Vasco Castela

Ethics (mainly Hume and Kant), 2006-2007, PHIL20231 (PH2231) Year 2 course, 4 groups

Ancient Philosophy (Plato and Aristotle), 2006-2007, PHIL20221 (PH2221) Year 2 course, 2 groups

"How to love the bomb: Trying to solve the prisoner's dilemma with evolutionary game theory", in Worldviews, Science, and Us: Philosophy and Complexity, edited by Carlos Gershenson, Diederik Aerts and Bruce Edmonds. World Scientific, Singapore. 2007

I am co-founder and co-editor of Praxis. Praxis is a postgraduate journal of philosophy of the University of Manchester, edited by myself and Paula Satne-Jones. The first issue came out in April 2008.

15-16th March - Manchester conference "Emotion, rationality and value", co-organised with Christine Clavien

14th March - Manchester international workshop on Emotions, Ethics and Adaptation, with a special focus on the work of Ronald de Sousa (also organised with Christine Clavien - see call for papers here). I presented a response to de Sousa, titled Genes are not the only beneficiaries of natural selection.

8th March - Manchester inter-departmental workshop on Emotions and Rhetoric: Politics and the Self (also organised with Christine). I presented a paper I wrote with Christine - Remember to Forget - On the self-manipulation of emotions.

O outro lado da Internet (in collaboration with Richard Smith, from Simon Fraser University, Burnaby, Canada), Meios, Associação Portuguesa de Imprensa (Portuguese Press Association), May 2003, on blogs and journalism

I had a weekly column in the Science & Technology section of the Portuguese newspaper O Primeiro de Janeiro for around 1 year in 2002-2003. I published around 50 articles during this time. These are just a few, from 2002:

Os primeiros ciborgues , in O Primeiro de Janeiro, 27 June (also published in Diário de Leiria, Diário de Viseu and Diário de Aveiro) – controlling a computer with the mind
Ver o mundo com outros olhos , in O Primeiro de Janeiro, 4 July – connecting a cat’s brain to a computer allows us to see what it sees
Sensações virtuais , in O Primeiro de Janeiro, 18 July – transmitting feelings to the brain through the nerves, bypassing the senses; direct brain to brain communication; Kevin Warwick
O meu cão está obsoleto , in O Primeiro de Janeiro, 25 July (also in Diário de Leiria and Diário de Viseu) – Are toy robots mere toys?
Kismet, um robô humanóide , in O Primeiro de Janeiro, 1 August - MIT’s Kismet, emotional computing
Morte à morte , in O Primeiro de Janeiro, 8 August - the emerging transhumanist ideology
Tecnologia: fetiche ou ferramenta? , in O Primeiro de Janeiro, 15 August – Technology, fetish or tool?
Graus de liberdade , in O Primeiro de Janeiro, 21 August – Degrees Of Freedom, humanoid robots
Janelas indiscretas , in O Primeiro de Janeiro, 29 August – surveillance and DARPA
As vantagens da morte , in O Primeiro de Janeiro, 5 September – The advantages of death, an introduction to evolutionary theory
Um peixe bio-mecatrónico , in O Primeiro de Janeiro, 13 September – MIT’s biomechatronic fish, with artificial muscles
O Santo Graal da Ciência Cognitiva , in O Primeiro de Janeiro, culture section, 21 September – essay on mind and soul
Robôs de ADN , in O Primeiro de Janeiro, 24 October – DNA robots, interview with French scientist
Verdades vendáveis, histórias contáveis , in O Primeiro de Janeiro, 31 October – introduction to memetics
Ergonomia cognitiva em software interactivo , in O Primeiro de Janeiro, 7 November – Cognitive ergonomics and interactive software
Guerra fria , in O Primeiro de Janeiro, 14 November – Cold war, cooperation, competition and Stephen Hawking’s robot take-over
Vestir um computador , in O Primeiro de Janeiro, 21 November – wearable computing
O que um blog pode fazer por si, in O Primeiro de Janeiro, 28 November – What can a blog do for you?
Avatares, in O Primeiro de Janeiro, 05 December – Virtual 3D environments, avatares
Spam, Spam, Spam, Spam e o Teste de Turing, in O Primeiro de Janeiro, 12 December – Yahoo users must take a test to prove they are human before registering for free email.
Immobots, in O Primeiro de Janeiro, 19 December – Immobile robots, the ones we have inside our car engines
...

Freelance translator - I worked for Translation and Interpreting Service, doing translation work for the London Borough of Barking & Dagenham, from 2003 to 2005, in the area of social care.

Freelance journalist - I had a weekly column for one year, writing 3000 word articles for newspaper O Primeiro de Janeiro, in 2002-2003, on Artificial Intelligence and Robotics, mainly, with the occasional philosophical flavour.

