Mike Lesser – In Memoriam

mike lesser
With much love and thanks
A truly unique and extraordinary man,
you leave an irreplaceable gap
and will be much missed.

Your IT Crew & Comrades

——

Mike Lesser (September 28, 1943 London – July 1, 2015 London ) was a mathematical philosopher and political activist.

The youngest member of the Committee of 100, he was sent, aged sixteen, to Wormwood Scrubs Prison along with most of the Committee. He has served two spells as contributor to London’s Underground journal International Times.

He was active in May 1968 in France.[1]

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 theory with Prof Allen.[2]

He worked on super computers at NASA‘s Goddard Jet Propulsion Lab, Washington, D.C., USA, and at the Rutherford Appleton Laboratories, Oxon, UK.

He has published papers on Autism with Dr. Dinah Murray [3] 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 more complete autobiography may be found in The Times [4] A biographical interview may also be found in the style magazine Dazed & Confused.[5]

 

References

  1.  International Times, May 1968, R. Tasher, “Stop Press Paris 24th May”, London. [1]
  2. P.Allen & M.Lesser (1991) Evolutionary Theories of Economic Change, pp. 160-172. Harwood Academic Publishers. Ed. P. P. Saviotti & J. Metcalfe. ISBN 3-7186-5078-9
  3.  D. Murray et al. (May 200), “Attention, monotropism and the diagnostic criteria for Autism”, The International Journal Of Research and Practice: Autism Vol 9, No 2, pp. 139-157.
  4. The Times, London, 10 September 2005, “Give me a break” [2]
  5.  Dazed and Confused, December 2009, Karley Sciortino, “Anti-Authoritarian Mike Lesser on His Life of Anarchy”, London.
  6. External links


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12 Responses to Mike Lesser – In Memoriam

    1. I miss you… God God God i miss you Mike..

      Comment by Elena Caldera on 2 July, 2015 at 1:34 am
    2. Me too. Miss your sparkly sparky funny phone calls already. x

      Comment by Claire on 2 July, 2015 at 3:43 am
    3. <3 yes honey….xx

      Comment by Elena Caldera on 2 July, 2015 at 1:47 pm
    4. Mike came into my life over forty years ago. I lost contact with him soon after. I rediscovered him very recently when I started to follow and contribute to I.T.

      I am so sad that I shall not be able to rekindle that connection. In the short time I knew him, I realised that he was a very, very special person indeed.

      My heart goes to everyone who loved him and misses him.

      Comment by Francis de Aguilar on 2 July, 2015 at 9:23 am
    5. Miss you Mike. X

      Comment by Julie Goldsmith on 2 July, 2015 at 9:25 am
    6. Mike gave me enough mind-spirit inspiration to last several lifetimes. Very sad that he’s gone.

      Comment by Mary Finnigan on 2 July, 2015 at 10:01 am
    7. Dear Mike, so glad I spoke with you not so very long ago. So sad to see you leave. All my love, Lin.

      Comment by Lin on 2 July, 2015 at 4:10 pm
    8. I knew Mike during the crazy squat days – 1970’s London. Frenetic, mercurial, explosive, hilarious and full of warmth..

      Comment by Kim on 2 July, 2015 at 4:31 pm
    9. Good words that sum him up right to the end, Kim! Watched the huge electric lightning storm here last night and liked to think it was a sign of Mike leaving us all with an explosive flash and a spectacular light show, which is how this IT gaff started out in the first place. Seemed a very fitting end to his life, and an emotionally stormy day.

      Comment by Claire on 3 July, 2015 at 1:25 am
    10. I will miss Mike as well. I will be broadcasting a repeat of an interview I did with him on May 2011. It will be broadcast on Resonancefm 104.4fm in London http://www.resonancefm.com on Sunday 19th July at 17:00 GMT.

      If you like, you can download it from my web site http://www.tregaskis.org now.

      Lots of love to Mike’s family and friends, he will be dearly missed. A lovely. great man.

      James

      Comment by James Tregaskis on 17 July, 2015 at 4:56 pm
    11. Its difficult to know what to say about Mike.
      Rather than a eulogy, I’d just like to focus on what some of us
      miss about the ‘free spirits’ which today (lamentably) lacks as one generation
      of sdcnrnr passes on:

      Spontaneity:
      ‘oh f**k it, lets just do it and see what happens !’

      Anti-Establishment:
      ‘there has to be a better way forward than the ******s running our lives today!’

      Eclectic:
      ‘there’s some good Colombian coming our way this evening!’

      Philosophical:
      “Turn on, tune in, drop out”

      bye bye Mike……..or should we all more honestly say ………………….’au revoir!’…………………………

      Pat

      Comment by Pat on 4 March, 2016 at 6:28 pm
    12. […] Mike Lesser – In Memoriam […]

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