Dr John’s Collected Stories Volume 2.
Index of Stories from Past Months by Dr John Rose.
It has been a busy month of fingers punching my poor abused keyboard. Not to mention running the mouse to exhaustion. This is volume two of my collection of stories. I arranged them after an enlightening curry dinner and drinking a few cups of inspirational coffee.
My son tried to find a book in my library yesterday and has insisted I re-arrange them in “proper” order. I have no trouble finding books as they are arranged according to when and where I last read them. Like magpies, they move around and migrate between shelves and reading spots in the apartment. I love magpies.
Personal Information.
The trouble with biographies is they get too long and tedious to read, especially when you are my age and have a really annoying memory. So like Solomon I chopped my biography in two. Chippy Chop!
The first one is a bit of grumpy social history. The second one concentrates on my grumpy experience in technology and research. I like the first one, because it has a nice picture of the little forest where I take my daily walk stumbling over roots and rocks. The second one is about critical thinking, although in my mind it was more critical bickering than thinking.
Coping with Community.
My “Community Values” story has a checkered history and took some time to write. It started when I was given a picture of a recent family dinner, one of my grandchildren is holding a fork. One thing led to another and it ended up about planning to survive natural disasters. Not sure how it got there.
Meeting family and friends at the local coffee shop has been one of my life’s perennial enjoyments. The coffeeshop has changed over the years, but the ritual dance of coffee, ideas, memories and anecdotes is ageless.
Technology and Ideas: “Thinkin About stories”.
“What is AI Really? Want to Try AI?” is based on talks I give my students about AI. It’s my attempts to dispel the misinformation and hype surrounding AI. In this story I thought to add in some links that would take you through some exercises to see how AI worked — an exercise in “learning by doing”.
The internet is cluttered with old research about the brain and how we think. I thought to put things into a modern light by thinking of the mind/brain in terms of complexity theory.
Thinking up new ideas and the process of Thinking have always fascinated me. One thing that is vital for a researcher, like myself, is to know when an idea is “new”.
Gaia
“Stock Markets from Gaia’s Perspective.” came about through my long fascination with the stock exchange. My approach is to think of the Stock Exchange as a human ecosystem that is a component of Gaia, the living Earth. This story is about my exploration of applying Gaianism concepts to the stock market.
“How to Explore the Songlines of Gaia.” relates how I developed a way to help me understand some of the complex interactions in Gaia’s ecosystems.
Sometimes I just marvel at the notion of “Life Finds a Way”, my favourite scene from the original Jurassic Park movie.
My first story in Illumination dates from 2020. and it was titled “Gaia and I”. So it seemed fitting that when I re-joined Illumination after all the pandemic lockdowns and dislocation that I revisit my original story and update it to “Gaia and I in 2022”.
Poetry
Standing at The Garage Door always prompts a question “Walk or Drive?” This poem is about what happened when I made the wrong decision.
“Car, Train or Just go for a Forest Walk?” was to be a story about using my car to visit the family’s newest grandson. However, the tale morphed into some sort of social commentary. Writing lurched from happy poetry to bitter prose and then stoic verse. It did have a happy ending and a vision of beauty and hope.
Reflections on my daily walks. The mind walks in daydreaming peace in the company of Kookaburras.
“John’s Stray Friday Thoughts”. It is just about impressions and thoughts on a Friday about feeding, or at least attempting to feed magpie perched on one hand and take a picture with an iPhone in the other.
“Forest Songs” explains why I love my forest walk. It is an escape from the suburban routines that cleanses my mind and gives me a sense of my connectedness with Gaia.
Blessed be, I’m not yet a tree.
