> My goal is to be a professor, teach and conduct research on the evolutionary functions of consciousness.

Sounds awesome.  My goal was to be a AI researcher focusing on consciousness.  I ended up a typical software engineering drone.

>I play guitar

What kind of guitar do you play?  How long have you been playing? 

Ozyman wrote:

> My goal is to be a professor, teach and conduct research on the evolutionary functions of consciousness.

Sounds awesome.  My goal was to be a AI researcher focusing on consciousness.  I ended up a typical software engineering drone.

>I play guitar

What kind of guitar do you play?  How long have you been playing? 

 

 

You are just a bundle of positive thinking and joy today Ozyman! LOL

I say if that is what you want, go for it.

Have you read Godel, Escher, and Bach by Douglas Hofstadter? I can't make it very far in that one, but it sounds like you could or perhaps have already!

Well.  I was in grad school & realized I would really have to dedicate myself to the research.  IMO - you really need to love what you are doing to get a PhD.  I'm too lazy.  I'd rather spend my weekends sleeping in & watching movies on the couch with my family than in the lab trying to get a grant or finishing up a paper for publication.

Yeah, I read GEB by Hofstadter.  Great book.  Definitely highly recommend it.

Enjoyed GEB as well. Very humorous.

I loved GEB, but got stuck and could not finish it. He coauthored The Mind's I with Daniel Dennet [I think]. That was very cool. The intro with the woman crashing on an uninhabitable planet and facing the dilemma of replicating herself to Earth or not. At first, I thought her problem to be a difficult one, but then I decided that to not replicate herself was a very selfish choice. Better for her family to have a copy of her that is not her than to just lose her altogether.

Ozyman wrote:

Well.  I was in grad school & realized I would really have to dedicate myself to the research.  IMO - you really need to love what you are doing to get a PhD.  I'm too lazy.  I'd rather spend my weekends sleeping in & watching movies on the couch with my family than in the lab trying to get a grant or finishing up a paper for publication.

Yeah, I read GEB by Hofstadter.  Great book.  Definitely highly recommend it.

I am going to be starting my college adventure in January [was too lazy but... LOL] So I will take your word for the amount of work involved in getting a PhD, Ozy. My thrust was that your post implied that he was not going to make it. And yes, prolly most don't, but some do so if it is in you, I say go for it.

I try to not be negative, but I often fail as a function of my flawed existence. However, I see two ways to win, positive thinking and winning by complaining! LOL The second seems to work better than the first!

Sasha, I try everything once, and the good stuff twice. But it has to be spectacular for a three way!

This guy that I work with says that "You shouldn't be ashamed that you failed for the third time. You should be ashamed that you didn't try the Fourth..."

I play both electric and acoustic rock. Consciousness is a tough nut to crack. I have no illusions that it is an easy problem to solve. I'm approaching the problem incrementally.

SexySass wrote:

 My thrust was that your post implied that he was not going to make it.

Ah yes.  Rereading it, I can definitely see how you could take it that way.  I didn't' mean that at all.  Lots of people make it through to a PhD and are very happy with that life.  I work with many of them everyday- no reason to believe Footfungus won't be one of them.  It's just not for me. 

Footfungus wrote:

I play both electric and acoustic rock.

I have been learning guitar for about 2.5 years now & feel like I'm starting to get it.  Most of it has been via Rocksmith.  Have you ever heard of it?

Consciousness is a tough nut to crack. I have no illusions that it is an easy problem to solve. I'm approaching the problem incrementally.

Smart.  I think science is almost entirely incremental these days.  The days of a lone genius (or even small group) making huge discoveries is mostly over. 

ratsy wrote:

This guy that I work with says that "You shouldn't be ashamed that you failed for the third time. You should be ashamed that you didn't try the Fourth..."

;-) Oh I keep on trying. But you cannot always succeed. It is impossible. However, success is not the measure of how well you did, it is the journey itself that matters, not whether you win or lose.

-- Me LOL

Ozyman wrote: I think science is almost entirely incremental these days.  The days of a lone genius (or even small group) making huge discoveries is mostly over. 

Really? I don't have a shred of data to back me up, but that just is wrong! I know a couple of boyz at JPL who work for NASA and most of their discoveries are lone wolfed. And they are working with an unknown area. We know a lot less about what is out there in the void than we do about the brain, yes?

Now this one is not earth shattering, yet, but may turn out to be. My friend, Steven, devised a new way to restore data being transmitted from space. It loses bits in the journey [I think the bits find themselves a wild woman and poof! They depart the data stream! LOL] Anyway, his method is revolutionary and much better than the current methods. And that's a small example, but the scientists there are constantly in need of those new methods and discoveries [about the fabric of space time and more]. And they do make huge discoveries and they are all wolves in sheep's clothing! No, sry. no cross dressers there LOL.

uh oh. Now I am opening myself to negativity [teasing Ozy] I am going to college [starting a bit late, but starting] in January with a double major in math and computer science. The Comp Sci is to pay the bills until I can get a Masters or perhaps a PhD in math bc I want to work at JPL on some of those space problems.

Sasha the ambitious, the foolish, and the persistent! ;-)

I'm a scientist (chemistry). Being a scientist is pretty awesome. 

Xrayjay wrote:

I'm a scientist (chemistry). Being a scientist is pretty awesome. 

What kinds of things do you do?

SexySass wrote:

Xrayjay wrote:

I'm a scientist (chemistry). Being a scientist is pretty awesome. 

What kinds of things do you do?

 

Teaching and research professor in organometallic chemistry

Awesome Jay! I will have to look that organ... word up though ;-) Sounds like a job for Wiki-Woman! LOL

Hello All, I am Simion32 and I go by that name for all my online undertakings. I have been a gamer all my life, and have a diverse interest in terms of the types of games I play. I have been thru it all, Board games, D&D, RPG's, RT strategy games, First person Shooters. Recently I have been spending most of my gaming time playing Hearthstone, like most great games, easy to pick up and get started but much more difficult to master. I have always been a big Risk fan (Who doesn't want to take over the world). I blasted thru Risk Factions on the xbox360 live, but the AI has glaring weaknesses and too many people start and then quit the live games. I am looking forward to joining this community and having some great, long battles.

Welcome Simion32,

You'll find some epic competition here!  The community is pretty good too, so if things aren't making sense, or you have questions, feel free to post in the forums.  

Good Luck. :)

Hello everybody! I may as well introduce myself to the community if I'm going to hang around, I suppose.

So, I'm LucklessRabbit, as you can see. I'm a Graphic Designer and Professional Translator. Twenty years old right now.

 I simply love this type of strategy games. I'm glad I found the site, and although I'm not exactly the best in strategic thinking, heh, well, I must learn somehow. Some matches around here should teach me a thing or two.

Besides strategy games, I'm really into mystery and crime books/games, etc. I'm also a writer of that genre, mostly, I'm currently finishing the first draft of what may be potentially the start of a series.

I think that's all to say...so yeah, see you around!

Welcome.

I'd love to see some new boards made by a graphic designer and mystery author! If you need some help on how to make a new board on this site, there are lots of people willing to help.