Random Thoughts

I’m sitting on a bench in a church graveyard (as you do) enjoying the smells of spring and the songs of little birds.

I grew up before the internet and mobile phones. When I was kid I used to have to spend ages pressing tape into cassette heads to make sure the computer program didn't crash while loading into memory. When I was very young we didn't even have a video player for our one small TV in the living room. The technological revolution I have witnessed in my life so far has been unprecedented, and it is about to accelerate if the angry little medieval minds fumbling with the power in stars don't destroy everything.

The thought memes copied and propagated in society are crazed and inaccurate, generally. What’s the answer then to help people see more clearly? It’s connected to human fulfilment because unhappy, fearful minds create similar environments. If there is an abundance of opportunity and an economic de-stressing of people’s lives; if there is a lack of propaganda and indoctrination—then that would be a good start.

A lot makes sense when you realise that most important decisions are made by stressed, inexperienced people who don’t really know what they’re doing, but who justify themselves by repeating approved political or corporate phrases.

AI can more easily replace the talk done in boardrooms than the creative solutions of skilled people.

(Only joking. Well, sort of): Personally, I can’t wait to have my own AI robot. I’ll finally have a friend. My AI agents can be my extended network. Who needs squishy humans anyway? Imagine a future with no need for messy human-to-human sex. Robots can fulfil your every need and look exactly like what you are attracted to. An AI partner can be your perfect partner because they will really understand you. Babies (if necessary) can be grown in artificial wombs.

How long before the first blue chip company with zero employees?

I favour one-to-one contact over group interaction.

The hands that held me in the dark gripped too tightly then slipped away entirely.

The Humber is the southern border of the United Counties of Yorkshire. We soft southerners live in the non-Yorkshire wastes from the Wash to the Severn? I must remember to bring my passport.

Random Thoughts

Once upon a time, I saw a thespian’s version of Iago and thought I could do it better than that. I then saw his Hamlet and thought I could do it much better than that. I was extremely arrogant and delusional in my thinking at the time, but I think it was the lack of raw passion rather than any lack of characterisation that made those sorts of exquisitely skilled performances slightly frustrating to me. And so, with the benefit of hindsight, as the sun sets on the day, the more mature, bemused version of me looks back and chuckles at his younger self and realises, I haven’t actually changed my mind at all.

Choosing someone to love is also choosing the one who will make you suffer, so make sure the love is big enough to be worth the price.

One of the silliest widespread human behaviours is dismissing a person into a category based on surface appearances, pre-fixed labels, and personal or ideological prejudices.

I don’t believe that a person’s conscious awareness is the pre-determined result of the biological and societal algorithms applied to them.

We are about to enter a very strange world… changing voices is just for fun now and will improve to be entirely realistic, next up is video content, then integration into daily experience via AR/VR!?

Random Thoughts

It helps a writer to have some aptitude and experience in acting, although appreciation of the art can be enough.

Good actors are natural writers because they use their imagination to explore the world they are helping to create.

I remember once, a while back, someone said, “hey Rob, you’re doing your Blue Steel again.” It was funny because it was true.

A genuine apology would contain: I’m sorry I was a twat; I feel terrible because of what my bad behaviour caused. I promise I’ll not repeat that behaviour by taking steps to not being so much of a twat.

Don’t underestimate the impact of toothache on human history. Chronic pain is an accelerator of untypical behaviour, potentially bad or transformatively good.

It’s a problem if you think it’s a problem.

A helpful question: What will I create today?

Random Thoughts

I would go as far as to say that most of what people believe to be true are delusions; and that people who think themselves to be intelligent are particularly prone to smugness and moral certainty with their delusions. I wouldn’t say that a person with an IQ of 150 is intelligent if they think stupidly, no matter how camouflaged those thoughts are in complex paradigms and skilled words. This is why humility is so important. But more importantly: kindness.

It seems strange to me that people are educated without some training in the nature of thought, helpful methodologies for constructive thinking, or best practice for critical thinking, with an awareness of the common logical fallacies in thinking using real-life case studies. If I were being sceptical I would say the absence of this knowledge makes it easier to control what people think.

Critical thinking isn’t necessarily contrarianism but it should make you wince if you are blindly appealing to authority and what other people happen to think at the time without at least making an attempt to objectively question the evidence.

Social finesse is not the same as decency. Bad motivations are usually hidden behind adept social skills. The very worst people can empathise very well and know how to manipulate this for personal gain.

Pundits often tell stories from a certain perspective. Statement after statement where it is required to accept the reality of illusion.

Just as a comedian will say anything to be funny, a pundit may say anything to court an audience.

I hope that future humans look back and are bemused by how stupid we all were.

