(Dr. Frankenstein in the 1931 classic movie, audio file)
"Ghastly sight freezes my mind once again
Nights are long and lonely when I can't sleep
When I look at the deeds of mankind, then I say
No...I really am not of your kind"
I am...
...a scientist, mathematician, computer scientist, physicist. Science has become a very important part of my life trying to explore, understand and explain natural, artificial and abstract patterns. Using mathematics as my basis I seek to apply it to various problems in computer science and physics to find practical solutions and deepen the understanding of the underlying structures and concepts. Besides my specific research in geometry, numerical analysis, quantum information and artificial intelligence, I am interested in the general advancement and development of science. While science by now knows that it cannot explain everything, it is the only method which can actually explain anything about the universe. Any non-scientific belief systems are just a set of believes which can never be shown to be true or false. But science is about understanding, not about exploiting. Thus, I'd like to see a scientifically rather than commercially driven society. The value of research is not its commercial applicability, but it's advancement of the understanding of the universe and sometimes how this can be applied to living in it.
...a geek, hacker, free software developer, computer freak. Computers and network implement a fascinating virtual world on top of the physical world which allows to explore a wide range of patterns and concepts. Then, these machines are also simplify very useful tools for plenty of activities. Since I first came into contact with one of these machines, a ZX81, I enjoyed writing software for all sorts of purposes or just for fun on various platforms. I prefer UNIX like systems and I am still waiting for a really useful user interface alternative to a shell running in a terminal window. I do belief that the only honest and useful way of distributing software is to share it with other people without limitations. Thus free software is the only software I can honestly develop and use. I do avoid any non-free, commercial software whenever possible. In an academic environment sharing rather than limiting information and its use has been very successful and I do believe that the free software concept can be applied to far more than software.
...one of the fey seeking out alternative and unusual things on a constant quest to grow and expand. I do not like societies, philosophies, religions and related which try to enforce their a specific value system on everyone, but would like to see people choose their individual values and philosophies without limiting everyone else. Values and belief systems are individual and should help people to expand themself rather than limiting them. I have close connections to witchcraft, paganism and magick, in particular their darker sides. While I do not believe in anything transcendental, I still seek to explore myself and my relation to the universe and expand my own mind. Thus magick for me is complimentary to science; about the areas that science cannot cover. As science is the only valid way to assess truth, this is not about truth. Hence, I do not aim to impose this on anyone or claim that it contains any truth at all. So I keep most of these things to myself, except that it may be a good idea to explore yourself, your mind, and aim to expand yourself beyond limits that others have imposed onto you. Find your own questions and answers; there are no universal ones except in science.
Copyright © 1995-2008 Frank C Langbein.
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons License.
