Al Seckel: Difference between revisions

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Template:Wikify-date Al Seckel (born 1958) is an authority on visual and other types of sensory illusions and how they relate to perception. Seckel collects, researches, and experiments with illusions to understand what conditions are necessary for them to work, with particular focus on how they can be explained in terms of the electrophysiology and neuroanatomy of the retinal and cortical networks that mediate visual perception. In addition to his research on visual perception, Seckel has served as a consultant to illusionists such as David Copperfield, David Blaine, Keith Barry, and many other prominent names in the magic community.

Visual Illusions

Seckel specializes in visual and other types of sensory illusions, because they serve as a nice window into how the brain perceives, since they can reveal the hidden constraints of the perceptual system in a way that normal perceptual processes do not. In this capacity, he has discovered and lectured about many of the hidden rules that mediate human perception. Seckel has written many books on visual illusions. Seckel also has a monthly column on illusions in National Geographics KIDS magazine.

In 1994, Seckel designed and put up for free display the first interactive web site on illusions. The visitor could freely interact with illusions. He has lectured on this topic at many of the world's most prestigious institutions, and has designed and built many interactive galleries on science and perception for science museums around the world.

In 2005, Seckel was one of the judges in the first "Best Visual Illusion of the Year" contest held in A Corona, Spain at the European Conference on Visual Perception, and has been sponsoring the contest since then.

Freethought movement

Throughout the 1980s, Seckel was very active in the freethought movement. In this capacity he authored many freethought and skeptical articles, which are still popular today. He also edited two books on the English rationalist philosopher Bertrand Russell. In 1983, Seckel and John Edward co-created the Darwin fish, which was first sold as a bumper sticker and on T-shirts in 1983-84 by Atheists United. By 1990, the design had been appropriated by Evolution Design of Austin, Texas, and turned into a million-dollar business. When Evolution Design began threatening to sue distributors of look-alike and derivative products (like a Jewish "gefilte" fish), Seckel in turn sued Evolution Design for copyright infringement. Seckel did not seek royalties, but wanted Evolution Design to allow free use of the design by anyone authorized by him. The suit was settled after it became apparent that Seckel and Edwards lost copyright when they allowed the design to fall into public domain.

In 1984, Seckel started the Southern California Skeptics at the California Institute of Technology, where he became a leading investigator and spokesperson for science and its relationship to the paranormal. During this time, he worked closely with prominent scientists and magicians, investigating various supernatural claims from the scientific perspective. The Los Angeles Times discussed the organization in an editorial entitled "Go Skeptics!" One such investigation (utilizing the help of many skeptical organizations and magicians, including James "Amazing" Randi) involved the well-known faith healer Peter Popoff, who used a hearing transmitter to give the impression that he was psychic and hearing private information from God. This became the foundation of a popular movie titled "Leap of Faith," staring Steve Martin. Between 1987-1989, Seckel had his own personal column in the Los Angeles Times and the Santa Monica Monthly News.

In 1987, Seckel helped sponsor an amicus brief, with the support of the physicist and Nobel Laureate Murray Gell-Mann, to counter the arguments that "creation science" was truly scientific. This issue came before the U.S. Supreme Court. Seckel organized a brief, written with Jeffrey Lehmann (later president of Cornell University), and signed by 72 American Nobel laureates, that stated a definition of science, as well as the facts that "creation science" was counter not only to the study of evolution, but to ALL sciences. All of the opinions cited the brief, including the dissents. This led to a 7-2 decision that upheld the notion that so-called "creation-science" was in fact, religion disguised as science, delliberate construed as such in order to circumvent the consititutional prohibitions of keeping Church and State separate, especially in the public science classroom.

In late 1989, due to a sudden onset of leukemia, Seckel was forced to abandon the Skeptics, and had to immediately enter the hospital, where his health quickly deteriorated; the Southern California Skeptics folded, resurrected a couple of years later by Michael Shermer and renamed The Skeptics Society. Seckel started to recover from his illness in 1992, turning his full attention to studying the human brain, specifically vision and how it relates to perception.

Affiliations

In 1976 Seckel attended Cornell University and came under the influence of L. Pearce Williams, a History of Science professor. Williams spent an enormous amount of time with Seckel. Intially, Seckel wanted to pursue a career in astronomy, and had a brief stint as the famous astronomer Carl Sagan's teaching assistant. After leaving Cornell University, and between the period of 1982 and 1988, Seckel started a close relationship with the Caltech professor, physicist, and Nobel Prize winner Richard Feynman. Seckel and Feynman would spend many hours together, and many of their adventures together can be found on line at the Feynman on-line web site. Seckel also developed a close relationship with Feynman's close collegue and rival the Nobel prize winning physicist Murray Gell-Mann. During the late 1990s, Seckel together with book publisher Jeremy Norman, collected, organized, and preserved the original papers of many of the pioneers in the history of the development of molecular biology, so that these historically important papers would be preserved for scholarly use. The collection now resides at the Craig Ventor Institute.

Seckel is a member of the Edge.org, which is an international think tank of some of the world's most prominent scientists, writers, achievers, and intellectuals.
Seckel is on the nominating board for the MacArthur Fellowship ("Genius") awards.
Seckel has been a member of the American Academy of Achievement.
He is a principle organizer of the Conference for Martin Gardner.
He has been a consultant for TED (Technology, Entertainment, and Design Conference).
Until 2005, Seckel was a Research Fellow at the California Institute of Technology.
Seckel is a non-paid consultant to many well-known philanthrophic organizations.

Family

Seckel has one daughter Elizabeth, born in 1987. His father is an artist and his mother (Ruth Schonthal) is a classical composer. He has two older brothers. He was born in New Rochelle, NY. and now resides in Malibu, CA.

Published Books

Bertrand Rusell on God and Religion, (Seckel, editor), Prometheus Books, 1988
Science and the Paranormal, SCS Publishing, 2987

Bertrand Russell on Sex, Marriage, and Morals, (Seckel, editor), Prometheus Books, 1988

The Art of Optical Illusions, Carlton Books, 2002

More Optical Illusions, Carlton Books, 2003

Great Book of Optical Illusions, Firefly Books, 2004

Masters of Deception: Escher, Dali, and the Artists of Optical Illusion, Sterling Books, 2004

Incredible Visual Illusions, Arcturus Books, 2005

Ambiguous Optical Illusions, Sterling Books, 2005

Action Optical Illusions, Sterling Books, 2005

Geometrical Optical Illusions, Sterling Books, 2005

Impossible Optical Illusions, Sterling Books, 2005

Stereo Optical Illusions, Sterling Books, 2006

Topsy-Turvy Illusions, Sterling Books, 2006

Composite Illusions, Sterling Books, 2006

Hidden Images, Sterling Books, 2006

Wacky Pictures, Sterling Books, 2006

Optical Illusions: The Science of Perception, Firefly Books, 2006

References

Sarah Lubman (December 26, 1995). "Fish fight looms over bumper ornament". Albany, NY Times-Union (via Knight-Ridder News Service).
Op Ed (May 5, 1985). "Go, Skeptics!". Los Angeles Times.
Rex Dalton (June 14, 2001). "The History Man". Nature.
Neil Adler (August 10, 2005). "Ventor Institute Buys Documents of Biotech History". Washington Business Journal.

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