The Chicken or the Egg

Recently I handed in three course outlines for lectures I am to hold next semester (40-50 lectures of 90 minutes each). "Outlines" seems to be a deceptive word, though, as the outlines are complex documents. But any way one looks at it, the process seems back to front. One can't think of everything in advance, to put into the outlines, nor can one hold the lectures first, and complete the outlines later. OBSERVATION: It does help, however, that one can look at other outlines, and other lectures, for reference.

Perfect Obedience

What is freedom? We had more of it once. Now, people are willing to submit every detail of their behaviour to machines. This is a quote from Gemini AI:

"To eliminate all doubt regarding your physiological details and behavioral habits, you need a multi-device ecosystem. The most comprehensive approach pairs an advanced smartwatch with a continuous glucose monitor (CGM) and a smart ring, utilizing artificial intelligence algorithms to process your real-time data."

OBSERVATION: It occurs to me that the biggest question -- namely, why we should do all this -- is completely absent.

1,600,000 Page-Views

My blog recently swept past 1,600,000 page-views. I asked Gemini AI why it has so many readers. The answer:

Thomas Scarborough’s blog, Urban Ministry Live and Unplugged, has achieved significant viewership—exceeding 1.5 million total views as of April 2026—due to its unique blend of raw personal narrative, cross-disciplinary expertise, and global accessibility. 

Key Drivers of Popularity: Authentic "Unplugged" Voice, Global Reach & Translation, Broad Intellectual Appeal, Readability, and Encouragement for Clergy.

Reworked Lecture

I thoroughly reworked my Annual Philosophy Lecture of Malta, and put it up on (click here) YouTube. For several months before this, I lost the drive to write, which troubled me greatly. When I got to doing a radical revision, I found it was all there in my head. Without having given it any deliberate thought, I had been doing a complete rethink.

The Nameless

Another philosophical post, this. It is interesting to note that the existentialist thinker Karl Jaspers, in his 1931 book, Man in the Modern Age, speaks of the nameless: 

"Only beyond the unknown and in contradistinction to it, can man encounter the incomprehensible, which is not the temporarily unknown but the essentially nameless. The nameless which could be grasped would never have been the nameless."

OBSERVATION: The nameless is a concept which winds its way through my own philosophy -- and many other philosophies, too. AI considers that, in my philosophy, "the nameless Whole is the vast reality that lies beyond all the concepts, categories, names, and definitions humans create."

Jaspers and Derrida

I am reading the existentialist philosopher Karl Jaspers at the moment -- not for content, really, but for style. It is interesting to note how close, back in 1949, he came to core thoughts of Derrida in 1967 and beyond:

"The old mythical world slowly sank into oblivion ... This overall modification of humanity may be termed spiritualisation. The unquestioned grasp on life is loosened, the calm of polarities becomes the disquiet of opposites and antinomies. Man is no longer enclosed within himself. He becomes uncertain of himself and thereby open to new and boundless possibilities."

POSTSCRIPT: Was Derrida a copy-cat? 

Capacitor Torch

In October 2000, I published the world's first capacitor-powered wind-up torch, in EPE magazine. After that. I went on to publish a few variations. I always carry one of mine with me (shown) on travels. OBSERVATION: The reason why I designed a wind-up torch at all is that I was caught in a hurricane (cyclone) in Fiji -- Cyclone Ami -- and my battery torch failed on a dark dirt road as I tried to find my way home through the storm. I was determined not to rely on batteries again!

POSTSCRIPT: It was only around the year 2000 that the technology to build such a torch became available. I saw the possibilities.

Visit to the Dentist

I had to cancel a dentist's appointment today because my garage became enveloped in chaos -- an endless stream of disorder and confusion -- and I had no car! My previous dentist's handiwork had broken apart in just a few weeks: "This is a big one," he had said -- a molar split in two. So I now found the nearest dentist -- who happened to have nothing to do. As usual, I declined an anaesthetic. The dentist (a young woman) worked on my tooth, while a senior dentist hovered around and told her what to do. Wife E said, You were a guinea pig!" -- which I probably was. The dentist finished up and said, "I hope this will work," and I said, "I hope so, too!" OBSERVATION: At least that solved the problem of the tooth -- though not the problem of the car, which should have been fixed five times over by now.

