This is Dr. Hilton's personal and professional Web site. 

The Sapiens Hypothesis and other concepts in The Next Big Bang, How I Almost Got the Best Mind on the Planet, The Organizing Adventure of Life, and the materials of the Writing-to-Learn Adventures™ are products of a research project that Dr. Hilton has pursued since 1966.

At that time, Dr. Hilton was in the middle stage of a career in teaching and research in the foundations of mathematics, but his exposure to an advanced theorem in the field changed the direction of his interest. The theorem is a famous one, Gödel's theorem, which demonstrates conclusively that there exist mathematical problems for which no solution can ever be found.

For many mathematicians, the theorem is profoundly anomalistic. In fact, the chief proponent of the foundational studies program which the theorem grew out of, Professor David Hilbert, deeply believed that all mathematicians approach their work with the conviction that every mathematical problem can be solved, and he expected that the opposite result would be proved.

But the theorem (which appeared in 1931) has withstood the test of time, and for Dr. Hilton, the interesting question about it is: "In what kind of universe would this theorem be the expected outcome, rather than an anomaly?"

Answering this question led Dr. Hilton to insights which were sufficiently compelling to be accepted as a doctoral dissertation, even though the picture of the universe and the human condition which emerged in his early work was not rich enough to be deeply satisfying. As it turned out, the approach which Dr. Hilton had adopted required working through two more anomalies to bring the picture to its present form.

Dr. Hilton's way of dealing with anomalies forces research into a creative mode. It works by leveraging the mind out of one world picture and into another, a process which is very slow because the misconceptions at the root of true anomalies run deep in our world picture and because cognitive re-growth simply takes a great deal of time. But the key question of the methodology — In what kind of universe would the anomaly be the expected result? — works very well to guide the growth process and to keep it on track.

The research that Dr. Hilton did to answer this question for all three anomalies led to the Sapiens Hypothesis, which is introduced in The Next Big Bang. The research has many dimensions, and along the way, Dr. Hilton has drawn upon clues from cosmology, mathematics, philosophy, computer science, cognitive theory, psychology, government, history, accountancy, law, religion, and sociology.

Dr. Hilton holds a B.A. in English Composition (DePauw University, 1956), an M.S. in Mathematics (Texas Tech University, 1961), and a Ph.D. in Business Administration (The University of Arkansas, 1979). He has also studied the foundations of mathematics and the history of science at the University of Wisconsin, worked in exploratory computer programming at Bell Labs (now Lucent), and has taught mathematics, computer programming, and accounting. He joined the faculty of the School of Accountancy at Ohio University in 1979 and retired in 1999.

Dr. Hilton is also a graduate of Washington-Lee High School in Arlington, Virginia (class of 1952), where his primary mark of distinction was his skill as a magician and juggler.

He has been extremely married to the former Carol Conway since 1956. They met at DePauw University, were married in Boston, and have lived in Texas, New Jersey, Illinois, Wisconsin, Arkansas, and Ohio.

Currently, they spend most of the year at their home on the Allegheny River in northwest Pennsylvania, but winter normally finds them in residence on the Georgia coast.

---