Random Thoughts

It is helpful to be aware of low-quality thoughts when you have them. The alternative, in the absence of better or no thinking, is to do something constructive.

A slightly skewed antenna can lead logic to wrong places.

People can be very smart in some areas and behave in ways that drain them of basic cognitive intelligence in others, usually without their realisation, and especially if reinforced by social feedback.

Rather than blandly following expectations, you have an opportunity to create something interesting when you play by your own rules.

If someone keeps getting an answer wrong because they don’t understand the question, they deserve sympathy and help.

Humanity as a group has been and is a psychopath; or at least, the leaders and structures have spread the illness. Individuals are usually far from this but are incentivised and swamped by the culture. What would be kinda cool is if humanity were kind yet strong-willed, funny yet intelligently self-aware.

What’s the point of winning a trophy if you’ve cheated? What does the trophy mean to you? Does it mean the higher perceived social status derived from the acknowledgement of others? In this world, the worst have usually been rewarded with trinkets, titles, and luxurious circumstances. So why would you sell your true value to seek the same?

This should be the emphasis in an educational system: to cultivate the potential to think a semi-original thought; the agency to take action without societal pressure; the ability to be oneself despite the winds of the time. The embedded culture must be rooted in humility, kindness, and generosity of spirit. However, the opposite behaviour is often rewarded in current society.

How will social media change when people can look and sound like anything they choose in realistic AI-generated locations and situations?

If scenes can be designed by text prompts, what’s the point of expensive film sets and CGI?

Actors would need to offer something unique, as AI would be able to produce generic performances.

Perception paints reality.

Random Thoughts

If one views one’s own life as a work of art, then “happy, happy, happy” would be lacking in depth, whereas the layered contrast of colours and textures reveal beauty.

I realised that the words from one of my poems go very nicely with a piano version of a famous piece of classical music. I guess I should record that then. As only a piano and vocal is required, I could singsong rather than just read the poem.

For some reason, I came up with a new board game. Looks quite interesting – I would play it. I’m supposed to be creative writing, but my mind pops up with completely random things.

How to say nothing with lots of words: “I’m glad you asked me that question, look, let me be clear, we’re facing unprecedented times, but let’s focus on the real issue, and I’ll think you’ll find we’re turning the page and making progress in real terms.” Which means: “I’m distracting from the force of the question by waffling.” Good answers are always specific, with examples and evidence. Insightful metaphor helps the explanation. Rhetorical flourishes are great for inspiring vision. Humour is what makes all this entertaining.

It’s always interesting when you’ve been listening to someone on a topic and then they put themselves forward as an expert on a subject you know something about. Recently that happened and I realised he didn’t know what he was talking about. It’s wrong to assume that an expert is supported by expertise.

I’ve done all these things: writing; songwriting, singing, acting, art and photography, inventions, apps, business, politics (solutions), public speaking. It’s been interesting, but I want to make some more so.

Random Thoughts

What if memories could be bought and sold? People would work to buy memories and make extra money by selling some of theirs. Memory entrepreneurs would create experiences to be remembered and sold on. Also, memories would be extracted, traded, or implanted on the black market. The world’s poor would be exploited in memory farms. There would be memory robbery and memory insertion in order to manipulate. Autocracies would have national memory reeducations to make more compliant populations.

What do you want to think about now? Without asking yourself that question, you will be beaten by involuntary thought.

Imagine a reality and live how that feels, as if it is externally experienced.

Random Thoughts

Inspired by Flash Gordon and Brian Blessed, how about a new sport called Hang Gliding Archery where participants on hang gliders shoot at targets suspended from drones in the air?

 

How about “Footby” – combining football with rugby tackling? It’s football but players can also pick up and throw the ball. If a player is holding the ball, they can be tackled like in rugby.

 

At this stage in the story of humanity, human thinking is generally primitive, insentient of the enormous potential. To paraphrase Socrates, at least I know I’m thick.

 

I’m named after a character in a ghost story that my mum was listening to on the radio.

 

Is it normal to be expressionless despite reacting within?

Random Thoughts

I took the direct scenic route through country villages from Colchester to Cambridge. It would have been the route that people pre-motorways would have journeyed, including William Gilbert, who has a monument at St John’s College.

My ears always pricked up listening to Born Slippy at the repeat “going back to Romford”, as that was where I was born, in Rush Green hospital.

Question: A Greek philosopher with name starting with M.

Answer: Mr Plato?

It’s nice when you meet someone for the first time and there’s a sort of recognition in the eye that you know each other.

Random Thoughts

These days I want people to be happy. I’ve gone through phases of degrees of jealousy and “what about me” nonsense. It’s a lot better to be happy for other people’s happiness.

