Michael John Lesser (28 September 1943 – 1 July 2015) was a

mathematical Mathematics is a field of study that discovers and organizes methods, Mathematical theory, theories and theorems that are developed and Mathematical proof, proved for the needs of empirical sciences and mathematics itself. There are many ar ...

philosopher Philosophy ('love of wisdom' in Ancient Greek) is a systematic study of general and fundamental questions concerning topics like existence, reason, knowledge, Value (ethics and social sciences), value, mind, and language. It is a rational an ...

and political activist.

Early life

The youngest member of the Committee of 100, he was sent, aged 16, to

Wormwood Scrubs Wormwood Scrubs, known locally as The Scrubs (or simply Scrubs), is an open space in Old Oak Common located in the north-eastern corner of the London Borough of Hammersmith and Fulham in west London. It is the largest open space in the borough ...

Prison along with most of the committee. He served two spells as contributor to London's underground journal ''

International Times ''International Times'' (''it'' or ''IT'') is the name of various Underground press, underground newspapers, with the original title founded in London in 1966 and running until October 1973. Editors included John Hopkins (p ...

''. He was active in May 1968 in France.

Career

In 1992 he was the co-author, with Prof A. Wuensche, of the book ''The Global Dynamics Of Cellular Automata'', published in the '' Santa Fe Institute's Reference Volumes''. The book is an atlas of emergent forms evolving from the apparently chaotic product of a set of iterated logical operations. He was assistant to the Directing Professor, P. Allen, at the Institute for Ecotechnological Research at Cranfield University. He is the co-author of several scientific papers on

dynamical systems In mathematics, a dynamical system is a system in which a Function (mathematics), function describes the time dependence of a Point (geometry), point in an ambient space, such as in a parametric curve. Examples include the mathematical models ...

theory with Allen. He worked on super computers at

NASA The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA ) is an independent agencies of the United States government, independent agency of the federal government of the United States, US federal government responsible for the United States ...

's Goddard Jet Propulsion Lab and at the Rutherford Appleton Laboratories in Oxon, UK. He published papers on

autism Autism, also known as autism spectrum disorder (ASD), is a neurodevelopmental disorder characterized by differences or difficulties in social communication and interaction, a preference for predictability and routine, sensory processing d ...

with Dinah Murray, with whom he co-founded ''Autism and Computing'', a non-profit organization. In 2009 he founded ''The International Times Archive'', a free archive of every page of ''International Times'' from its first issue in 1966 to its last in 1994. A biographical interview may also be found in the style magazine '' Dazed & Confused''. A more complete autobiography may be found 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 ...

.''

Death

Lesser died in London in 2015 at the age of 71. In December 2015, coroner Andrew Walker at Barnet Coroners Court ruled that Lesser died from

asphyxiation Asphyxia or asphyxiation is a condition of deficient supply of oxygen to the body which arises from abnormal breathing. Asphyxia causes generalized hypoxia, which affects all the tissues and organs, some more rapidly than others. There are ...

. Evidence was given that Lesser had suffered from depression for "many years". He had a heart bypass in 1999 and in June 2015 had been told that he had terminal

lung cancer Lung cancer, also known as lung carcinoma, is a malignant tumor that begins in the lung. Lung cancer is caused by genetic damage to the DNA of cells in the airways, often caused by cigarette smoking or inhaling damaging chemicals. Damaged ...

. He left a note for his wife and friends."Philosopher committed suicide after terminal cancer diagnosis"
, Charlie Peat, Times Series, 2 December 2015. Retrieved 14 December 2015.

References

External links

A LIFE OF ANARCHY: MIKE LESSER INTERVIEW
Slutever, 18 February 2010 {{DEFAULTSORT:Lesser, Mike 1943 births 2015 deaths British philosophers British activists Cellular automatists People associated with Cranfield University British anarchists