A philosopher once said, "Love what you do, and do what you
love." Come to think of it, that was me. I love the life of the mind, but
I also love the life of the body. My main intellectual interest is in understanding
how the mind works. This leads me to philosophy and cognitive science, and
most of my homepage is about that. I want to understand the mind well enough
to build one. So I work in artificial intelligence. My artificial agent OSCAR
is capable of intellectual feats surpassed only by human beings, and the time
will come when even humans cannot compete with OSCAR on some kinds of intellectual
tasks.
Non-academics often fail to realize how exciting the life of the
mind can be. Solving an intellectual problem on which you have been working
for months can produce a high perhaps only surpassed by falling in love. But
there is a flip side. Discovering that you made a mistake and didnŐt solve the
problem after all can plunge you into the pits of depression. A life consisting
of nothing but such intellectual highs and lows would be profoundly unhealthy,
both psychologically and physically.
When it is combined with the senses, the world abounds with other
kinds of food for the intellect. I love art in all forms. At one time I was
a professional landscape photographer, but when it comes to paintings my tastes
lean to the abstract. I love color. My house glows with warm colors. No room
is white. My living and working environment is peopled with art objects collected
from around the world. I often stop in midstride to admire their shapes, colors,
and textures. I am a very visual person. I am particularly fond of wood, and
have a number of fascinating wood carvings. The natural shapes and forms in
finely finished wood can be positively erotic, even with no erotic intent on
the part of the artist.
But not all art forms are visual. I would find life empty without
classical music. I am particularly fond of chamber music, and of some of the
modern composers -- Bartok, Shostakovich, Zemlinski, etc. I like living life
on the edge. It keeps me awake. And that colors my taste in painting and music.
I also enjoy ballet, but I like modern dance more. I enjoy the theatre. I do
not like opera. I have always suspected that to be a personal failing in me,
but try as I might, I cannot bring myself to like it. I enjoy the human voice
in other musical forms, but in opera it always seems to me like a poor imitation
of good musical instruments.
The above are largely indoor activities, but I could not live
entirely indoors. My house is surrounded by porches and outdoor living areas,
and I often sit on my front porch and work while watching interesting people
go by. Arizona suits me, because it is an outdoor culture. I could not live
in a place without mountains. Mountains excite me. And not just Arizona mountains.
Cresting a ridge and seeing row upon row of snowy peaks stretching out below
me is an experience that I will always cherish. I get high on height.
Life without intellectual stimulation would be boring. But life
without physical stimulation would be equally boring. I could not stand the
tedium of it. My main recreational activity is mountain biking. I have mountain
biked throughout North America, and to a lesser extent in other parts of the
world. I lived many summers in Crested Butte, Colorado, one of the most famous
mountain biking meccas. But I think that, overall, mountain biking in Southern
Arizona is better than anywhere else I have experienced. I am the chief cook
and bottle washer (sometimes referred to as "the leader") of the Southern Arizona
Mountain Biking Association. Through mountain biking I have made close friends
from all walks of life and from diverse parts of North America. We often meet
in remote locales for a week of riding. Some of our favorite destinations are
southern Utah, the San Juan mountains of Colorado, and the Canadian Rockies.
Mountain biking keeps me very fit, and it takes me to beautiful
places. I enjoy the aesthetic splendor of the mountains and high desert, I enjoy
the excitement of riding on the edge, and I enjoy the social interaction with
other like-minded individuals. Mountain bikers truly are individuals. They are
like cats. No two of them are alike. I have often reflected on the fact that
all of my friends, mountain bikers and philosophers alike, are a little crazy
and not quite socialized. I am not sure what that shows about me. Actually,
I guess I do know what it shows about me. That it does not particularly bother
me is no doubt part of the syndrome. But after all, you wouldn't want to be
the kind of person you find boring and uninteresting, would you?
I have two grown daughters. Erika lives in California, where
she is an aspiring novelist, teaches yoga, and has a wonderful marriage with
her husband Alton (of whom I thoroughly approve, because he is not only a really
nice guy, but also a mountain biker). Katherine also lives in California, where she is
an archeologist specializing in Southerwestern Indian archeology. Katherine
mountain bikes with me regularly.
Mountain biking is not my only outdoor activity. I also enjoy
hiking, sea kayaking, and river rafting. I enjoy most strenuous physical activities
that take me to beautiful places, require a challenging level of skill, and
have enough of a veneer of risk to make them thrilling.
One of the prime attractions of outdoor activities is that they
take me to beautiful places. For the same reason, I enjoy foreign travel. My
favorite foreign country is New Zealand, which I have visited several times.
South Island is a scene of unequaled splendor. For some reason I have never
taken my bike to New Zealand. Some day I want to bicycle down the west coast
of South Island. I have recently discovered that I really like Central and South
America. I have spent some time in Argentina and Costa Rica, and want to see
the rest of Latin America. I now have a permanent connection with Brazil (thanks to my recent marriage -- see below). But as
I travel to foreign countries, I always enjoy returning home. My life in Southern
Arizona is a good one.
My 2003visit to Brazil was the best yet, mainly because it got me
together with Lilian Jacques (above), but I also really liked Brazil. Check
out my pictures of Brazil.
In January, 2004, I attended an epistemology conference in Copenhagen. The
weather was dismal, but here are some pictures.
Some of them were taken by Jonathan Kvanvig.
