Editing Christopher Evans (computer scientist)

{{Short description|British computer scientist and author}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=March 2023}}
{{more citations needed|date=December 2010}}
{{Infobox scientist
| image       = 
| image_size  = 
| name        = Christopher Riche Evans
| birth_date  = 29 May 1931
| birth_place = [[Aberdyfi]], [[Wales]]
| death_date  = {{death date and given age|1979|10|df=yes|10|48}}
| death_place = 
| citizenship = United Kingdom
| children    = 2
| nationality = British
| field       = [[Computer science]], [[parapsychology]]
| known_for   = ''Pioneers of Computing'' recordings (1970s); ''The Mighty Micro'' (1979 book and TV series)
| work_institution = [[Royal Air Force]], [[Duke University]], [[University of Reading]], [[National Physical Laboratory (United Kingdom)|National Physical Laboratory]]
| alma_mater  = [[University College London]], [[University of Reading]]
}}

'''Christopher Riche Evans''' (29 May 1931 – 10 October 1979) was a British [[computer scientist]] and author.

== Biography ==
Born in [[Aberdyfi]], Christopher Evans spent his childhood in [[Wales]] and was educated at [[Christ College, Brecon]] (1941–1949). He spent two years in the [[Royal Air Force|RAF]] (1950–1952), and worked as a science journalist and writer until 1957, when he began a B.A. course in Psychology at [[University College London]], graduating with honours in 1960. After a summer fellowship at [[Duke University]] in the United States, where he first met his American wife, Nancy Fullmer, he took up a [[research assistant]] post in the [[Physics]] Laboratory, [[University of Reading]], working on eye movements under Professor R. W. Ditchburn. Upon receiving his PhD (the title of his thesis was "Pattern Perception and the Stabilised Retinal Image"), he went to the Division of Computer Science, [[National Physical Laboratory (United Kingdom)|National Physical Laboratory, Teddington]], in 1964, where he remained until his death from [[cancer]] in 1979. He had two children, Christopher Samuel Evans and Victoria Evans-Theiler.{{citation needed|date=May 2016}}

== Works ==
In 1979, Christopher Evans wrote a book about the oncoming [[microcomputer revolution]], ''[[The Mighty Micro (book)|The Mighty Micro: The Impact of the Computer Revolution]]'', which included predictions for the future up to the year 2000.<ref>[http://www.marshillreview.com/extracts/mash.shtm Mars Hill Review].</ref> This book was also printed in the US as ''The Micro Millennium'' (New York: The Viking Press, {{ISBN|0-670-47400-2}}). He subsequently scripted and presented for [[Associated TeleVision|ATV]] a six-part television series based on this book and broadcast posthumously by [[ITV (TV network)|ITV]] between October and December 1979.<ref>[https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/1090503 IEEE Book Review].</ref>

His other books include ''[[Cults of Unreason]]'', a study of [[Scientology]] and other [[pseudoscience]], and ''Landscapes of the Night: How and Why We Dream''.<ref>{{cite web |last=Coleman |first=Daniel |title=Do dreams really contain important secret meaning? |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1984/07/10/science/do-dreams-really-contain-important-secret-meaning.html?sec=health&spon=&pagewanted=2 |work=[[The New York Times]] |date=10 July 1984 |access-date=10 October 2011}}</ref>

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)|Science Museum]], London, as ''[[Pioneers of Computing]]'', a set of [[compact audio cassette|cassette]] tapes.

Christopher Evans also edited two anthologies of [[psychological science fiction]]/[[Horror 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 (magazine)|Omni]]''. A keen pilot, he also edited a yearly pilot's diary of rural airfields in [[Great Britain]].{{citation needed|date=May 2016}}