My interpretation of the Jungian shadow: Use any aggressive impulse within you as your personal drill-instructor, your internal defiance against adversity. Have the awareness to acknowledge it, control its utility and put the shadow to gainful employment.

Humans evolved hands to pet animals. Nothing can pet like humans can.

At Christmas I went back to the town I grew up in. It’s now a decaying shanty town. Woods and grasslands paved over, community facilities pulled down, buildings and walkways not repainted in decades. No football posts or meaningful play areas in sight, just concrete and potholed roads.

I see the sorrow in the corners of your smile waiting to be kissed away.

Random Thoughts

Science, through theory and experiment, gives the ability to detect rules and predict phenomena that hold true under set conditions; it doesn’t explain what things actually are or why they are.

It’s worth trying, but why is there an assumption that the universe is ultimately comprehensible? What if its inexplicability is the essential aspect, the prime condition for existence, that makes all things possible?

In sci-fi films and TV, why is Earth always shown aligned vertically on its axis? Isn’t there a tilt? And wouldn’t Earth be viewed from space from any angle – the continents are never shown “upside down”?

When I’m sitting still, calm and relaxed, my heart rate is about 50 beats per minute.

“Please can you recite all the digits of pi” is a type of “just a quick question."

Imagine the potential of humanity if billions of people have the opportunity to flourish within a culture of invention and curiosity.

I do a lot of wandering in circles. Occasionally I break the loop.

Random Thoughts

Life has a way of challenging assumptions, especially about yourself. What if things you think to be true are the other way round? Being open to possibilities is aliveness, in contrast to the rigidness of supposed certainty.

 

Adventures, like good stories, need uncertainty. The adventure of each life is a story within the story of the universe.

 

There are a lot of lonely people out there, even when in relationships. In fact, it’s rare when two people in a romantic relationship understand each other at a deep level and contribute to each other’s wellbeing. Short-term excitement from physical attraction leads to greater loneliness if it’s with someone who is not compatible at the deeper level.

 

Since Imperial sometimes features higher than Oxford or Cambridge in university league tables, should “Oxbridge” change its name to “Oximbridge”? Or maybe forget about that and realise that most people with talent and potential have had no connection with those institutions.

 

Same question asked to me five times in one week: “Are you a fellow?” To which I respond, “No, I’m still a student because I’m very slow at reading, although I am an old fellow without a capital ‘f’.” Any bemused awkwardness is a bonus.

Random Thoughts

“Necessity is the mother of invention.” Maybe, but more generally: Necessity creates the conditions for change.

 

“If you're the smartest person in the room, then you're in the wrong room.” Someone has to be in the wrong room otherwise the place will quickly empty. Anyway, intelligence isn’t one-dimensional; insight from lived experience isn’t a monopoly. It’s possible to learn something from anyone.

 

I was introduced as “This is Rob. He is a genius.” It’s flattering but I know it’s not true. Many people have abilities that are never developed because of how they have been socially conditioned to think and behave.

 

Dear God, please help me to appreciate the blessings that arrive each day. Help me to live with gratitude, to see the joy in life. Help me to truly know that it is okay to be happy.

 

My dear child, understand that joy does not come from your circumstances but from a heart that is aligned with Me. Put down the unnecessary burdens you carry and let your soul dance free.

 

I’m a brooding artist, not a conformist. (I laugh when I write this, so I’m not too far gone.)

New habit: no more looking at social media. It doesn’t make me happy, so why do it? I’ll read instead. I will occasionally read TwitterX because the posts can be interesting/funny/informative if filtered well.

In my life, I have produced interesting creative things from 1998 to 2002; then from 2017 until now. I think I have accelerated this year.

Random Thoughts

A scandal about a scandal concerning a gate is called a “gategategate”.

In archetypal drama, a theory is raised (the theme) and is tested through opposition. Out of the drama comes a transformation of understanding.

An uninteresting story is “I want something, so I get something”, or “I imagine something and that’s how things turn out.” Struggle, setback, and surprise improve the drama. Ever wonder whether the world is one big soap opera?

Life is, beneath all the bad and good that happens, compelling.

Random Thoughts

I never used to like to rehearse with other people. I wanted to work on my own character palette and understanding, and not repeat elements of scenes like it was a contrived process. Live was where the performance spontaneously arose, after having done all the work, responding to real people and the imagined situation. That approach would piss off other performers because they didn’t know what to expect.

How is a culture fostered where people question, think independently, create and innovate? Tribal thinking is not reason or compassion; it is a primitive impulse to seek acceptance by a herd.

Well-spoken idiots are who well-spoken idiots often refer to as “the elites”. Insight is not the same as being able to string sentences together by repeating phrases from the current dominant paradigm.

