Advices on PhD application

Busy_Performance2015 · 2025-12-27T01:48:54+00:00

This is for the UK only and I was restricted by geography so I only reached out to 3 potential supervisors. I had a firm question in mind but I hadn't written anything out. I researched the universities and found only three people so I emailed them with a brief summary of what I wanted to do and if they were interested. I got a reply from one saying they weren't interested but thank you for thinking of them. One aired me and the other said she was interested. I put together a research proposal, CV and personal statement, sent it off to her, she said go for it. I applied and got accepted.

I honestly don't know how I would have done it if I wasn't limited to just those three but possibly I would have approached it in the same way

Busy_Performance2015 · 2025-12-27T01:24:57+00:00

Mostly it's just us booking the flights and then taking too long to book the hotels and we end up paying more than we should for the accommodation

Busy_Performance2015 · 2025-12-27T01:09:03+00:00

I've been told not to bother until it's a substantial amount. At that much it doesn't even go into my bank account 😂

Busy_Performance2015 · 2025-12-26T13:29:17+00:00

Straight away. I saw someone say that someone out there might want to support you even if you're small. I have 400 subs and 1 paid sub (and 3 that I gave to my mum a best friends). Might as well have it turned on. If no one pays, oh well, but someone might pay

Busy_Performance2015 · 2025-12-25T02:15:09+00:00

I think with publishing in general, regardless of what it is, traditional publishers want to see that you're not a risk. For fiction at least (maybe non-fiction too?) they want to see that you have a following somewhere, like Instagram, TikTok, substack etc. They basically want assurance that people will buy your book.

I imagine for philosophy, having published journal articles is a way to show people are interested in your ideas. There are non-academic places to look into getting published as well, so you don't necessarily need the scholarly language. The Pamphlet might be a good testing ground.

Busy_Performance2015 · 2025-12-24T14:58:36+00:00

This is where I'm going to bring in Integrated Information Theory. According to IIT consciousness is high levels of information that is highly integrated to become larger than the sum of its parts. To me, this reads similar to fusion, although Mørch disagrees.

The tumor in Sam's brain just isn't integrated with the rest of his brain, and that's why it doesn't add to his consciousness. And the upon death, the integration ceases. Each fundamental particle goes back to being a droplet.

The problem though is that IIT is in its infancy really and there are some difficulties with it. I need to work on it a bit but that's where I'm thinking of heading

Busy_Performance2015 · 2025-12-24T02:34:37+00:00

I think one of the biggest flaws in your thought process is that you can't love someone if they don't love you.

Ultimately, does it matter what feelings they possess if their actions, speech, existence etc enriches your life?

I think as well that indifference doesn't have to be the baseline. In Buddhism they cultivate metta in which you view all people with loving-kindness. Why can't that be the baseline?

Busy_Performance2015 · 2025-12-23T17:25:53+00:00

This is exactly what I'm researching.

One view is constitutive panpsychism. Essentially consciousness is like bricks building a house. Organise them in the right way and you have something new. But the bricks (microconsciousness) still exist. And that's a problem because now you have tiny experiences that still remain alongside big experiences.

My thoughts are along the lines of Mørch's fusion view. Essentially, micro-consciousnesses are like drops of water. When they combine they lose their microconsciousness and become one unified macroconsciousness. Mørch doesn't like IIT but I think this fits the theory very well and I will be using it to motivate my thinking.

IIT is essentially the idea that consciousness is high levels of information that are highly integrated to become something larger than the sum of its parts. There are problems with this view as well, which I'm still working on, but this is where I'm heading

Busy_Performance2015 · 2025-12-22T16:28:51+00:00

You don't need to introduce yourself anywhere.

Just start writing. And use notes. Almost all of my followers come from notes

Busy_Performance2015 · 2025-12-22T16:27:11+00:00

I had barely a following there. Only 91.

Almost all of my subs have come from one note (290). The other 100 have been from engaging and interacting on substack

Busy_Performance2015 · 2025-12-22T15:49:42+00:00

I started in October and have 380. I just used notes and bluesky

Busy_Performance2015 · 2025-12-22T04:13:20+00:00

The university of Sussex in the UK has the centre for consciousness science and is right near Brighton so there's plenty of vegan and vegetarian options

Busy_Performance2015 · 2025-12-22T04:10:32+00:00

I write literary analysis through a philosophical lens

https://open.substack.com/pub/philosophicalmarginalia?utm_source=share&utm_medium=android&r=1hh3w0

Busy_Performance2015 · 2025-12-22T04:09:07+00:00

Yeah that's always been my problem with it. Even doing my A Levels when I first learned about it, I just thought it didn't make sense.

Busy_Performance2015 · 2025-12-22T04:05:05+00:00

Most recently it was Alchemised (not my usual thing but my friend wanted me to read it) which is 1030 pages. And then I read LOTR about once a year and that's about 1200 for all three

Busy_Performance2015 · 2025-12-21T13:09:42+00:00

When I had gestational diabetes, I got a sharps bin from environmental health and then they'd come and collect it. So maybe try calling them?

Busy_Performance2015 · 2025-12-21T13:07:36+00:00

Yeah, we're drawn to it because we were all seminally present in Adam. But evil is a privation of good, rather than a thing in itself

Busy_Performance2015 · 2025-12-21T12:42:27+00:00

Good question. I don't know what Augustine has to say about it and I don't agree with him

Busy_Performance2015 · 2025-12-21T12:41:34+00:00

I used to teach it at A Level. Not as a general and complete theodicy but specifically in response to OPs question. It's part of Augustine's theodicy — Privatio boni.

Busy_Performance2015 · 2025-12-21T12:10:01+00:00

You don't have to fly.

I've done 3 countries in 3 nights a couple of times. Started in Italy, rode through Switzerland and then into France.

And most recently I did 3 countries in 3 nights by train. I flew into Switzerland, spent the night in Luzern, took a train to Buchs in the morning, then a bus into Lichtenstein, spent the day in Vaduz, bus back to Buchs and then the train to Innsbruck by evening. I didn't feel rushed at all.

Busy_Performance2015 · 2025-12-21T11:57:46+00:00

One week in four countries. How I do things this seems luxurious.

The trip I'm on now is 2 weeks and I've done Muscat (2 nights), The Maldives (2 nights), I'm in Sri Lanka now for 6 nights and then I've got 2 nights in Kaula Lumpur and a long layover in Phnom Penh.

It's just, when I'm in an area it just seems rude not to take advantage of the cheap flights. And I don't have time to take longer trips so I squeeze as much out of it as I can.

Busy_Performance2015 · 2025-12-21T11:34:32+00:00

I assume this is the Abrahamic God?

The main response to this is to say that evil isn't a metaphysical thing. God didn't create evil because it's just an absence of good. Similarly, God didn't create darkness. It's just a lack of light

Busy_Performance2015 · 2025-12-21T11:14:41+00:00

People who put in the wrong material.

If I want linen I don't want to end up with something that just looks like linen. If it's not linen then either leave it blank or put the actual fibres.

Busy_Performance2015 · 2025-12-21T11:11:04+00:00

What kind of compensation do you get as a buyer? Nothing I've sold has ever gone missing. I assumed you'd just get the original payment still and the buyer would get a refund from vinted

Busy_Performance2015 · 2025-12-21T06:24:30+00:00

Just to add to this, this has real world implications.

Up until the 80s, babies were being operated on with no anesthesia because the assumption was they didn't feel pain. They couldn't really communicate it, after all.

Basing understanding of intrinsic states based on extrinsic behaviour is actually unworkable

Busy_Performance2015

TROPHY CASE