Evans had a significant friendship and collaboration with the writer [[J. G. Ballard]]. Together around 1968 they developed ideas for a play about a car crash, offered to
the Institute of Contemporary Arts but not produced.<ref>{{cite web |last=Holliday|first=Mike|title=Taking the Top Off His Skull: The Genesis of J.G. Ballard's Crash|url=http://www.ballardian.com/taking-the-top-off-his-skull-the-genesis-of-j-g-ballards-crash|date=28 March 2017|access-date=11 April 2020}}</ref>
Later came an exhibition of crashed cars at The New Arts Lab in London in 1970, and ultimately Ballard's novel
[[Crash (Ballard novel)|Crash]], published in 1973. Evans' charismatic appearance as a "hoodlum scientist" (in Ballard's description<ref>{{cite book |last=Ballard|first=J. G.|title=Miracles of Life|publisher=[[Fourth Estate]]|location=London|year=2008}}</ref>) was an inspiration for the
character of Dr. Robert Vaughan in [[Crash (Ballard novel)|Crash]]. Evans also appears in Ballard's fictionalised life story [[The Kindness of Women]]
as the psychologist Dr. Richard Sutherland. (Ballard recounts his friendship with Evans in his autobiography [[Miracles of Life]].)

During the 1970s, Evans was the scientific advisor to the [[ITV (TV network)|ITV]] TV series, ''[[The Tomorrow People]]''.<ref>[http://www.screenonline.org.uk/tv/id/904684/index.html Screen Online]</ref>

Christopher Evans died of cancer in 1979, at the age of 48, shortly after ''The Mighty Micro'' had been published in hardcover<ref>Evans 1980, foreword by Robin Webster</ref> and before the broadcast of the TV programmes.<ref>Programme director's postscript to the first episode of <em>The Mighty Micro</em>, October
1979.</ref>

== Selected works ==
;''Cults of Unreason''
* {{cite book |last=Evans |first=Christopher |title=Cults of Unreason |publisher=[[Harrap]] |location=London |year=1973 |edition=hardcover |isbn=978-0-245-51870-6}}
* {{cite book |last=Evans |first=Christopher |title=Cults of Unreason |publisher=[[Panther Books]] |location=St Albans, Hertfordshire, UK |year=1974 |edition=paperback |isbn=978-0-586-03905-2}}
* {{cite book |last=Evans |first=Christopher |title=Cults of Unreason |url=https://archive.org/details/cultsofunreason0000evan |url-access=registration |publisher=[[Farrar, Straus & Giroux]] |location=New York |year=1974 |edition=hardcover |isbn=978-0-374-13324-5}}
* {{cite book |last=Evans |first=Christopher |title=Cults of Unreason |publisher=[[Delacorte Press]] |location=New York |year=1975 |edition=paperback |isbn=978-0-440-54402-9}}

;''The Mighty Micro''
*{{cite book |last=Evans |first=Christopher |title=The Mighty Micro |publisher=[[Victor Gollancz]] Ltd |location=London |edition=hardcover |year=1979 |isbn=978-0-575-02708-4}}
* {{cite book |last=Evans |first=Christopher |title=The Mighty Micro |publisher=[[Coronet Books|Coronet]] |location=London |edition=paperback |year=1980 |isbn=978-0-340-25975-7}}

;''As editor''
*{{cite book |last1=Evans |first1=Christopher |title=Mind at Bay |date=1969 |publisher=Panther |isbn=978-0-586-02902-2 |edition=paperback}}
*{{cite book |last1=Evans |first1=Christopher |title=Mind in Chains |date=1970 |publisher=Panther |isbn=978-0-586-03423-1 |edition=paperback}}

== References ==
{{Reflist}}

== External links ==
* {{IMDb name|1444039}}

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Evans, Christopher}}
[[Category:1931 births]]
[[Category:1979 deaths]]
[[Category:People from Aberdyfi]]
[[Category:20th-century Royal Air Force personnel]]
[[Category:Alumni of University College London]]
[[Category:Alumni of the University of Reading]]
[[Category:Academics of the University of Reading]]
[[Category:British computer scientists]]
[[Category:Place of death missing]]
[[Category:Anglo-Welsh writers]]
[[Category:Critics of Scientology]]
[[Category:Deaths from cancer in the United Kingdom]]
[[Category:20th-century British psychologists]]
[[Category:Scientists of the National Physical Laboratory (United Kingdom)]]
[[Category:Royal Air Force airmen]]
[[Category:Military personnel from Gwynedd]]