de Garis's Starlab apartment's library wall and Fat Man photos
When my research lab STARLAB moved from its downtown Brussels site to the new impressive mansion in Novermber 2000, I was asked if I might like to live permanently in one of its live-in apartments. It was only 80 square meters as against my then current house of 100 square meters, so I hesitated. "I have 6000 books", I said. "We can be creative", the personnel woman said. So Starlab built me bookcases to the ceiling and supplied me with a ladder to reach up to 5 meters. See the two photos below. The ladder wall is for the physics and math books (my basic degrees were in theoretical physics and applied mathematics, still very strong hobbies of mine). The right hand wall is for books on the brain, neuroscience, neuroanatomy, brain modeling, neural networks, etc.
There are only two researchers who live in permanently. Myself and Dr. Serguei Krasnikov, serguei@starlab.net, the time travel guy, one of the top in his field in the world. I guess we are rather privileged, being two of the most "exotic" in the building - "the brain builder and the time traveller!" But there are other weird research projects going on too - e.g. quantum computing, conscious robotics, nanotechnology, circuits on fibers, etc. Only a part of Starlab is devoted to blue sky research. The lab is still a private company which has yet to IPO, so has to pay its bills and 100 salaries. There are consortia with industrial companies who pay Starlab for its precompetitive research on certain themes, e.g. I-Wear (computers imbedded in clothing), nanomedia, etc. There is also patent licence income, etc. See STARLAB's website
I'm still thinking of hanging from my living room ceiling a life size replica of the Fat Man plutonium bomb (dropped on Nagasaki) similar to that used in the first Discovery Channel documentary on my work and ideas (of 3 in 2000). See the Fat Man photo below. The bomb would be highly symbolic for me. Looking up heavenwards from my living room sofa, it would be godlike, but since its a bomb, it would also be a threat. This godlike threat would symbolize for me the Terran/Cosmist attitudes that I see humanity polarizing into in future years. I've been told it would be cheaper to build another one from scratch that could be easily reassembled in slices every time I moved. Before doing that I'll wait to see how well Starlab IPOs. I have $100,000 of my savings invested in Starlab, so if the IPO is even reasonable, I will become a $millionaire. Then I could afford to have the bomb built. It would make a wonderful symbol and conversation piece for the steady stream of journalists who enter my living room to see the books. If the bomb were there as well, full of symbolic terran/cosmist significance, that would be "really cool", as my son says.
My Starlab apartment's living room library, 5 meters high with ladder - physics and math
The neuroscience and brain modeling books are on the right
The full-size replica of the Fat Man plutonium bomb used in the 1st Discovery Channel program - a symbol for me.