Serious and Sillier

Welcome!

This is a website divided into two distinct states of mind. One of these is analytical and the other is imaginative. In every day life these states mix freely but I hope, by disentangling them, each will be able to develop uncluttered and unhindered by the other.

In the analytical section, "The Guess Worker", I speculate on how the brain works. In the imaginative section, "Tales from the back of the eyelids", you will find short stories fashioned out of my dreams.

Of the two sections "The Guess Worker" is obviously meant to be the serious part, whereas "Tales from the back of the eyelids" is the sillier part, because, after all, dreams are frequently silly. Please click on whatever section(s) interest you on the menu above and have a look around.

Articles from both sections have been translated into the Czech language. These can be found under the heading "České stránky".

I welcome feedback on anything I have written in these pages. You can write your comments in the space provided at the end of each article or story.

I wish to express my thanks to Martin Gottstein of Vogo for designing these pages and to Daniel Rot and Alena Gottstein for their translations into Czech. I photographed about half the photos on the site - I would like to thank my wife Akhila for providing the other half.

New!

28.10.2023

  • Read the latest instalment of The story of consciousness by clicking here. This second instalment looks at how brains acquired the capacity to experience feelings in a range of intensities. (More instalments will follow in due course.)

 

31.7.2023

  • My latest post Is Matthew Walker wrong? is a digression. It was supposed to be a short footnote to my post Memory but as I began writing, I realised its scope meant I would have make it into a separate article. You can read it by clicking here. Now, having posted it, I can finally get back to writing the next part of The story of consciousness....

 

24.4.2023

  • Check out my new article The story of consciousness which is presented in flipbook format. In it I describe how pain developed through natural selection into all the feelings and sensations we call consciousness. The article is in the Guess Worker section but you can get to it quickly by clicking here. (This is the first part of a multi-part post. I hope to have the second part ready soon.)

 

19.4.2022  

  • Read my new story Fulfillment. Go to The Tales section or click here.
  • Fulfillment and Colour (in the Guess Worker section) are presented in flipbook format. I hope this makes them easier to read. Check them out!