Karl Coryat

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Karl Coryat is an American writer, comedian, and musician.

Contents

Jeopardy! contestant

In 1996, he was a two-day champion on the television game show Jeopardy! [1] Subsequently, he wrote an online article with advice for prospective Jeopardy! contestants, which included a method to play along at home, keep score, and gauge one's performance. Enthusiasts of the show, and now even the show itself, refer to this as the "Coryat score". [2] [3]

Coryat scores ignore all Final Jeopardy! rounds, wrong Daily Doubles, and only count correct Daily Doubles by the answer value.

Music career

As an early member of the Immersion Composition Society, Coryat is the co-author (along with Nicholas Dobson) of The Frustrated Songwriter's Handbook, which details the method that ICS members use to write a large number of songs quickly. Tim Rice-Oxley used the method to write songs for the Keane album Strangeland , [4] and Jez Williams, guitarist for British band Doves, has cited the book as inspiration for their 2009 album Kingdom of Rust. [5] Coryat also wrote Guerrilla Home Recording and edited The Bass Player Book (all published by Hal Leonard Corporation). As a music journalist, he has interviewed Prince, [6] Sting, Geddy Lee, Flea, Brian Wilson, Les Claypool, and others for Bass Player magazine.

As a multi-instrumentalist musician (vocals, bass, guitar, drums, and keyboards), he has been recording music under the name Eddie Current since the 1980s. [7]

Other pursuits

Coryat's essay "Toward an Informational Mechanics" was awarded a Judging Panel Discretionary Prize in the 2012 physics essay competition sponsored by the Foundational Questions Institute and Scientific American magazine. [8] Drawing on work by John Archibald Wheeler, Carlo Rovelli, and Bob Coecke, the essay calls for a generalization of quantum mechanics that incorporates informational legacy or context into quantum measurements, which might ultimately lead to a description of an "it from bit" universe with the least possible complexity. [9] He has produced video essays on how the biocentric universe theory of Robert Lanza may be the best route to this. [10]

As a comedian under the pseudonym Edward Current, [11] he makes YouTube satires of religious fundamentalism and politics, [12] as well as serious videos demonstrating physics [13] [14] and criticizing the 9/11 Truth movement. [15]

Personal life

Coryat attended Brunswick School and the University of California, Berkeley. He lives in Arkansas.

Bibliography

Related Research Articles

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References

  1. "J! Archive - Season 12" . Retrieved December 2, 2012.
  2. Pinsker, Joe (April 24, 2019). "James Holzhauer Explains the Strategy Behind His Jeopardy Winning Streak". Atlantic magazine. Retrieved 29 June 2019.
  3. Barrett, Brian. "James Holzhauer's Jeopardy! Greatness, in Charts". Wired. Retrieved 29 June 2019.
  4. McCormick, Neil (April 25, 2012). "Keane: we're not excited by macho guitar music". The Telegraph. Retrieved December 2, 2012.
  5. Doyle, Tom (July 2009). "Doves: Producing Kingdom Of Rust". Sound on Sound.
  6. Coryat, Karl. "His Highness Gets Down". bassplayer.com. Retrieved 15 July 2016.
  7. "U.S. Copyright Office Public Catalog" . Retrieved 8 December 2014.
  8. "2012 Questioning the Foundations Winning Essays" . Retrieved 2 December 2012.
  9. Coryat, Karl. "Toward an Informational Mechanics". fqxi.org. Retrieved 8 December 2012.
  10. Biocentricity.net
  11. "Karl Coryat personal web page".
  12. Myers, PZ. "Edward Current must be a highly trained theologian". ScienceBlogs. Retrieved 29 June 2014.
  13. Mosbergen, Dominique (22 July 2014). "Gravity Explained, In One Simple Video". Huffington Post. Retrieved 21 November 2014.
  14. "Show Me the Physics video contest winners". fqxi.org. Retrieved 8 December 2014.
  15. Baron, Alexander. "Can you believe what you see on YouTube?". Digital Journal. Retrieved 4 October 2013.