I'm a philosophy major who specialized my studies on the problems of consciousness. This transformed me from a deluded New Age quantum magic enthusiast to a hard core materialist. Now days I'm more interested in what cognitive neuroscience has to say, as much of the philosohy of mind these days is wretched arm-chair nonsense. My favorite philosopher is Daniel Dennett, whose Multiple Drafts Model I currently favor, as it is perfectly in keeping with the consensus model of consciousness known as the Global Neuronal Workspace model.
For the most part, my job on Beliefnet seems to be advocating for mainstream science and philosophy against the folks who show up here trying to trumpet one defeated New Age or theistic model after another.
Other than philosophy and science, I'm obsessed with games--computer games, console games, European board games (Reiner Knizia is a god), and even table top role playing games, which I used to work on professionally.
Musical tastes run from electronic dance (Goldfrapp) to industrial avant-garde (J.G. Thirlwell, Foetus). For fiction I like to read William Gibson and Bruce Sterling, and for movies I'm into almost anything that smacks of science fiction or superheroes. But once in a while I fall in love with something atypical, like "Juno", which I've watched so many times I've lost count.
Hey Faustus5 ...... I left the name of the book I quoted on your Dennett thread, but wanted to add just a further note. You've probably heard of the writer, P.D. Ouspensky, but maybe not who could be considered the actual author, Gurdjieff. Ouspensky wrote a number of books, but they belong to separate categories (two of his own creation being A New Model of the Universe and Tertium Organum). But In Search of the Miraculous is the report of ideas and his relationship with G.I. Gurdjieff over about a ten year period, thus Gurdjieff is essentially the author, excepting some introductory material in the beginning (and the reason you can't judge Gurdjieff by Ouspensky's other personal works). (btw, Gurdjieff wrote 4 books himself). ........ I can't judge if you would be interested in reading further In Search of the Miraculous (but I can see you thoroughly entertained at least by the title of Gurdjieff's primary book). But if you should find In Search of in a library, you might want to browse it in light of the Dennett quotes..... Oh, one other thing, Gurdjieff introduced the enneagram to the world, which has since become a sort of pop-cultural icon apart from Gurdjieff's use of it. ...... sdp .... & btw, always enjoy your posts & our exchanges.....
Actually that was me jgl57 and not teilhard that made the "sand box" comment.
JGL5712:16 PM