Don E Mitchell
Don E. Mitchell | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Born | August 8, 1954 |
| Residence | Cottonwood, Arizona, United States |
| Nationality | American |
| Known for | Amateur physics, electronics, electromagnetics, control automation, programming |
| Scientific career | |
| Fields | Software engineering, electronics, experimental design |
Don E. Mitchell (born August 8, 1954), who publishes online under the pseudonym XenoEngineer (and the handle "AZdon"), is an American retired software engineer and self-described avocational ("amateur") physicist based in Cottonwood, Arizona. He is the author and operator of the personal research portal groupKOS.com, on which he documents experimental work in electromagnetics and magnetic resonance alongside speculative and science-fiction writing.
Biography
Mitchell describes himself as non-degreed, having completed some electrical-engineering prerequisites and community-college coursework rather than a formal degree program. He spent his working career as a software engineer, architect, and troubleshooter before retiring, after which he took up avocational experimental physics and prototype building.
Work
Software development
According to his own account, Mitchell's software career included the creation of PacificVoice for Medicine, a database-driven medical-template editor designed for direct voice transcription by physicians.
He has also described developing what he calls the first complete application of the Russian Quasi Axiomatic Theory, implemented to provide logarithmic-time access to implicit (unknown) data patterns within large data blocks. He states that this work was carried out with Dr. Paul S. Prueitt in connection with a 2001 DARPA Broad Agency Announcement funding competition in cyber-security.
Experimental research
Mitchell reports ongoing private research into magnetic resonance, including work on a chaotic oscillator used as a signal detector in the near field. He documents this work publicly on his groupKOS.com and shoestringScience.com wikis.
Writing
In addition to his technical notes, Mitchell publishes a large body of speculative and science-fiction writing on themes of alien-contact disclosure, consciousness, and the "aether," which he presents in a deliberately satirical, self-deprecating "zany hayseed" voice and describes as an "alien comedy." He explicitly frames much of this material as not to be taken literally.