Interests

My background is in cognitive science, which is the interdisciplinary approach to the study of the mind and brain. In its modern form, beginning in the mid-twentieth century, it includes elements of philosophy, psychology, neuroscience, AI, linguistics, and anthropology.

Foundational issues in this vast subject have intrigued me for over 25 years. How should we best explain concepts such as mind, intelligence, thought, consciousness, knowledge, belief, desire, free will, action, causality, and intentionality? What is the relation between mind and brain? Can intelligent machinery be made? To what extent can humans and machines hybridise? What is the status of animal minds? What might alien minds be like?

Experimentally my research focusses on smooth, goal-directed, human behaviour. I have developed a theoretical model that mathematically characterises this type of motion in terms of non-analytic paths. I successfully tested this model in kinematics experiments with human subjects as they controlled goal-directed tasks on screen. I am currently building on this work by developing a predator-prey model.