Geoffrey Leslie Simons (23 November 1939 – 31 August 2011) was a British freelance writer. In the 1980s, he was chief editor at the

National Computing Centre The National Computing Centre (NCC) was an independent not-for-profit membership and research organisation in the United Kingdom. After the original organisation was liquidated in 2010, Redholt Limited changed its name to the National Compu ...

in Manchester. A prolific author of non-fiction, he wrote books about sex,

computers A computer is a machine that can be programmed to automatically carry out sequences of arithmetic or logical operations ('' computation''). Modern digital electronic computers can perform generic sets of operations known as ''programs'', ...

and politics, particularly the history of the Middle East.

Career

Geoff Simons was born in

Stockport Stockport is a town in Greater Manchester, England, south-east of Manchester, south-west of Ashton-under-Lyne and north of Macclesfield. The River Goyt, Rivers Goyt and River Tame, Greater Manchester, Tame merge to create the River Mersey he ...

, and lived in or around

Greater Manchester Greater Manchester is a ceremonial county in North West England. It borders Lancashire to the north, Derbyshire and West Yorkshire to the east, Cheshire to the south, and Merseyside to the west. Its largest settlement is the city of Manchester. ...

throughout his life. He worked as an Information Officer at several companies, as well as working as a technical author and editor. He wrote hardware and software manuals at

Ferranti Ferranti International PLC or simply Ferranti was a UK-based electrical engineering and equipment firm that operated for over a century, from 1885 until its bankruptcy in 1993. At its peak, Ferranti was a significant player in power grid system ...

and ICL. As Chief Editor at the NCC, he established ''Computer Journal Abstracts'' and wrote summaries for over 20,000 computer articles. Simons was a critic of US foreign policy, regarding

sanctions against Iraq A sanction may be either a permission or a restriction, depending upon context, as the word is an auto-antonym. Examples of sanctions include: Government and law * Sanctions (law), penalties imposed by courts * Economic sanctions, typically a b ...

in the 1990s as

genocide Genocide is violence that targets individuals because of their membership of a group and aims at the destruction of a people. Raphael Lemkin, who first coined the term, defined genocide as "the destruction of a nation or of an ethnic group" by ...

, and the United States as "a

plutocracy A plutocracy () or plutarchy is a society that is ruled or controlled by people of great wealth or income. The first known use of the term in English dates from 1631. Unlike most political systems, plutocracy is not rooted in any established ...

that shapes foreign policy in the cynical calculation of elitist commercial advantage". In later life he was a frequent correspondent to newspapers, seeing his letters published in ''

The Times ''The Times'' is a British Newspaper#Daily, daily Newspaper#National, national newspaper based in London. It began in 1785 under the title ''The Daily Universal Register'', adopting its modern name on 1 January 1788. ''The Times'' and its si ...

'', the ''

Sunday Times ''The Sunday Times'' is a British Sunday newspaper whose circulation makes it the largest in Britain's quality press market category. It was founded in 1821 as ''The New Observer''. It is published by Times Newspapers Ltd, a subsidiary of N ...

'', ''

The Independent ''The Independent'' is a British online newspaper. It was established in 1986 as a national morning printed paper. Nicknamed the ''Indy'', it began as a broadsheet and changed to tabloid format in 2003. The last printed edition was publis ...

'', ''

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in Manchester in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'' and changed its name in 1959, followed by a move to London. Along with its sister paper, ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardi ...

'', the ''

New Statesman ''The New Statesman'' (known from 1931 to 1964 as the ''New Statesman and Nation'') is a British political and cultural news magazine published in London. Founded as a weekly review of politics and literature on 12 April 1913, it was at first c ...

'', and the '' Morning Star''. He died on 31 August 2011. He was survived by his widow, Christine, children, grandchildren and great-granddaughter.

Skepticism

Simons was an

atheist Atheism, in the broadest sense, is an absence of belief in the existence of deities. Less broadly, atheism is a rejection of the belief that any deities exist. In an even narrower sense, atheism is specifically the position that there no ...

and

skeptic Skepticism ( US) or scepticism ( UK) is a questioning attitude or doubt toward knowledge claims that are seen as mere belief or dogma. For example, if a person is skeptical about claims made by their government about an ongoing war then the p ...

. He was a member of Greater Manchester Humanists. In his book ''Is God a Programmer?'', he defended atheism and criticized the

argument from design The teleological argument (from ) also known as physico-theological argument, argument from design, or intelligent design argument, is a rational argument for the existence of God or, more generally, that complex functionality in the natural worl ...

