Published in the Proceedings of the 3rd Creativity and Cognition Conference, Loughborough University, Publisher: New York: ACM Press 1999, ISBN 1-58113-078-3, p. 93 - 100.

This paper was presented to the Creativity and Cognition '99 Conference, Loughborough University, October 1999

Abstract
This paper examines the recent speculative outpourings of contemporary scientists, giving the oeuvre the collective title 'the new metaphysics'. In considering it as an exploration of the deep structure of human experience, the new metaphysics can be seen to fall into two camps: the reductionist and the anthropic. These have radically different implications for creativity and cognition. The differences in approach are symbolised in this paper by the formulations of Laplace and Longchenpa, respectively representing Western reductionism and Eastern mysticism. It is shown that the future development of the computer will play an important role in the development of the new metaphysics, which may lead to a first-person science.

Keywords
metaphysics, consciousness studies, first-person science, Douglas Harding, determinism, limits to computation

6,350 words