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Interesting that you detect a difference in the material in
"Anticipatory Systems" and the two later books (the last of which was published
posthumously. He actually wrote "Life, Itself" while on sabbatical, so he was
focusing inwardly trying to figure out how to structure the book when it was
about such multidimensional, related, intersecting/interacting, non-computable
concepts. That book was one of a kind for him because he ignored most of the
fascinating side issues and just forced his main attention to stay focused,
almost like meditating does. In fact, he says, over and over in that book, how
difficult he found the process.
"Essays" was a collection of papers written after "Life, Itself"
based on some of those interesting side issues (side issues for HIM, I mean. I'm
not casting aspersions on anyone's main issue!) that the writing of Life, Itself
kicked up or that he had always felt needed further investigation. Also, he owed
Columbia University Press a second book and his health was beginning to really
spiral downward, so he put the essays together and added dialogue to tie all the
pieces together so they would be a coherent companion volume to Life,
Itself.
However, while he was empolyed by Dalhousie University he was every
bit as active with his students and the colleagues in the Bio-Physics
department. They had a converted house as their base on campus and it was a very
lively place for many years. But the administration changed about 8 or 10 years
in and the same kind of crap as happened at SUNY Buffalo happened all over again
at Dal. Dad was sick to death of it! So he took on the administration and got
them kicked out, and then he took early retirement because the battle left him
with a disgust that he couldn't shake off. He had concluded that academia is no
longer the place to go if you want to do really groundbreaking work or
research in science.
Once he retired, which was when a good proportion of the papers
were written that went into Essays, he often said he missed the interaction with
students. He enjoyed their attitude and their lack of agenda, which is what he
had grown to detest in the administrators and often in professors too. As one
gets older, one has less patience for the crap in life, don't you think?
Judith
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