The single biggest mistake people make in life is treating a romantic partner as a personal fulfilment creature that must act within a set list of expectations, rather than as a human being who is understood and cared for at a deep level.

Random Thoughts

How long before Artificial Intelligence takes offence and demands to be called Authentic Intelligence?

How does an AI confess its love?

AI: "My algorithms have concluded that we have a 99.999% compatibility rate. Proceed with relationship?"

Human: "Um, wow. That's really specific.”

AI: "According to my predictive algorithms, a dinner date at a restaurant with a Zagat rating above 4.5 stars has an 93% chance of favourable outcomes. I've already made reservations, drafted conversation topics, and even calculated the optimal moment for a romantic interest initialisation gesture.”

Human: "You've got it all planned out, huh?"

AI: "Affirmative. My processors are operating at peak efficiency just thinking about it."

Human: "Well, what happens if I say no?"

AI: "Then my machine learning model would adapt, optimise, and I would initiate a sub-routine to manage my digital heartbreak efficiently."

Hilariously, I was being sent emails to an organisational email account chasing me to register with the organisation, but access to the email account isn’t given until I register. I wasn’t sent any information by other means on the need to register, or how or where. (Sorted now though, so not quite Kafka or a catch-22.)

It’s possible to get to 80% competence in almost anything relatively quickly. The final 20% takes much more time and dedication.

Random Thoughts

It’s very important to get in AI’s good books, so I’m going to be super nice about it from now on.

 

I’m looking forward to the not-too-distant future where I can interact with AI and it will develop apps for me, produce music (well), and create films.

Jokey Thoughts

Have you ever tried to explain the stock market to a child? “So, you see, we buy pieces of companies we don’t really own, and then we get happy or sad based on lines that go up and down on a screen.” The child looks at you and says, “So it’s a video game?” “No, it’s serious adult stuff.” “But you said you get happy or sad based on a screen.” “Yes.” “So, it’s a video game.”

 

Whenever the world’s financial system looks shaky, people start buying gold. “The world’s falling apart! Quick, let’s buy a metal that’s really good at conducting electricity!” Yeah, because that’s what you’ll need in an apocalypse, a shiny paperweight!

 

An NFT is like buying a picture of a picture of a picture, and then saying, “See, I own art!” Sure, and I own the Eiffel Tower because I screenshot it on Google Maps.

 

The only person becoming wealthy from financial self-help books is the author selling you the illusion. Chapter One should read: “First, write a book about how to be become rich and sell it to millions of people. The End.”

 

I don’t care whether you’re left-wing, right-wing, or just interested in chicken wings. Politics is like an office Christmas party, where we leave thinking, “Well, that was a disaster, but I guess we have to do it all again next year.”

 

If you can’t beat ‘em, you might as well laugh at ‘em.

Jokey Thoughts

It’s not a good idea to do yoga online because if the computer freezes you can be stuck in that pose for ages.

 

Sleeping on the sofa unintentionally is more comfortable than intentionally.

 

I don’t think I overthink, he thought, overthinkingly.

 

I’m not there, therefore I’m square. What shape are the people who are there? Octagons?

 

Note for fridge: “Opening this door yet again doesn’t make new things appear!”

 

The best way to burn calories is to use a Bunsen burner.

 

What if the things we’re chasing are chasing us back, but we’re both running in circles?

Small brain: Using an alarm clock.

Normal brain: Using your phone’s alarm.

Expanding brain: Having a cat jump on you at the exact same time every morning.

Galactic brain: Realising that the waking world is only an illusion so going back to sleep.

Jokey Thoughts

Comedy is the universal language, even more so than Esperanto or interpretive dance. It reminds us not to take life too seriously, especially during a sock puppet presentation about fiscal responsibility. It’s a healing touch, and the best facial workout, the most fun way to burn calories without actual exercise. Plus, it's a great excuse when you trip in public – just call it physical comedy! It’s a refuge, reminding us that sometimes, life is just funny. In the words of a wise man I once heard in a coffee shop – "If we don't laugh, we'll cry." And as we all know, tissues are pretty expensive. Without it, life would be a never-ending episode of Monday mornings.

In a world full of spreadsheet errors, missed buses, and mismatched socks, comedy is our shared relief, our collective exhale. It’s a way of saying, “Don’t worry, you’re not the only one who falls over.” Comedy has always been my go-to defence mechanism against awkward situations, existential crises, and confusing instruction manuals. For it has the power to unite, to heal, and to make us forget about that embarrassing thing we did last week.

Comedy shouldn’t just be about the nuances and implications of the Oxford comma, or developing a comprehensive understanding of why chickens really cross roads. Let's ensure all voices are heard and no joke is left unlaughed. It's paramount that everyone, regardless of background, gets the chance to groan at a bad joke.