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Biographical Sketch - J. Bollen

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I was born on November 5, 1971 in a small town famous for its historical sites and periodical floodings as the first son of three. My parents loved me because I was pink, cute and learned fast. Soon I discovered speech and thought and so did everybody else. I developed into an extremely curious and loud child with a preference for electrical appliances.

My main interests at school were the mathematics and electronics classes but after 4 years of Industrial Sciences (at highschool level as a preparation to Engineering at university level) I decided to turn to a more fundamental science. Psychology seemed to be a perfect choice.

I graduated with a thesis on a self-organising system for an autonomous agent. The system was based on a neuro-chemical model of conditioning effects developed by Hawkins and Kandel which was linked to a set of drives like hunger and "mating-need". The agent learned to make temporal associations between the selection of a certain activity and it's drive reducing effects. I will gladly mail a copy of my thesis if your interested in the subject.

As for my hobbies: I love medieval and Barocque music written by DeNassus, Monteverdi (essentially all Flemish polyphonic music) and Bach (his works on the organ), allthough the older material from the Sonic Youth, George Clinton and Herby Hancock can make me dance. I read books too! (some without pictures!) I love the classic SF stuff about space-robots and alien threats. My favourite authors are Heinlein, Asimov, VanVogt and the guy who wrote Ringworld.

So here it is. Let me know if you have any suggestions for listening or reading. Da shledanou.


Copyright© 1994 Principia Cybernetica - Referencing this page

Author
Bollen,

Date
JAN 1994

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