If a certain department of knowledge specially attracts a man, let him study that, and study it because it attracts him; and let him not fabricate excuses for that which requires no excuse, but rest assured that the reason it most attracts him is because it is best for him.

For knowledge resembles virtue in this, and differs in this from other possessions, that it is not only a means of procuring good, but is good in itself simply.

From a lecture given A.E. Housman at University College London, October 3rd. 1892.

My interests cover:

Consciousness

Buddhism

Ecopsychology

Biosemiotics

Transhumanism

Contact details below. To avoid spam, I've written my email address out in words.

Biosemiotics and the shift from reduction to emergence. A talk first given in the Psychology Department at Warwick on May 15th. 2007. Slides here and notes here.

Some papers of mine are below. If you want more exact references for them, please contact me.

On Ecopsychology and Wellbeing:

Is Wellbeing Local or Global? A Perspective from Ecopsychology  "Humankind cannot bear too much reality"

On Buddhism and psychology:

Postmodern Psychology and Buddhism It is now easier to bring Buddhism and Western Psychology closer.

Buddhism and Cognitivism Buddhism and Cognitive Science complement each other.

Mutualism The mind is a part of nature, not apart from it.

Postmodern Psychology is Postcognitive. The mind is not a machine; Selfhood is a process.

Active Information in Physics and Psychology James Gibson and David Bohm were both concerned with meaning

On cybernetic culture:

The Architecture of Power. Walter Benjamin in cyberspace.

Artificial Life is Real You can't programme intelligence, but you might grow it.

Designs on the City: Urban Experience in the Age of Digital Technology. Virtual cities, real violence.

Agents and Artefacts All objects are social, but some are more social than others

On Alfred North Whitehead:

Psychology moves towards Whitehead. Whitehead anticipated embodied cognition

Whitehead, embodied cognition and biosemiotics. A therapeutic perspective on Whitehead.

On educational technology:

Education and Network Culture Post-Fordism in the Academy

Internet in Universities: Liberation or Desensitisation? Education in screen culture: perils and potentials

Computers: When Will They Feel Natural? Why books are better than screens.

Danger: Hypermedia At Work. Beyond the hype about hypermedia.

The Hypertextbook. Hypermedia are powerful teaching resources.