Research

This fall has been mostly about cognitive semiotics. It is very different to return to basic research on a field where I’m almost completely a newcomer. New terminology and new theory - a lot to take in for a mind so used to the familiar. Hopefully this semester will shake some of the entrenched views into new approaches. One of the classes has me writing about literary arts. I’m writing an paper about meaning effects in literary works, and how they could be translated to work on video games. If the paper comes out good, I’ll try to turn it into a proper research paper next spring. ...

A while ago I attended a philosophy seminar where the last presentation was about using science fiction as a tool for research. For researchers interested in culture and society, it may give invaluable possibilities. The idea is to use science fiction as a “what if”-scenario. Most of the elements of society can be kept constant (gender roles, economic structures) while some (ideologies, length of life span) are altered to see what the resulting societies look like. These scenarios are intuitively understandable, as long as they are close enough to our own conception of society. ...