My
life has been configured to pursue a number of projects, each one requiring
planning, training, and execution; the rest are fill-ins. These projects are,
in order of appearance:
1. fly military
jet planes (1966-72);
2. search for and find diamonds in South America (1972-73);
3. travel on an ocean-going sailing yacht (1975-83);
4. do research and write a book on thought structures in society (1986-92);
5. acquire the skills to emulate such thought structures through a computer
program (1994-99);
6. and the last one so far, explaining how the mind works from the scale of
individuals to society at large and writing the book demonstrating its framework
in history and the present, plus creating a computer program which uses that
system (a prototype of an artificial mind) (2000-03).
Since then the
task has been to ascertain the usefulness of the model and make it known to
a wider audience.
In the course
of these pursuits forty different countries had been visited plus varying
demographics within them; all as a traveller, not tourist. Nothing surprises
me about the human condition or, as Goethe said, "Nichts menschliches
ist mir fremd".
Conferences:
Invited to the IPSI-2005
Venice conference in November 2005. Was unable to go myself but submitted
the paper How the mind works: the
principle dynamics in the bio and non-bio version.
Seminars:
Invited to give a seminar at the Vision,
Touch & Hearing Research Centre, School of Biomedical Sciences, University
of Queensland, Australia. Held on the 11 July 2005, titled "How the mind
works: an introduction".
Workshops:
Invited to participate in upcoming Dialogue Workshops held by the European
Commission Directorate-General, Directorate K - Social sciences and humanities;
foresight (CORDIS).
Prepared a paper, The Social Europe:
a formal view.
Submissions:
The following were specific representations made in response to calls by committees
or inquiries, or they occurred in a more general context as part of a wider
range of suggestions. As time goes by, more and more ideas are finding their
way towards an implementation, albeit after many years of useless delays and
waste until a concept has finally been understood (eg, electronic checking
of live stock, high-speed internet, more careful selection of migrants, a
bio atlas of Australia).
October 1987:
To the Committee to Advise on Australia's Immigration Policies; suggested
a set of evaluation parameters in line with the principles of Western governance
(see here for the text).
June 1988:
To the NSW Farmers Association and Elders Pastoral; in collaboration with
Atlas Communications outlined an electronic live stock checking system, thereby
considerably improving quality control and preventing theft.
December 1988:
To the Club of Rome; the complete set of the Logic and Order in Society newsletters.
February 1989:
To the Attorney General for NSW in the form of a petition; a response to the
religious belligerence exhibited by some people in the wake of the Salman
Rushdie affair.
1990 - 1992:
To various politicians, departments, and think tanks; suggesting the creation
of a bio-map for the Australian continent which would detail the comprehensive
biological state area by area.
July 1992:
To Prime Minister Paul Keating; titled Project 21, it deals with a high-speed
computer network between Australia's instrumentalities and educational facilities.
October 2004:
To Premier Peter Beattie and his Smart State Strategy; arguing for a better
interaction between science and the public to overcome the reticence by so
many academics to stand up to irrational activists (as demonstrated on a recent
SBS Insight program on animal activism).
August 2005:
To the summit on counter-terrorism; contains suggestions based on the Otoom
mind model regarding a Bill of Rights, education towards citizenship, the
deconstruction of ideology within our own ranks, and principle elements on
security.
May 2000:
To the House of Representatives Committee Enquiry into Substance Abuse in
Australian Communities; essentially argued for a rational re-assessment of
current government policies, with a view to sever the link with Middle Eastern
moralisms and their disastrous consequences.
September 2007:
To the Queensland Juvenile Justice Act 1992 Review; in line with the Otoom
mind model proposing an inside-out approach, that is educating young people
in a challenging environment to instill a capacity for problem solving and
hence self-confidence.