Works

* ''Sex in the Modern World'', 1970. * ''A History of Sex'', 1970. * ''Sex Tomorrow'', 1971. * ''Does Sex Make You Feel Guilty?'', 1972. * ''Pornography Without Prejudice: A Reply to Objectors'', 1972. * ''A Place for Pleasure: The History of the Brothel'', 1973. * ''The Witchcraft World'', 1974. * ''The Simons Book of Sexual Records'', 1975. * ''Introducing Microprocessors'', 1979. * ''Robots in Industry'', 1980. * ''The Uses of Microprocessors'', 1980. * ''Introducing Word Processing'', 1981. * ''Women in Computing'', 1981. * ''The Illustrated Book of Sexual Records'', 1982. Second ed., 1985. * ''Privacy in the Computer Age'', 1982. * ''Computers in Engineering and Manufacture'', 1982. * ''The Book of World Sexual Records'', 1983. * ''Sex and Superstition'', 1983. * ''Are Computers Alive? Evolution and New Life Forms'', 1983. * ''Automating Your Office'', 1984. * ''Computer Bits and Pieces: A Compendium of Curiosities'', 1984. * ''Expert Systems and Micros'', 1985. * ''Towards Fifth-generation Computers'', 1986. * ''Is Man a Robot?'', 1986. * ''Introducing Artificial Intelligence'', 1984. * ''The Biology of Computer Life: Survival, Emotion and Free Will'', 1985. * ''Silicon Shock: The Menace of the Computer Invasion'', 1985. * (with R. T. Doswell) ''Fraud and Abuse of IT Systems'', 1986. * ''Eco-computer: The Impact of Global Intelligence'', 1987. * ''What is Software Engineering?'', 1987. * ''Introducing Software Engineering'', 1987. * ''Evolution of the Intelligent Machine: A Popular History of AI'', 1988. * ''Is God a Programmer?: Religion in the Computer Age'', 1988. * ''Silicon Psychosis: Derangement in the Global Network'', 1989. * ''Viruses, Bugs and Star Wars: The Hazards of Unsafe Computing'', 1989. * ''Robots: The Quest for Living Machines'', New ed., 1994. * ''Robots and Robotics'', 1992. * ''Libya: The Struggle for Survival'', 1993. 2nd ed. (with foreword by

Tam Dalyell Sir Thomas Dalyell, 11th Baronet ( ; 9 August 1932 – 26 January 2017), known as Tam Dalyell, was a Scottish politician who served as Member of Parliament (MP) for Linlithgow (formerly West Lothian) from 1962 to 2005. A member of the Labour ...

), 1996. * ''Iraq: From Sumer to Saddam'', 1994. Foreword by

Tony Benn Anthony Neil Wedgwood Benn (3 April 1925 – 14 March 2014), known between 1960 and 1963 as Viscount Stansgate, was a British Labour Party (UK), Labour Party politician and political activist who served as a Cabinet of the United Kingdom, Cabine ...

. 2nd ed., 1996. 3rd ed., 2003. * ''The United Nations: A Chronology of Conflict'', 1994. * ''Korea: The Search for Sovereignty'', 1995, Reprinted with foreword by

, 1999. * ''UN Malaise: Power, Problems, and Realpolitik'', 1995. * ''Cuba: From Conqistador to Castro'', 1996. * ''The Scourging of Iraq: Sanctions, Law, and Natural Justice'', 1996. 2nd ed., 1998. * ''Vietnam Syndrome: Impact on US Foreign Policy'', 1998. Foreword by

. * ''Saudi Arabia: The Shape of a Client Feudalism'', 1998. * ''Iraq – Primus inter Pariahs: A Crisis Chronology'', 1999. * ''Imposing Legal Sanctions: Legal Remedy or Genocidal Tool?'', 1999. * ''Indonesia: The Long Oppression'', 1999. * ''UN Reform: Addressing the Reality of American Power', ''Global Dialogue'', Vol. 2., No. 2 (Spring 2000) * ''Targeting Iraq: Sanctions and Bombing in US Policy'', 2002. * ''Future Iraq: US Policy in Reshaping the Middle East'', 2003. * ''Colombia: A Brutal History'', 2004. * ''Libya and the West: From Independence to Lockerbie'', 2004. Foreword by

. *''The Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine,'' 2006 pub by Palestinian Return centre * ''Iraq Endgame?: Surge, Suffering and the Politics of Denial'', 2008. * ''Time to be Rational: Darwin, Demons and Sex'', 2009. * ''Nuclear Nightmares'', 2009.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Simons, Geoff 1939 births 2011 deaths 20th-century British letter writers 20th-century English historians Critics of creationism English atheists English book editors English male non-fiction writers English non-fiction writers English sceptics Historians of the Middle East Historians of Libya Writers from Stockport British relationships and sexuality writers Technical writers