The philosopher who has played the most central role in my philosophical thinking -- especially for my doctoral degree -- is Peter Gärdenfors, whom I first met at a symposium in Copenhagen in 2008 titled Views on Concepts. Jesse Prinz (whom I also heard speak at the Association for the Scientific Study of Consciousness(ASSC) convention in Las Vegas in 2007), Daniel Dennett (past president of the ASSC), and Ruth Millikan were also there. Dennett came to the talk I gave at ASSC20 in Buenos Aires; I've no idea what he thought of it. The philosopher I respect the most is Humberto Maturana, who is a biologist by training. I have heard him speak exactly once, by remote video link to a conference of the UK-based Society for the Study of Artificial Intelligence and Behaviour (AISB). My strongest early influence comes from Douglas Hofstadter, whose Gödel, Escher, Bach: An Eternal Golden Braid is like a Bible to me -- one that I really should read again soon. The philosopher whom I most love to be infuriated by (when it isn't Dennett!) is Jerry Fodor, who passed away in 2017. My friend Daniel Hutto -- another great philosopher, well-known for his radical enactivism (cognition without content!) -- wrote an excellent obituary about him.
I like to cycle, both commuting and touring. I did a cross-continent cycle ride from Vancouver, British Columbia, to Newark, Maryland, between July and September, 2018. Back in the early '90s, I did a couple of cycle tours (western Europe and New England, USA) with my friend David "Little Boy Buddha" Bufano. I cycled Sweden north to south last summer, following one of the routes of the Sverigeleden for part of the way. I enjoy camping and backpacking, having through-hiked the 3,000 km. Appalachian Trail in 1994 (I met the famous Weathercarrot at the Gathering in Hannover, New Hampshire, just after I finished the hike) and the 1,200 km. (as it was then!) International Appalachian Trail "extension" in 2004. I have done Sweden's Kungsleden. I've walked the Pennine Way with my friend Jamie from Edale to Hadrian's Wall. I hiked the northern half of the Tuscarora Trail in a week in 2001. Now and then I write short stories and poems -- here's one in Swedish -- and even the occasional fan fiction. I read science fiction -- one of my favorite novels (first read when I was ten) is Andre Norton's Breed to Come -- and do Gentoo Linux just to relax. I built a sculpture out of soda cans and paper mache called Ecce Robo. I made a Faroese Scrabble set for my friend Jón Absalonsen because there was no such thing as a Faroese Scrabble set.
My friends are an eclectic assortment, scattered around the world. Enoch is doing his doctoral studies at The University of Mississippi. I first met him when he was my advanced math student for Model School during pre-service training in Salt Pond for Peace Corps Ghana. He graduated top of his class from the University of Ghana, Legon. Alan runs a small hosting service out of his home in Corvallis, Oregon -- that's where this web server resides -- and works at an ISP for his day job. Brenda is the founder and executive director of the Borderland Rainbow Center in El Paso, Texas. Jack set up a translation company. He's a first-class English Francophile. Jamie is a freelance 3D animator living in Swansea. Malcolm, who also goes by Rannirl, runs a website off the beaten path, called Other Kin, not all of whose visitors are quite human. 😉 Gauss is currently living and working in Hong Kong after a long stint in Sweden, where he earned his PhD in AI, but talks now and then about coming back to these shores. Bill runs a private school in Techiman with his wife Ayisatu. The school had a simple website that I set up for them years ago but that is long gone, and Bill is looking to get back online. Caroline, who has a master's degree in conservation biology from Antioch, describes herself as a "creative science writer". She is the author of two published novels, of which I've so far read the first: To Give a Rose; though I helped proofread the scientific article she included as an afterwork to the second.
