john

I chose my parents exceptionally well.

I studied Mechanical Engineering at Monash University.

I worked for BHP Petroleum, and for Brown Brothers of Milawa.

I married Anneshka and we have two wonderful young sons, John and Christopher.

I want to be an Intelligence Engineer when I grow up.

I love a qwikgame of Squash or Go.

My extravagant aim is to engineer an intelligent device. I am not attempting to either model or simulate neurological activity or human cognition. I am however, attempting to understand what intelligence is, and how it comes about.

Brains came about through evolution and growth, in stark contrast to traditional engineering techniques. Likewise, the resulting cells, structure, operation and capabilities of brains are in stark contrast to engineered information processors.

Brains are embedded in often chaotic environments where resources are scarce and timely action is critical. These natural environments have neither axioms nor problem statements and rarely, if ever, offer a statistically valid sample.

I work with the assumption that it will be easier (less impossible) to engineer the growth of an intelligent device, than to engineer it directly.

My studies cover a wide range of topics relating to intelligence, information, evolution, self organising systems, brains and their characteristics.

I am attempting to write computer code which will result in the growth of a data/computational structure which is intelligent in it's environment. If I were successful, then the result would be as particular to a serial computer as a brain is particular to it's multicellular form.