Journalism Internship at Babelmedia, in Brighton, in 2002. For around four months I wrote computer game reviews for the web site of Nintendo. These were 250 word mini-reviews and I must have written around 30 of them while I was there. I also did some computer game localisation (confirming accuracy of translations) at Babelmedia.

Tutor (teaching Portuguese) - For around 6 months I taught Portuguese, both privately and at Berlitz language school in Brighton, in 2002

Tutor (teaching English) - During 3 months I was a replacement tutor in a language school in Brighton. I would mainly try to get a discussion going on an interesting topic so the students (groups of 10 to 20, aged 14-20) would practice their English.

Soldier - I was in the army for 4 months in 1995, before starting my BA. I learned how to make my bed.

I have just submitted my PhD thesis on Moral Education at University of Manchester, written under the supervision of Peter Goldie and Graham Stevens, with the support of a scholarship from the Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology (FCT). At first I was reluctant to leave London and move to Manchester, but then I did and had a truly great time working with Peter and Graham. See my Research page for more details.

Between 2003 and 2005, I tried to become a postmodernist. I failed miserably. My PhD was originally on Posthuman Ethics (based on the philosophy of Artificial Life) and I was at the Media department of Goldsmiths College, University of London. When I started this PhD, I was interested in studying ethics using tools emerging from new ways of doing science, namely the sciences that deal with complexity and chaos theory. Being young and inexperienced, I believed doing a PhD involved thinking.

My name is Vasco, and I am a middle class western white male. I am evil. Being evil, my mind is clouded by a foul love for philosophy and the scientific method. Fortunately, the Media Department has shown me by indoctrination that the scientific method cannot produce knowledge, and is only a political weapon to empower me and those like me. I also learned, by being told, that this idea is not paranoid.

Objectivity is a front for its evil master! Truth is deception! We must replace objectivity with subjectivity, the scientific method with story-telling. Naysayers may well argue that the scientific method can be useful when we want to cure diseases. They may say that telling stories doesn't really help us to come up with a design for a jet engine, unless we are really lucky... To them I say: Truth is a lie! Hopeful words.

Hopeless me. I was only trying to fool myself. After 2 years at the Media Department, I had to accept I had made little or no progress. I still trusted medicine, physics, astronomy... I could not see how planets could be cultural constructions meant to silence minorities. Aren't they just wandering balls floating in the void? Pointless perhaps, but harmless, and even beautiful.

I had been kindly warned: "If you are a realist, you will never get a PhD from this University!" I sadly realised I would never fit in, and decided to leave. One solitary tear ran across my cheek. It was salty, subjective, culturally constructed. I had been close. I had felt the taste of freedom, seen its glow, but the light was too bright for me.

It must be said that my supervisor at Goldsmiths College was quite supportive of my decision, and agreed there was no point in staying if I obviously could not enjoy writing the kind of thesis I was expected to write at Goldsmiths. I was very lucky that Peter Goldie, then at King's College, had agreed to supervise me, to start my research project from scratch. Peter was on his way to Manchester, so I followed.

A very complete introductory course to evolutionary theory and Richard Dawkins' memetics, taught by Nikolaus Ritt at the Department of English at University of Vienna. Ritt asked in the beginning of the course if anyone in the room was a creationist. There were 5. In the end of the semester, he asked again. There were 5. Even after learning how evolution works, they all still felt some higher power was necessary to direct the forces of selection. Ritt was disappointed, I was shocked and they felt their faith had been confirmed. Natural selection is so amazing it really must be the work of God.

My thesis at University of Sussex was on mindreading (simulation theory, natural theories of mind, theory theory). I was supervised by Steve Torrance.

My thesis at Universidade Autónoma de Lisboa was on the use of hypertext in literature. I was supervised by Urbano Tavares Rodrigues. I basically argue that those who say hypertextual fiction will replace linear fiction are ugly. A fair point, I think.

As far as I recall, I only sat one exam while at Universidade Nova de Lisboa, Chemistry I. I did pass it, but it was painfully obvious the whole thing was not for me. I did learn how to play the harmonica, during those long Maths lectures...

photosynthesis, reading Boris Vian, avalanche swimming, dinghy sailing (I learned to sail in the lake from Clockwork Orange), photography (I do it in white. Not black and white, just white. I suppose it may be more accurate to call it "buying A4 paper", rather than photography. I also buy A4 paper with my camera, but when I say "buy" I mean "not buy", and it is not paper as such that I buy with it, but rather nothing. I do take photos with it, though.), climbing (I am known as the Climbing Philosopher among those who know me as the Climbing Philosopher. Unfortunately, no one knows me as the Climbing Philosopher), mountaineering (the normal way, but I always take mussels), canoeing, swimming.