Intellectual trajectory

Those of you who know me know that, although my parents were from Boston, I grew up down South in the midst of the Bible Belt, where textbooks had to give equal time to creationism alongside evolution.

As an entering freshman at MIT, I was fortunate to be a part of the Concourse program that was organized by Jerry Lettvin and whose theme my year was “Mind, Machine, and Meaning”. I subsequently studied biology, but with strong (non-molecular) interests in theoretical biology (what constitutes an organism? how do new structures & functions arise in biological evolution?) and biologically-inspired alternatives to symbolic AI (what makes organisms different from machines?).

For graduate work, I went to SUNY-Binghamton to the Department of Systems Science in the School of Advanced Technology in order to study under physicist and theoretical biologist Howard Pattee. My doctoral work developed a taxonomy of adaptive systems that exhibit different degrees of emergent function. I also developed a methodology for operationally distinguishing various types of semiotic operations in percept-action loops of artificial and natural systems (computations, measurements, symbol-directed actions, constructions). Towards the end of this work I became interested in how to make neural networks open-ended, self-organizing systems.Temporal codes are an obvious solution that permit signals to be liberated from wires and new signal primitives to be formed from temporal pulse patterns produced by adaptively tuned neural assemblies. If one wants to seriously consider the brain as an adaptive, self-organizing system, I think we need to consider neural network alternatives to the standard connectionist rate-based “switchboard” architectures.

Fortunately, I was able to work on problems of neural coding in the auditory system as a postdoctoral fellow under Bertrand Delgutte and Nelson Kiang at the Eaton-Peabody Laboratory for Auditory Physiology at the Massachusetts Eye and Ear Infirmary. Bertrand and I investigated the neural coding of pitch at the level of the auditory nerve. Mark Tramo came to the lab, and we conducted a series of experiments on the coding of musical consonance. \

Although I have always been avidly interested in music, and played violin (badly) for a number of years, I don’t by any stretch consider myself to be a musician. The structure of music has always intrigued me, but I found that the standard musical notation and music theory gets in the way of a deeper understanding of pitch relations. Since 2003 I have been teaching courses on the psychology of music at MIT and Tufts, and this causes me to constantly readdress in my mind these problems of how we perceive pitch, consonance, melody, and harmony.

influential books

These books have had significant influence on my thinking. They are not in any particular order.

World Hypotheses by Stephen Pepper (analysis of paradigms and explanatory ideologies)

The Design of Inquiring Systems by C. West Churchman  (epistemology, cybernetics, and artificial intelligence)

Towards a Theoretical Biology, vols. 1-4, by C.H. Waddington (ed.) (theoretical biology, what a general theory of biology would entail)

Sensation and Perception in the History of Experimental Psychology by E.G. Boring (dimensions of perception)

Decline of the West by Oswald Spengler (organicist model of civilizations)

A Study of History by Arnold Toynbee (dynamics of empires and civilizations)

Cycles: The Science of Prediction by Edward Dewey (short and long economic waves)

Legitimation Crisis by Jurgen Habermas (cybernetics of steering socio-political systems)

The Neurosciences: A Study Program , vols 1-4, by O. Schmitt (ed.)

The Scientific Image by Bas van Fraassen (semiotics and operational structure of scientific models)

Niels Bohr’s Philosophy of Science by Murdoch (Bohr’s pragmatist, operationalist philosophy)

Artstotle’s Two Systems by W. H. Graham (argues that Aristotle began as a kind of naive realist, but ended up as an epistemologically-oriented pragmatist, hylomorphism)

Aristotle: the Power of Perception by Deborah Modrak (Aristotle’s theory of mind, in a modern context, hylomorphism)

more, later

Favorite music

I teach courses on the psychology of music in which I strive for generality, and therefore am constantly dealing with many different kinds of music. We all believe that our musical tastes tell us something deep about ourselves, although what it tells us is not always completely clear. Although I do not consider myself a musician (I played violin badly for a number of years as a child), I have been an avid listener of a wide variety of music for all of my life. As I grow older and more mature and more understanding of the many ways that music can be used in one’s life, I have come to appreciate musical styles that I would have abhorred as a youth.

Below is a list of albums, groups, and composers that have had special resonance for me. I evolved from heavy listening to Baroque and classical music (Vivaldi, Telemann, Bach and others on Nonesuch Records, Beethoven, Mahler, Sibelius) to progressive rock (King Crimson, ELP, Yes, Jethro Tull, early Gentle Giant, Gryphon, Soft Machine, Hatfield and the North) and fusion jazz (Mahavsihnu Orchestra, Chick Corea, Herbie Hancock, Weather Report, ECM, Hassell) to more dissonant experimental music (Henry Cow, Slapp Happy, Faust, Cassiber, TuxedoMoon), electronic and new music (Xenakis, Penderecki,Cage, Reich, Glass, Eno) to new wave, punk, and post-punk in the 1980’s (Talking Heads, B-52‘s, Clash, Kraftwerk, Devo, Lounge Lizards, Slits, Raincoats, Young Marble Giants, Dead Can Dance) followed by an eclectic mixture of world music (Crammed Records), rock, jazz, and pop thereafter. Most recently, my son, who plays classical piano, has taken up banjo and has re-introduced me to bluegrass and folk traditions.

Highly recommended (I warn you, many of these are not for the faint-hearted):

Kew Rhone by Greaves, Blegvad, Herman

Desperate Straits by Slapp Happy

Rotter’s Club by Hatfield and the North

Desire & Holy Wars by Tuxedo Moon

Voices & Instruments (Obscure Records, c. 1976), music by John Cage and Jan Steele

Birds of Fire by Mahavishnu Orchestra

Living in the Past by Jethro Tull

Quadrophenia by The Who

Light as a Feather by Chick Corea and Return to Forever

Maiden Voyage by Herbie Hancock

Soundtrack to “Stranger Than Paradise”, music by John Lurie