Hi! I'm Mike, and I'm a nerd. I program computers for fun and profit, spend way too much time on Hacker News, read hard sci-fi, and argue with my friends over whether the robot apocalypse will destroy us all. Check the 'what I think about' section for the gory details.

UPDATE: After doing swing off and on for a while, I'm trying to learn blues. Anyone who'd like to go learn together, please move to the front of the line.

Taking delight in things. Noticing little things that make me smile or laugh.

Solving hard problems (math, physics, computer science, etc.), and singing, are my two favorite things in the world, and practice has made me fairly impressive at both.

Other than that, I can juggle, cook, and play DDR about well enough to get by.

I'm told I'm ridiculously easy to read -- that whatever my mood is, you can tell if you're around me -- and that that mood tends to be sunny most of the time.

Also, if I find something *really* funny, people in the next area code tend to know about it...

Leekath claims that I make exceptionally amusing faces/noises when tickled, but this will probably not be the *first* thing you notice about me -- unless you are an unusually forward tickler.

On comes the wall of text...

Books:
The Phantom Tollbooth, The Mouse That Roared, The Little Prince, The Ethical Slut, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead, Harry Potter and the Methods of Rationality, The Structure and Interpretation of Computer Programs

Authors:
Douglas Adams, Eliezer Yudkowsky, Douglas Hofstadter, Richard Dawkins, Daniel Dennett, Isaac Asimov, Carl Sagan, C.S. Lewis, Will Shakespeare, Allie Brosh

Art:
Alex Grey

Music:
Half my favorite acts have accordions. Watching someone rock the fuck out on an accordion is one of my great joys. Al Yankovic and John Linnell, my life would be sadder without you.

Food:
Really good raw salmon is one of the most delicious things in the world.

So is beef, cooked right. I make pretty spectacular burgers, if I say so myself.

I'm in a paleo phase right now. Lots of butter, lots of beef, lots of green vegetables, avoiding sugar and gluten. Also trying to fast more.

Television:
I don't always watch TV shows for little girls. But when I do, I prefer My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic.

Actually I might be on a children's TV kick lately, because I've become a pretty big fan of Avatar. The original series (Airbender) is fantastic. The writing on Korra hasn't gripped me as much yet, but the visuals are still lovely.

Music
Science/Knowledge/Understanding
Humanity
Laughter
Exploration
Touch

Physical reality. I got off a BART train the other day, and there was a rainbow in the sky, and it was gorgeous. The sun was setting in a clear sky behind me, and there was rain falling ahead of me. There were a series of cones -- miles wide, and centered at the line between the sun and my eyes, through which droplets were falling. One cone made the right angle with that line to reflect red light into my eyes, the next orange, the next yellow... it was lovely to stand there in the drizzle and think that across those miles, each raindrop was contributing, sending a bit of light into my eyes, so that I could see that particular rainbow.

In our lifetimes, computer intelligence may well surpass our own. If this happens, it will be the first intelligence created by another intelligence -- which means it'll be able to turn around, see the mistakes its creators made, and make itself that much smarter. Lather, rinse, repeat. What will the world look like when this process reaches its end, and will it look like anything we'd want?

Why do I exist? What determines which things get to exist and which don't? Do all possible universes exist? Then why am I experiencing such a specific and well-ordered one? How do I know that I am not a Boltzman brain?

Should I fear death? Subjectively, it seems the only thing I have to look forward to is the future, and the shrinking of that future to a point seems terrifying. Yet at the same time "when I am, death is not, and when death is, I am not" - how can I fear non-existence, when by definition, it is something I will never experience?

If I sub in ground beef for chicken in our fry-up tonight, will it still taste good? (answer, yes, but chicken works better)

Should I have used soy chicken? Are chickens' minds sufficiently self-reflective for them to have conscious experience, or is self-reflectivity even the necessary property? What kind of experience would a wholly different sort of mind have, and is it something I could ever understand?

Tuesday is karaoke night at the Shattuck Down Low. Monday I usually go to Shades of Blues in the city. Saturday I try to make Lindy on Sproul if I'm up and ready soon enough. Friday night, though, usually finds me on a futon with Leekath seeking/showing each other funny pictures on the internets.

I used to be a Nice Guy(TM), but I got better.

I remain a reasonably decent fellow.

I'm poly, and currently dating the lovely and brilliant Leekath. We have a fairly strong primary bond, but are happy to meet and explore relationships with other folk. In short: she's mine, and I'm hers -- but we'll share.

I've got a pretty archetypal case of ADD. I've lost five laptops (and had to count them in my head before I could finish this sentence). Folks in my social circle tend to be somewhere on the autistic spectrum, though I've never actually been diagnosed.

You are: smart, good, honest, and creative.

You like to cook, and can share a kitchen. I know it's cliche, but coupled cooking is awesome.

Aphorisms to the contrary, I quite often make passes at girls who wear glasses.