CONTRIBUTORS TO THIS ISSUE

Dr. Hugo de Garis obtained a B.Sc. (Hons) in Applied Mathematics and Theoretical Physics at Melbourne University, Victoria, Australia, in 1970. He moved to the UK where he was a supervisor (instructor) to the mathematics undergraduates of Cambridge University. He then joined Philips in Holland and Belgium as a software and hardware architect, covering most branches of computer science. Growing bored with industry, he switched careers to do research at Brussels University, where he finished a PhD in Artificial Intelligence and Artificial Life. de Garis has published some 50 papers and book chapters. He met Professor Ryszard Michalski (of George Mason University, GMU) at a French University in 1988, and was invited by him to spend 6 months at the GMU AI Center. A year later de Garis was made a senior research affiliate of GMU.

From February 1993, de Garis has been the head of the Brain Builder Group in the Evolutionary Systems Department at ATR labs in Kyoto Japan. The aim is to use Cellular Automata Machines (CAMs) to grow/evolve a billion neuron artificial brain at electronic speeds, using state of the art evolvable hardware which can update CA cells at over 100 Billion a second, and evolve neural network modules in less than a second. The name of this research effort is the "CAM-Brain Project", which will continue until 2001. It is de Garis's ambition to see his brain building work grow into a major Japanese effort equivalent to America's NASA moon shot. See de Garis's extensive web site for details on the "CAM-Brain project".

Pat Sherman is a freelance writer and founding member of the San Diego Urgent Writers. Pat also writes music music pieces for the San Diego Reader, and is currently working on a novel, the Psychology of Subservient Behavior.

Joe Tomorrow is Joe Tomorrow.