- Christopher Evans (computer scientist)
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Dr Christopher Riche Evans (29 May 1931 – 10 October 1979) was a British psychologist, computer scientist, and author.
Contents
Biography
Born in Aberdovey, he spent his childhood in Wales and was educated at Christ College, Brecon (1941–49). He spent two years in the RAF (1950–52), and worked as a science journalist and writer until 1957 when he began a B.A. course in Psychology at University College, London, graduating with honors in 1960. After a summer fellowship at Duke University, where he first met his future American wife, Nancy Fullmer, he took up a Research Assistant post in the Physics Laboratory, University of Reading, working on eye movements under Professor R.W. Ditchburn. Upon receiving his PhD (the title of his thesis was “Pattern Perception and the Stabilised Retinal Image”), he went to the Division of Computer Science, National Physical Laboratory, Teddington in 1964, where he remained until his death of cancer in 1979. He was survived by his wife and two children, Christopher Samuel Evans and Victoria Evans-Theiler.
Works
In 1979, he wrote a book about the oncoming microcomputer revolution, The Mighty Micro: The Impact of the Computer Revolution, which included predictions for the future up to the year 2000.[1] This book was also printed in the USA, but called The Micro Millennium (New York: The Viking Press, ISBN 0-670-47400-2). He subsequently scripted and presented for the commercial television company ATV a six-part television series based on this book and broadcast posthumously by ITV between October and December 1979.[2]
His other books include Cults of Unreason, a study of Scientology and other perceived pseudoscience, and Landscapes of the Night: How and Why We Dream.[3]
In the 1970s, Evans undertook a set of interviews with computer pioneers such as Konrad Zuse and Grace Hopper. These were released through the Science Museum, London, as a set of cassette tapes, collectively entitled Pioneers of Computing.
Dr Evans also edited two anthologies of psychological science fiction/horror stories, Mind at Bay and Mind in Chains, a collection of science writings, "Cybernetics: Key Papers," a reference book "Psychology: A Dictionary of Mind, Brain and Behaviour," and was a contributing editor to the science magazine Omni. A passionate flier, and former pilot in the RAF, he also edited a yearly pilot's diary of rural airfields in Great Britain.
During the 1970s Dr Evans was the scientific advisor to the ITV TV series, The Tomorrow People.[4]
Dr Evans died of cancer in 1979 at the age of 48, shortly after The Mighty Micro had been published in hardcover.[5]
References
Notes
- ^ Mars Hill Review
- ^ IEEE Book Review
- ^ Coleman, Daniel (10 July 1984). "Do dreams really contain important secret meaning?". New York Times. http://www.nytimes.com/1984/07/10/science/do-dreams-really-contain-important-secret-meaning.html?sec=health&spon=&pagewanted=2. Retrieved 10 October 2011.
- ^ Screen Online
- ^ Evans 1980, foreword by Robin Webster
Bibliography
- Cults of Unreason
- Evans, Christopher (1973). Cults of Unreason (hardcover ed.). London: Harrap. ISBN 0245518703.
- Evans, Christopher (1974). Cults of Unreason (paperback ed.). St Albans, Hertfordshire, UK: Panther Books. ISBN 0586039058.
- Evans, Christopher (1974). Cults of Unreason (hardcover ed.). New York: Farrar, Straus & Giroux. ISBN 0374133247.
- Evans, Christopher (1975). Cults of Unreason (paperback ed.). New York: Delacorte Press. ISBN 0440544025.
- The Mighty Micro
Categories:- 1931 births
- 1979 deaths
- British psychologists
- British computer scientists
- Critics of Scientology
- Anti-cult organizations and individuals
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