Resolving the Ship of Thesus

How I resolve the problem philosophically is how it's handled in the Frictional Games masterpiece SOMA, when Mark Sarang says: "How do we remain the same? A continuous flow of thought and perception keeps an unbroken chain of continuity that we know as our self. Our conscious mind is not the pattern of our brain, but a continuous emergent entity based on that pattern."

And if you take into the fact that our bodies are constantly replacing and renewing our cells, and consider that most of the matter in you is not human, it is mostly a mix of good bacteria.

And if you take in the morality from The Good Place: "What matters isn't if people are good or bad. What matters is if they're trying to be better today than they were yesterday", then in all senses, you are an emergent entity from moment to moment.

Every second your cells are dying and dividing. Every day you try to be a better person than you were yesterday. And over time you might have metal stuck in you holding you together, have a root canal with a crown, or have a pacemaker, and even that may be replaced again. You may change friends, move house, move countries, change partners, and every year get older and put more skills on your CV.

'You' is a constantly changing entity, stretched across time and space, starting from the explosions of a supernova millions of lightyears away and creating stardust that coalesced together in the Earth and eventually created you as you are now. You are stardust, holding itself together with memories, bacteria, titanium screws, and a desire to do a little better tomorrow. So worry less about what you're made of, and more about what you will become.

Thames Water vs Channel 4's Dirty Business

 

Fact checking this leaflet from Thames Water received today:

"Improvements" -> EPA Rating is 1/4 stars

"£20b investment" -> £104m fine by Ofwat for underreported sewage spills

"No dividends since 2017" -> £88.4b siphoned by water companies paid to international investors like Macquarie and paying off court cases to avoid blame

"8p per £1 on financing" -> paying the £15b debt interest to corporate bonds and parent companies

"37p on service" -> paying the £104m fine and fixing leaks (600m litres leak per day)

"Tideway Tunnel progress" -> does nothing for the rest of Thames Water's massive 140,000km network

"Climate change and population growth are to blame" -> these have been predictable and heavily modelled for 30 years since privatisation.

No mention of the children killed by swimming in illegally spilled sewage in our waters.

Your bills are going up to fix 30 years of deliberate under-investment, which has left it more broken than ever. You're paying for Thames Water's negligence.

Pixel upgrade trade-in deals

 The trade-in deals on the Google Store usually make it worth upgrading.

Since they brought out the Pixel line, they've done the excellent trade in deals, with a gift of some kind worth at least £150. Last couple years the gift was the £250 extra on trade in, plus the subscription for Google One. In the past they gave away Bose wireless headphones, or their own in ear pods. I did skip upgrading a couple years cos either the gift wasn't as good or I didn't like the model. The below is from end of last year.

I've had the Pixel 1, 2, 5, 6, 8, 9, 10. Wasn't a fan of the 3, 4, or 7 so skipped those.

The trade in as well, it doesn't have to be a Google phone, they also take iPhones and Samsung and others, and they sometimes pay out more for those than Google's own phones

Having had buggy android phones before with HTC and LG I started with the Nexus 4 cos and just stuck ever since cos I know if there's a problem they'll sort it. And you can get support directly for the whole pixel range, I don't think I've ever had to wait to be talking to someone. They reply to people directly on Reddit and Twitter as well so they know their community.

Plus I'm on their Superfans discord group for meetups and competitions to win tickets and tech.

Rick & Morty S9E1

The compression algorithm that the Collective absorbed in Rick & Morty, I think is related to a real life type of malware called a logic bomb/zip bomb: a very small zip file that contains recursive, self-referential, or 99.9999% compressed dud files and directories.

Meaning it would run forever and fill up all your resources very quickly. Which is why sandboxing and heuristic analysis are invaluable in virus detection, because it's so easy to obfuscate.

A similar idea is used by Superman in the third film, he takes a liquid that is inert when contained, but when exposed to oxygen, heat and iron, turns into violent acid, which probably isn't true to real life but not far off reality.

Reminder of steps for transferring/upgrading Android phones

1. Buy a clear case if not already
2. First boot - skip through all settings except connect to Wifi, to ensure latest OS updates installed, then reset (as may come with previous month's update)
3. Check data backed up and sync is complete
1. backup of phone in Google One
2. photos
3. browser data
4. now playing history
5. documents & downloads etc
6. Whatsapp
7. game progress (e.g. Swordigo no longer transfers)
8. projects like in Sketch
9. config for IoT devices like cameras, SSH and VPNs
10. Disable SIM protection in antivirus before transferring over
4. Swap SIM card over
5. Regular transfer with USB-C (much faster) when prompted. It is asking for the old phone's password, not the Google account.
6. Check all apps installed between the home screens
7. Check all data transferred that may have been missed:
1. hidden directories
2. Downloads (start FTP with Cx File Explorer)
3. SMS and MMS messages
8. Sign in to all apps and check they are up, and deactivated/deregistered on the old phone AFTER setting up the new phone:
1. find my device
2. authenticators and passwords
3. banking
4. antivirus including enabling SIM protection
5. Steam Guard
6. Facebook, Whatsapp, Instagram
7. etc
9. Apply settings
1. gestures
2. remove animations
3. Bluetooth devices (only wifi networks get transferred)
4. random MAC disable
5. disable sync for unused accounts
6. home screen icon shortcuts to browser, e.g. BBC News or Duolingo as their apps are terrible
10. Reset + wipe old phone + Return in packaging, remember to use bubble wrap so it doesn't get damaged on delivery and then you aren't eligible for the full trade-in value.
11. Check Rewards Gateway/Topcashback has tracked the purchase

Original verison: https://x.com/rjc_uk/status/1834272448457445799

My most important, life-changing purchases of the last 10 years

1. portable air con. buy it now while it's out of season! no more sleepless nights because it's too hot

2. air purifier for the bedroom. I don't wake up with blocked sinuses every day anymore

3. ear wax microsuction removal. thought I was going deaf, eardrops stopped working, NHS refused to do anything.

