August 27, 2009, London, England:
Don Berry, one of the first Starmind Question Solvers has handed in over 30 solutions on Starmind. Impressively, without exception, all solutions were rated as “excellent!”. After more than 10 outstanding solutions and very positive comments by question posers, the Starmind team went curious on who Don Berry is, a 21 year old graduate from University of Cambridge, England.
Find here a short resume of Don Berry, Starmind Platinum Fellow since August 27, 2009:
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Self-Portrait, (c) 2008, by Don Berry
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Don Berry with the golden Brain
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Starmind Platinum Certificate
An active member of the site, with 27 solutions to his name and counting, Starmind ‘Don Berry’ enjoys working across a wide range of academic areas. Ambitious and driven, he welcomes the challenge of completing fresh research into novel or previously unexplored territories. Amongst these varied bookings, which range across Mathematics, Linguistics, Philosophy and Science, Don has had the opportunity to demonstrate his programming skills by writing an application to demonstrate cumulative evolution, based on previous work by Richard Dawkins. Earlier this year, achieving an IQ score of 152 entitled him to join the ranks of the organisation MENSA, with which Starmind Innovation has recently become affiliated.
Don has been involved with high-level Mathematics since a young age: at 14 he ranked amongst the top 20 students in a national mathematics competition and attended master-classes locally at the University of Hertfordshire. He graduated from the University of Cambridge in the summer of 2009 with a Ba (Hons) in Mathematics, and with a further Ma award to follow. During his time at Cambridge his focus gradually switched away from pure Mathematics to Philosophy, in which he has now accrued extensive writings, all unpublished as of yet. Currently he is studying for an Ma in Philosophy at University College London.
His recent work has involved exploring the philosophical implications of modern physics; free will and determinism, time and relativity, morality and evolutionary biology. He is currently investigating the tendency towards Platonism that is so ubiquitous in the philosophy of Mathematics, and its potentially negative implications for physical materialism. He is an avid reader of books, and pursues knowledge of the sciences relevant to his philosophical research.
Next year Don is looking to return to the University of Cambridge to do a Ph.D in Philosophy, contributing to the project of deflating ontological commitment in the Philosophies of Mathematics and Logic. Ultimately he hopes to go on to an academic teaching position in philosophy. In his spare time he enjoys painting landscapes, and has recently sold his first watercolour.
Don Berry has been awarded with an official Starmind Certificate and a recommendation by Prof. Dr. Pfeifer, Director of the Articial Intelligence Laboratory, University of Zurich and Pascal Kaufmann, Founder and CEO Starmind.
Don Berry is the first Starmind user of whom a selection of solutions is published. Some of them are likely to be handed in as book chapters and essays:
Selection of resolved challenges:
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Question: ”Intriguing question on scientific theory on consciousness – how can we tackle the problem at all?“-> Don Berry’s solution (selected out of 7 competing solutions) – these thoughts are part of an essay to be published soon.
Question: “Challenging a smart argument on the existence of God“-> Don Berry’s solution (selected out of 18 competing solutions)
Question: ”Complex number problem“-> Don Berry’s solution (selected out of 14 competing solutions)
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The Starmind Team congratulates Don Berry for his extraordinary contributions in the field of Science Philosophy, Business Strategy, Mathematics, Physics and other disciplines.
On Starmind questions with focus on the research and professional business sector are posted. Talents worldwide compete for outstanding solutions and novel approaches.
Platinum Fellows rank among the top performing 0.1% users within the Starmind community constituted by several thousand selected users.
