29 Arkaringa Crescent, Black Rock 3193, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia
Tel. +61 3 9598 9239   —   Email:  rrtraill4@dodo.com.au  (NB changed July 2006)

Main theme to date:  An interdisciplinary attack on hitherto unexplained aspects of Mind and Brain, and the Nervous System in general — paying particular attention to the technical feasibility of new suggestions, and the plausibility of traditional tacit assumptions.

Books (printed,^† and also as “.pdf” files):

1. Mind and Micro-Mechanism:  a hunt for the missing theory
   ISBN 0-9577737-0-6     R.R.Traill (1999)         .pdf  *
   
2. Physics and Philosophy of the Mind:  some new insights in an extended neuro-project
   ISBN 0-9577737-1-4     R.R.Traill (2000)         .pdf  *
   

Online Thesis   —   R. R. Traill (1978/2006)   —   Or see Brunel University Research Archive (BURA).

• Preliminaries + Part A (361KB) — This file includes “Contents”, Introduction, and Part A itself (previously published in Kybernetes 5 and 7).   Part A summarizes Piaget's relevant concepts, but also considers what general-types of submechanism could possibly explain such human abilities.
• Part B (409KB) — here, and originally, published as the self-contained Brunel Monograph #24: “Toward a theoretical explanation of electro-chemical interaction in memory use:   the postulated role of infra-red components and molecular evolution”.   This accepts the hard-science challenge posed by Part A — moving the debate beyond abstract philosophy into physics and information-technology whilst retaining the biological context.
• Chapters C1-C5 (471KB) — The hierarchical-organization concepts of W.R.Ashby are added, and tentatively identified with Piaget's “developmental stages” such as to explain the advanced mental capabilities of humans.
• Chapter C6 (424KB) — “The system looked at as a whole, and some inherent weaknesses to be expected”
• Chapter C7 (93KB) — “Mechanisms for neuroses”, applying the above concepts.
• Chapter C8 (450KB) — “Developing a consistent and reasonably comprehensive structural theory of psychosis”
• References (165KB)

• (No.8) Problems with Economic Rationalism — Psychology, Green-issues, and Jobs
                 (R.R.Traill, first issued 23 Nov 2007)         Latest version:     .pdf

• (No.1) Strange regularities in the geometry of myelin nerve-insulation — a possible single cause
                 (R.R.Traill March 2005)         .htm     .pdf
  
  
• (No.2) Thinking by Molecule, Synapse, or both? — from Piaget's Schema, to the Selecting/Editing of ncRNA
                 (R.R.Traill April 2005)         .htm     .pdf
    Note: Here the newly-coined word “acton” (for a physical element of action-encoding)
  has seemed too confusingly similar to the “action”-word itself.
  Hence it is proposed to replace it with “taton” — based on “Tat”, the German word for act-or-deed.
  (In fact, this recalls a relevant line from Goethe’s Faust:   “Im Anfang war die Tat” — oft-quoted by Piagetians).
  
  
• (No.3) How Popperian positivism killed a good-but-poorly-presented theory
             — insect communication by infrared   
                 (R.R.Traill December 2005)         .rtf     .pdf
  
  
• (No.4) Thinking as mental model-building:
             a Piagetian-cum-mechanistic explanation of the ‘engram’    (alias Brunel Monograph #12)
                 (R.R.Traill April 1975 — with 2007 annotations/links)         .pdf
  
  
• (No.5) The gulf between behavioural psychology and fundamental physiology:
             a systematic attempt to bridge the gap    (alias Brunel Monograph #15)
                 (R.R.Traill April 1976 — with 2007 annotations/links)         .pdf
  
  
• (No.6) Short papers and letters on the ‘linear micro-element’ theory of mental mechanism:
             and related questions of scientific method    (alias Brunel Monograph #18)
                 (R.R.Traill October 1976 — with 2007 links and new extended preface)         .pdf

              Posting delayed:

• (No.7) Notes on Reductionism and related matters
                 (R.R.Traill,  late 2007?)       ——       with apologies for any inconvenience  

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Miscellaneous

Australian Senate Political Preferences allocated by each party
    in the State of Victoria — Nov 2007 federal elections
    (Sortable table compiled by R.R.Traill, from print-data supplied by the Australian Electoral Commission)          .rtf      .doc

  [German texts: Cohn      Wien ]

Sample book-cover,
see above for details