4. 23andme DNA test with health analysis. I found out about things I need to be aware of if I have children, and what diseases I particularly need to look out for later in life so I can plan ahead.

5. a mini toolbox. the number of times I've needed a tiny or regular screwdriver, pliers, etc.

6. wireless headphones. perfect for helping me handle noisy environments

7. label printer for switches and plugs

8. 100W usb charger and 3m USB-C cable

9. Google Pixel series of phones, because they've come with preorder discounts, free subscriptions, decent trade-in special offers, and latest android features and monthly security patches

10. not a purchase, but has saved me ££££s: using Topcashback, Rewards Gateway and Quidco, using Money Saving Expert to earn the best savings, and Compare The Meerkat for the best energy and insurance deals, HotUKDeals for plenty of good deals and free stuff including cheap SIM card plans, and Mobiles.co.uk for super discounted Vodafone SIM

Not Reform

 Reform want to: 

- Replace the NHS with insurance-based healthcare model like the US

- Remove women's right to abortion, equal pay for women, sack women if they're pregnant, make it harder for women to get divorced, and tax women who don't or can't have children

- Cut taxes for wealthy multi millionaires and billionaires like Farage

- Lower minimum wage for younger people

- Allow sacking and rehiring people with a lower salary, and have more zero hour contracts

- Bomb primary schools in Iran

- Cut infrastructure spending by £150bn and use it to buy tanks

- Remove your right to protest and a fair trial

They've already lied to you:

- Raised council tax, said they would cut it 

- Immigration actually costs the taxpayer less than 1%, we actually get a net tax gain from migrants (cost £10bn/yr, raise £23/bn year). If we taxed the billionaires 2% more, that would fund migrants entirely

- Said they would cut waste, but spent £600k on a car park with 8 spaces for their senior employees and making council workers pay for their parking

- Promised to put up Christmas lights but didn't put up any because the union jack flags would be a fire hazard

The problem is the wealthy in their yachts, not asylum seekers desperately fleeing war. Class war not culture war. If you care about this, only Greens and Lib Dems want to introduce taxes on the top 1%.

Privacy

 "I don't mind the government watching everything I'm doing, I have nothing to hide" 

You're confusing privacy with secrecy.

Your privacy is no one else's business, leaks can harm you.

Secrets and lies hide the truth, they can harm others.

What might be harmless today might be used against you in the future. If everyone knew you were the #1 person buying the most Coca Cola in your local store, when it turns out Coca Cola support Trump, people may come after you too.

If you knew the government were tracking your every moment, wouldn't you act differently?

If your data is sold off, a third party or an AI might misinterpret your innocent intentions.

Just because you think there's nothing to hide, doesn't mean you're immune to scrutiny.

Trees

How does a tree know to grow its leaves in spring, and shed them in autumn? Does it keep a calendar? How sunny and cloudy it is? Does it remember the previous seasons?

You imagine there might be one instruction that says "grow" and another that says "drop off". As if it were two separate discrete conditions.

But it's even simpler than that. It is actually one system with two ends. It is bimodal.

The tree is monitoring the temperature and sunlight. As it gets warmer and brighter, a chemical says grow. As the weather cools and gets darker, the chemical auxin stops saying grow. It is a temperature-dependent instruction. And other chemical comes in to cut off the leaves and seal it.

It is akin to a sympathetic and parasympathetic pathway in the human body.

UK Mobile Networks Explained 2026

There are only 3 networks now: Vodafone/Three (recently merged), O2, EE. 

Tesco Mobile and Giffgaff uses O2's network. So if you have bad signal with O2, you'll have bad signal with any other MVNO that uses O2. 

You should go on the Ofcom website because they have maps of what signal is like for each of them over the UK.

I've been with Tesco, Vodafone, Giffgaff, Three, Lebara, Anywhere SIM, and Sky.

I would recommend Vodafone purely because they have the best network. I've done tests carrying several phones around with me using free SIM cards and testing the signal between Reading and Leatherhead, and Vodafone was the best. Then it's O2, and finally EE. This lines up with the Ofcom maps as well.

If you care more about customer service specifically, Tesco has the best, followed by Giffgaff. Three has the worst customer service. Vodafone customer service is not the best, however, they also have the best deals if you get a SIM via mobiles.co.uk SIM only that gives you cashback. I'm currently on £7/mo after cashback for 200GB data, unlimited texts and minutes. And I have an e-SIM installed with Sky (O2) for £1/mo for 1GB data/mo, as a backup in case of bad signal.

Also check out topcashback.co.uk as there are often good deals on there for new contracts, and you can combine it with mobiles.co.uk cashback

And finally, also check for SIM deals on HotUKDeals.com as sometimes Lebara and similar have deals for £1/mo for 100GB for 6 months.