I'm a neuroscientist at the Donders Institute in Nijmegen. I used to study visual perception, memory and eye movements, now I'm investigating sleeping and dreaming. I'm trying to understand how lucid dreaming works in the brain, and attempt to decode and reconstruct dreams using machine learning tools. Dream based brain-computer interfaces, lucid dreaming induction, that sort of thing.

I'm also a light artist. love creating and observing interactive installations using digital and analog projectors and other media.

I have a deep love for nature and the wilderness. Long distance hiking and wildcamping in mountains and forests is one of my favorite things to do in the world.

I typically also visit one or three psytrance festivals in summer.

I ponder various things, from buddhist philosophy to the technological singularity. How can I close the intention-behavior gap? How can I make full use of my nervous system? How can I become more loving and more intelligent? How can we improve the catastrophic state of human inequality and ring the bell of climate change emergency? What will our species look like in 5, 20, 100 years? How will society adapt to the accelerating rise of automation?

I'm a vehement supporter of radical optimism based on scientific realism.

"To throw off these clothes and these naked bones - to leave my emotions in the dust - to cast my mind into the darkness of space - burning my habits in the demon's fire. When this is done, falling blindly into the abyss - only then do I begin." (Chris Hyatt)

Why I’m on Couchsurfing

To meet cool inspired and inspiring people

Interests

Radical philosophy, oldschool goa trance, mind expansion, photography, electric bass, neuroengineering, keeping up with tech development and the singularity, being music, befriending strangers...

• arts
• photography
• technology
• music

Music, Movies, and Books

music: jazz, goa trance, psytrance, chillpsy, darkpsy, ambient, industrial, black metal, funky electronic stuff, minimal, classical music of all ethnicities, crazy guitars, wicked voices..... every last sound of anything ever vibrating, the sound of glass breaking, engines, heartbeats and crowds of people talking all at once...

authors: timothy leary, john lilly, terence mckenna, robert anton wilson, christopher hyatt, george hansen, aleister crowley, ram dass, jiddu krishnamurti, j r r tolkien, ..................

movies: the wall, ghost in the shell, bbc life, bbc planet earth, fear and loathing in las vegas, the fountain, waking life, lost highway, the dark crystal, videodrome, ... ehh there's just so many

One Amazing Thing I’ve Done

I've been to India six times and it's been mindblowing all the way. Sleeping on a pile of leafs in the jungles of Arambol or between two blankets in the Rajasthani desert or in a Rainbow tent on a meadow high in the Himalayas is definitely something I'd like to do again and again.

Countries I’ve Visited

Austria, Belgium, Croatia, Czech Republic, France, Germany, Hungary, Iceland, India, Italy, Kyrgyzstan, Liechtenstein, Luxembourg, Morocco, Nepal, Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Spain, Switzerland, Thailand, Turkey, United Arab Emirates, United Kingdom, United States, Vatican City State

Countries I’ve Lived In

Belgium, Germany, Iceland, India, Kyrgyzstan, Netherlands, United Kingdom