At Scientology protest, March 13, 1995.
And here's a more recent one (1998).
I'm a skeptic, director of information security operations, and philosopher, probably in that order. I came within a dissertation's breadth of a Ph.D. in philosophy from the University of Arizona, but quit work on my dissertation (on the epistemology of testimony--regarding our reliance and irreducible dependence on others for much of what we know or purport to know) to move to Phoenix and begin working for Primenet in July 1994. I did this because of my desire to be involved with something more popular and practical than academic philosophy. I'm definitely having more fun, though I do miss having more free time to devote to purely intellectual pursuits.
In September 1996 I left Primenet to take a position in the R&D department at Genuity, Inc., where my job was to play with toys and figure out ways to integrate new products and services into the company's Internet business. I helped design and implement Genuity's "Hopscotch" product (which received U.S. Patent #6,185,619 on February 6, 2001 and #8,683,075 on March 25, 2014).
In February 1997 I returned to Primenet (now GlobalCenter) to head a new department dealing with Internet security and abuse issues. In February 1998 I was awarded a golden mallet for fighting spam. (I had previously been selected "Postmaster of the Year" for 1995 by Tifa Networks Inc.) (March 1998: GlobalCenter became Frontier GlobalCenter. September 1999: Frontier merged with Global Crossing. Frontier GlobalCenter became GlobalCenter, Inc., A Global Crossing Company. Global Crossing was ultimately acquired by Level 3, which was acquired by CenturyLink, now Lumen.) I've also been inducted into the pantheon of active anti-spam warriors.
In July 2000 my department moved from GlobalCenter to Global Crossing.
Prior to my time in graduate school, I was a Multics developer at Honeywell in Phoenix (1983-1988). I did a complete rewrite of the interactive message facility, fixed lots of bugs in applications and a few in the "hardcore," and helped with the testing required for Multics' B2 security certification.
I was a supporter of and was the Internet Representative for Skeptic magazine before the publisher started advocating for alt-right and "intellectual dark web" causes.
My career as a skeptic began as a critic of religion and the paranormal (see my publications list), but quickly expanded to include politics as well. I used to describe myself as a libertarian (small-l) and/or an anarchist, but now prefer just plain "skeptic." I am skeptical of everybody's utopian schemes, though I am most favorably disposed to anarchist, extropian, and libertarian views. (See my miscellaneous links for some extropian web pages.) I am now also a sometime critic of organized skepticism itself, or at least of the more dogmatic pronouncements of its members. When skeptics emulate the argumentative techniques of those they criticize, something is wrong.
