I'm a creative thinker with highly developed writing and programming skills. I have a hyperrational personality and am extremely open to ideas. I also enjoy solving logical puzzles and fall in the "exceptionally gifted" range according to high-range intelligence tests. As such, my interests include metaphysics, epistemology, formal logic, algorithms, theory of computation, and psychology. As a hobby I occasionally develop computer games. In my youth I became known in the online community for editing the Hugi Magazine and organizing programming competitions.
I was very good at languages and mathematics at school. Since the exams in the minor subjects were not too difficult, I always got good grades and passed my high school diploma with a grade point average of 1.0 (the highest possible). During all those years, I had not developed a strong interest in any academic subject. I actually wanted to become a programmer after graduating from high school because I enjoyed the work and the job market was promising. However, because of my good grades, my father insisted that I study medicine. So I struggled through medical school, only to end up completing a second degree in computer science and going to work as a programmer. If I had to study again today, I would choose physics. That was one of the exam subjects in medical school that I enjoyed studying.
I have a life-long interest in computer and video games. My fascination stems from the fact that games tell stories and, in contrast to novels and movies, are interactive. Playing a game is like immersion into another world. But I've always not only played, I've also designed games myself. Before I taught myself to program (at the age of eight years), I made sketches using pen and paper. In the course of three decades I've implemented some of my ideas and released the products as free software. I'm particularly proud of "Adok's Number Maze", as it's based on a new concept I haven't seen in any existing game before. For a long time it has also been a desire of mine to create my own turn-based, tactical role-playing game in the style of my favorite video game, "Shining Force 2". I've actualized this dream during my days as a university student; meanwhile four editions of the "Mega Force" series have been released.
I've also been into computer journalism for a long time. My first article, a review of the game "Story of Thor", was published in the German "SEGA Magazin" when I was ten years old. Then I became a regular contributor to "PC-Heimwerker", "Computer Flohmarkt" and several electronic magazines (diskmags). At age twelve I was appointed co-editor of a new diskmag, Hugi. In the following eighteen years I invested a large portion of my spare time (roughly twenty hours per week) in work on this magazine and led it to place one in various diskmag charts. Since 2015 I've been maintaining the website 21st Century Headlines where I post links to news items about artificial intelligence, quantum computing, biomedical sciences, chemistry and physics almost every day.
In addition I've organized many programming contests. I started doing so after winning place one in a similar contest myself. The objective of my contests is to create the smallest possible executable that implements a given specification. It's amazing with what tiny solutions some participants have come up.
My main interests in life sciences have always been biochemistry and genetics. I've contributed to several scientific publications about the connection between stress, hormones and immunity as a member of Dr. Uwe Rohr's research group. Later I came up with an idea to solve the problem of antimicrobial resistance and coined the term Symbiont Conversion.
This little homepage serves as a repository for my computer games, artworks and writings.
Imprint: This website is owned by Claus D. Volko, Vienna, Austria. No liability is taken for the contents of any of the linked websites. Claus D. Volko does not collect any personal information on the visitors of this website. Contact via email: mail (at) cdvolko (dot) net. http://www.cdvolko.net/