, and Homer, et al ad infinitum. And we lost them without much fuss.
But when it comes to losing yourself while still living; I would not lose myself, given a choice. Indeed, if given a choice, in such circumstances, I would find the ideal balance between enjoying life, being independent within reason, and the descent into imbecility; with the option to end the process quickly and painlessly at any point along the paths, even on a whim; and fold myself into the embrace of the infinite before the drawing of a veil over my brief period of lucidity.
I’m not sure what any of the organised religions would say about that attitude. I suspect they would excommunicate me had I been a member of any of them. I was born into the Catholic faith but found it impossible to continue in it beyond my teens, though some of the church’s prejudices remained with me longer, to my shame.
Methinks Omega is of an order of magnitude only appreciable to the arithmeticians of infinity. So I guess Georg Cantor is a prophet who unlocked some of the secrets of the multiverse and the universe in which we find ourselves. Mapping the shape and size of the potential/possible god is such a presumptuous thing to do I’m surprised we are allowed to exist... mind you if I were god I’d have given Georg a handclap and merit-badge rather than the short existence he had, poor lad. I guess to make up for that, this universe did contain Bach, so Omega may not be entirely beyond redemption.
To be Manichæistic should be the default position of existence; for we should hold our gods to account.
update:
According to the AA guy it is one of the car’s head gaskets. I didn’t misfuel. Not demented yet.
