[From Richard Kennaway (980105.1340 GMT)]
I've just been reading "Figments of Reality", by Jack Cohen and Ian
Stewart. Cohen is a reproductive biologist (and consultant to science
fiction authors building fictional ecologies), and Ian Stewart is an
eminent mathematician, who also writes the Mathematical Games column in
Scientific American.
The book is about the nature of mind. PCT is not mentioned, and if they
were aware of it, they wouldn't have described, as they do, a fielder
catching a ball by extrapolating where it's going to be and putting their
hands there. Their views are similar to Daniel Dennett's: the mind as a
collection of loosely connected agents. However, from what I know of both
authors, I believe they are not only deservedly eminent in their
professions, but also highly creative and original thinkers, and excellent
communicators as well. I am considering contacting them just to draw PCT
to their attention. I once had lunch with Jack Cohen, but I doubt if he
remembers me.
Have any other list members come across the book, or the authors?
-- Richard Kennaway, jrk@sys.uea.ac.uk, http://www.sys.uea.ac.uk/~jrk/
School of Information Systems, Univ. of East Anglia, Norwich, U.K.