Biography
Born in Germany '54, moved to South Africa in '66, to the US in '95.
Working experience includes: Mechanical/ Electrical - Manufacturing and testing (incl. QA) of diesel power generators. Electronics: Design and production responsibility for large static inverters (UPS).
Started company 'Electronic Designs' in 1979 to custom build microprocessor-controlled systems for industrial application. A year later, started a computer systems company to provide turnkey solutions to medium sized businesses - focusing on real-time, order processing/ inventory control/ accounting software running on PC networks. Over 13 years I developed several generations of a comprehensive integrated package, many customized systems, LANs and WANs, as well as our own full-featured language/ compiler, complete with database system (DBMS) and 4GL tools. I took the company public in 1987, acquired various other companies to grow to about 400 employees.
In '92 I sold the company, and 'retired' the following year - subsequently devoting most of my time to a passion for cognitive science: philosophy, psychology and computer science. Initially I spent a year developing a computer-based version of new psychometric test - a tool for measuring cognitive ability (over 25 aspects of intelligence). Since then I've been researching and writing about other aspects of psychology, epistemology, ethics, futurism, and various aspects of AI (especially ANN).