2,743 Word Letter

An author wrote to me today -- if it is an author -- a 2,743-word letter, in which she lavished meticulous praise on my book (click here) This Town -- noting that it has a "strong score" on the Internet. This would indicate that the public appreciates it, and it would deserve better promotion. OBSERVATION: Now, a 2,743-word letter is as long as ... say, a 20-minute sermon -- not to speak of the time one would need to write it. A little common sense informs one that this letter was not written by a human -- and that the motives are ulterior. Of course, my book has a "strong score" -- that is true.

POSTSCRIPT: It seems to me that the AI works like this: it identifies gems on the Internet which could be doing better. Then it creates a suitable letter, proposing (or even just hinting at) better publicity.

‘Commoner’

Recently, someone called wife E (centre) a "commoner". Oooh. E is descended of both King Mpondo and King Gando -- two separate royal lineages. She said go look up my lineage. The Gando lineage, however, ceased to be a royal lineage when there was a succession battle, and part of the royal clan seceded. That seceded part is still seeking today, hundreds of years later, to have their royal status restored. The Mpondo lineage is still a royal lineage today. OBSERVATION: A few years back, wife E's brother was fined for snubbing the Mpondo clan in his initiation to manhood -- paradoxically an honour and a disgrace at the same time.

POSTSCRIPT: Apparently the royal lineage of Gando has been restored. I received this note over on Facebook: "Our royal linage was restored, because Tshawe and Mkwayi did make peace, under the rule that a son from the amaTshawe clan can marry a girl from the Mkwayi clan, but a son from the Mkwayi can never marry a girl from the Tshawe clan. If that happened, then the amaKwayi clan would be chased out of the royal house ... but the amaKwayi was welcomed back and accepted again into the royal lineage. We fall under AmaTshawe."

A Sense of Peace

We had a couple in Church once who had four children without having married. But the gentleman concerned said to me that there was no sense of security in their relationship, and it worked deeply on his partner's spirit. That this was in fact so, he said, was confirmed when he decided to "do the right thing", and married her. When he did, a sense of peace descended on their home. OBSERVATION: This was a "good one", so I asked him to give his testimony in Church -- and he did.

My Own Helpful Book

I am now preparing course outlines for my upcoming seminary programme. This is a fairly intensive task. One needs to produce a comprehensive, systematic overview of one's courses. Now there is something that I have found very useful in this task, and that is my very own book Everything, Briefly. Because it develops a complete, systematic view of everything, it provides me with many of the concepts that I need. OBSERVATION: In spite of it being a philosophy book, I find it very useful theologically. The book is on (click here) Amazon. 

Buying Electricity

South Africa is enough to drive anyone mad. Today, I wanted to buy prepaid electricity. First I tried PayPortal, which has worked for me before. PayPortal refused to send me a PIN number, and timed out. I tried to call them, and their system reported overload. So I tried FNB bank. FNB notified me that my payment was refused. At the same time, they sent me confirmation of payment. My money was gone (this has happened before, and they would not refund me). I now tried PayCity. They took all my information, then deleted it and instructed me to register. I tried again. But PayCity now refused to send me a PIN number. I tried prepaid24. Again I first needed to register. prepaid24 referred me to FNB to make a payment to prepaid24. Next thing, I was hit by a blizzard of notifications from prepaid24 (I count eight). OBSERVATION: However, prepaid24 delivered the goods. Fourth time lucky -- I had the electricity. Wife E said she wouldn't have had the patience.

Mission Correspondence

I have much of my father's official correspondence from the mission -- he was Chief Missionary in the Gilbert Islands. The London Missionary Society caused him endless grief -- and looking at the correspondence, it seems clear why. The Missionary Society had little idea what he was doing, or what the conditions were: travelling week by week from village to village to strengthen the Church, in primitive conditions. He, on the other hand, wrote to them about the business of the Society: say, ageing water tanks or students' bunks. What he was really doing was documented in other, often local or personal papers. He did an impressive work, and his name is still revered among the people. OBSERVATION: He told me that, when he met with the Society afterwards for a debriefing session, the General Secretary introduced him to the Board as their Chief Missionary from the Gilbert Islands. A Board member asked, "Where's that?"

The Nameless Whole

Artificial Intelligence (AI) has a fairly good grasp of my philosophy by now. Here is what ChatGPT says about my concept of the "Nameless Whole". One can read this by clicking on it -- alternatively right-clicking and saving. It is a very good summary of a major aspect of my thought. OBSERVATION: I believe it is original philosophy -- not a repeat of what anyone else has said.