Christopher Evans (computer scientist)

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Dr Christopher Riche Evans (1931 – 10 October 1979) was a British psychologist, computer scientist, and author.

A Welshman whose uncle Caradoc Evans was also a writer, Evans received his PhD. in psychology from Duke University in the US, and was a frequent guest on radio and television. He was married with two children.

Evans entered the field of computer science after joining the National Physical Laboratory in the mid 1950s. In 1979, he wrote a book about the oncoming microcomputer revolution. The Mighty Micro: The Impact of the Computer Revolution (London: Victor Gollancz Ltd, ISBN 0-575-02708-8), which included predictions for the future up to the year 2000[1]. This book was also printed in the USA, but called The Micro Millennium (New York: The Viking Press, ISBN 0-670-47400-2). He subsequently scripted and presented for the commercial television company ATV a six-part television series based on this book and broadcast posthumously by ITV between October and December 1979[2].

His other books include Cults of Unreason, a study of Scientology and other perceived pseudoscience, and Landscapes of the Night—how and why we dream.

In the 1970s, Evans undertook a set of interviews with computer pioneers such as Konrad Zuse and Grace Hopper. These were released through the Science Museum, London, as a set of cassette tapes, collectively entitled Pioneers of Computing.

Dr Evans also edited two anthologies of psychological science fiction/horror stories, Mind at Bay and Mind in Chains, a collection of science writings, "Cybernetics: Key Papers," a reference book "Psychology: A Dictionary of Mind, Brain and Behaviour," and was a contributing editor to the science magazine Omni. A passionate flier, and former pilot in the RAF, he also edited a yearly pilot's diary of rural airfields in Great Britain.

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