May 2008:
To the 2020 summit website. The topics covered are: (1) The future of the
Australian economy, (2) The productivity agenda - education, skills, training,
science and innovation, (3) Population, sustainability, climate change, water
and the future of our cities, (4) A long-term national health strategy, (5)
Strengthening communities, supporting families and social inclusion, (6) Options
for the future of Indigenous Australia, (7) The future of Australian governance:
open government (including the role of the media), the structure of government
and the rights and responsibilities of citizens, (8) Australia's future security
and prosperity in a rapidly changing region and world.
April 2011:
To the Inquiry into Multiculturalism in Australia; referred to the tendency
of demographic clustering dependent on the size and cultural intensity of
immigrant groups, with particular emphasis on Islam which has proven itself
to be the most intolerant demographic in host societies around the world.
See submission no. 193.
November 2011:
To the Coalition's working group on gambling reform. Their focus was on poker
machines and whether to impose some limit on their use. Argued that the tendency
by governments to 'help' is usually counterproductive; references from Australia
and overseas, also to Frank Furedi and Friedrich Hayek.
General research:
Invited to participate in the 7th Framework Programme by the European Commission,
Directorate L - Science, economy and society.
Further developments
of the computer program (the artificial mind):
Oct 2005: wrote an application (OMo)
of the OtoomCM program,
showing how the system can drive a point in 3D space from one location to
another.
Feb - Sep 2006: created OWorm,
derived from the OtoomCM, which
drives an artificial 'worm' to find its 'food' under various conditions.
Jul -
Sep 2008: created OSound
and associated programs to present the internal dynamics of the artificial
mind system as sound to be played via a midi file.
Dec 2009 - Jan 2010: extended the capacity for input to OSound to large tracts
of text.
Aug 2010: extended OSound to allow image files of the output to be saved for
making videos.
Scholarships:
Merit-based Equity Scholarship from Griffith University, based on my previous
academic achievements at TAFE.
Memberships:
Golden Key National Honour Society (Griffith Chapter), based on my academic
achievements at Griffith University;
Australian Mensa.
During honours
year at Griffith University:
- proved that a computer program can be built which processes semantic context
through symbol-handling (ie without the aid of an artificial neural network);
- developed an algorithm which enables an artificial neural network to set
itself up automatically (Back-propagation and Kohonen Self Organising Map
types), thereby eliminating a major component of the adjustment process and
so reducing the time needed for it to negligible proportions (ie, seconds).
Tertiary Studies:
Bachelor of Information Technology Honours course at Griffith University,
Brisbane, Australia. Started February 1999, completed November 1999.
Bachelor of Information Technology course at GU. Started February 1997, completed
November 1998, with a major in Artificial Intelligence (normal course duration
three years).
TAFE:
Diploma of Applied Science (Computing) CNE 70 at TAFE Ithaca, Red Hill, Brisbane
(3 yrs full time). Started February 1994, ended November 1996. Completed required
number of subjects minus three, but tailored to be appropriate for entry into
university course as indicated by GU.
Secondary
Studies:
Completed at Bundesrealgymnasium Waidhofen/Thaya,
Austria, with Matura in 1967.
Certificates
and Courses:
Drivers Licence Type 0 Class C (Australia-Qld - 2003);
Advanced Open Water Diver (PADI - 1979);
Open Water Diver (PADI - 1979);
First Aid Certificate (Australian Red Cross - 1979);
Restricted Radiotelephony Certificate (1978), (Australia - Postal and Telecommunications
Dept);
Plant Operator Certificate (Australia-Qld - 1973);
Power Crane Driver Certificate - Loader (Australia-NSW - 1972);
Pilot training with Royal Australian Air Force (ratings: night flying, instrument
flying level 1, single-engine jet aircraft) (1971);
Private Pilot Licence (Australia - 1970);
Drivers Licence pass. veh. (Australia-NSW - 1970);
Drivers Licence Class B (Austria - 1967);
Private Pilot Licence (Austria - 1966).
...and the main
(?) event:
Born 1948 in Graz, Austria. |