luciferchrist

good stuff source I found it quite helpfull, as I have so little time and so much to do all the time.

Imagine that, you are the first person I have met that shares this interest. This profession is very small, and I am quite sure that if you choose to enter this field we will meet some day, either through lectures or research. I am quite the proactive person, and where ever this technologies epicenter seems to be - I will flock to that area to indulge myself in the available information. I am fully convince the potential exists to take the advantages of man and machine and create a stronger organism. The first biomachine is just over the horizon IMO. To bad we will probably be dead by the time all the really interesting events in this field start taking place, such as the consequences of developing the technologies.

please share your experiances. I have a meeting with the president of student organizations tommorow to discuss this. thank you

I have decided on what I feel will be the correct course of action. I will be helping my roomate get on the Council. I have thought about it and realized this would annoy me more than anything. I want to have impenetrable defenses to my beliefs, and my knowledge is no where near that level yet. So I will instead lead her campaign by spreading fliers, taking petitions, etc. I need to start being politically active, so I will start participating in city council meeting. I will initially observe, but I will slowly began constructing arguments to proposals I oppose. I will do this with facts, logic, and rhetoric. I will also be reading the Objectivism political ideology extensively, as I feel I have a lot to learn from Objectivism. Thank you for all the idea!

thanks for the reply, I will definetely check that book out. I also plan on focusing most of my energy on Objectivism. I believe the best way to tackle this is to read OPAR while reading the other material. That way I can connect ideas and see how they relate to Objectivism. I will be reading Pirsig's book regardless, as it has certain sentimental values to me. It makes me happy to see me father happy, because for a long-time he was depressed that his children all "failed." My mother and stepfather brainwashed me and my brothers to believe my father was evil. Later I found out he lived out of his van so he could afford the child support my stepfather was using to support his drug habbit. When I ended up in jail, and my brothers were following the same path, I realized how much pain we put him in, and I want him to die a happy man. Now I do whatever I can to make sure he will live the rest of his life with a strong, relationship with his children. You see, even though I don't share his enthusiasm with that book, he found it helpful when he was living in a world of shit, so I would at least like to see how it helped him. My degree program will not be focusing on computer and brain analogy's. I am focusing on designing very efficient computer/human interfaces. It is now common knowledge that neurons and silicon chips can interact back and forth with eachother (See Fromherz's research from the Max Planck Institute). My primary goal in this degree is to see the relationship to which we can connect biological systems with electronic systems. Here is the program if you are interested http://www.cogsci.rpi.edu/minds_machines/ BurgessLau: I will make sure I order through this website

Has anyone read this book? It is suggested reading in the curriculum I will be entering next year, so I want to get a start on it. Each semester I like to read several books and connect ideas I learn from the books with course material. I am about to order my personal reading material from amazon, and I would like to see what books you all recommend (they don't need to be Objectivism). So far I am getting: OPAR Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance (My father has been telling me to read this book for years, I might as well check it out) Godel, Escher, Bach: An Eternal Golden Braid I am taking a double major next year in a program called Minds and Machines. The program entails one study area for the mind (I am doing psychology with an emphasis on neuroscience), and one area of study for the Machines part (I am doing electrical engineering). I will be very gracious for any books you can suggest that would corroborate well with my areas of interest. thanks!

I can't see how you can really compare the two. They lived in two different times, and had completely different information to use to actually create their accomplishments. Both obviously worked very hard, although if I had to pick one I would go with Newton, as I believe he would have surpassed Einstein's accomplishments if he had the information avialable to him as Einsteins did - although you can only speculate this.

Talk to people who have gone to fullsail. I have heard more bad then good things about it. Go to www.futureproducers.com and search for fullsail in the forums. Several people there have actually gone to Fullsail and have said it was not worth any of the money, also I don't think the degree is considered a degree at any college - meaning if you want to go back to school you can't use your Fullsail degree for credits.

IMO your academic credentials in your field are meanigless if your engineering isn't on point. My advice is to at least get pro tools certified. This will come in handy if you do freelance engineering, as many producers use pro tools. Being able to work on a pro tools TDM system would be quite helpful I would imagine. In the music world the qaulity of your final product will be judged, not your credentials. Your work will get spread by word of mouth, and you will get costumers if you are able to excell in your field. My advice is to practice, practice, practice. An engineer who can write, and produce is very marketable. Learn the ins and outs of music. See how everything fits together to create sonic masterpieces that brings tears to eyes.

I'm glad I can help. I wish you very well on your endeavors and hope your musical training is fufilling as mine is. You will find the dedication pays off in more areas than music alone. I must say, I am relatively new to this site, but the Objectivist philosophy is really starting to grow on me. I used to be fantasized with mysticism, but since I started reading Rand several months ago my concepts of life have drastically changed. I though I even found flaws in Objectivism, but as I read more about it, I become more aware that the "flaws" I found were only misunderstandings on my part.

I am going to stay on the path I am on. Every once in a while I will question this path, but my mind always seems to end up rationalizing it as being the best one. I am going to finish up my associates in math and sciences, and hopefully graduate magna sum laude and get a scholarship to RPI. At this point I will take on a double major in a degree program called mind and machines (http://www.cogsci.rpi.edu/minds_machines/). I love music, and I feel the appreciation I have for it comes from the limited time I have playing it. I have a very structured practice routine that ensures I am always improving. I look at my life in 10 years and I see a large basement converted into a study area where I can make music as loud as I want, research and contemplate new ideas in neurotechnology, and lift wieghts. I see myself working at my own convience (which will probably be all day, every day) on whatever problem currently has my interest. This is my ideal life. So my perfect life is to expand my mental and physical as much as possible. I love seeing myself improve. I admire skill, as skill develops through thousands of hours of intense deliberate practice. Dedication should have its rewards, and for me the reward would be living a life where I can propose and idea, and then I am given time to work on it in a semi-private environment at my own, structured pace. Thank you for the posts, the articles really helped.

I am quite confused at this point in my life. I several roads I could possible travel, although two appeal to me more then the others. I am fascinated by so many things in life, and my current belief system tells me I only get one chance to live, and that's it. So I have about 60 years to cover as much as possible. I am currently on the road to pursue a career in neurotechnology. I am quite convinced that this will be a very viable field over the next couple decades. I have seen numerous research that is telling me we will soon have direct human/computer interfaces, and I am very interested in pursuing an electrical engineering/ neuroscience degree. Now here is the other side: I love making music. I admire skill more than anything, and I love seeing myself progress day by day with each practice session. My music teacher is fully convinced if I went to school for music composition I would do incredibaly well. I know I won't make anywhere near as much money as I would creating a neurotechnology company, but my life will be as fufilling, if not more. I can't really decide which would make me more happier, as I am so fascinated by both domains. Our attention is limited and I want to give the domain I pick 100% of my attention. I want to spend all day every day pursuing both domains, but I obviously can't. So tell me, how does an Objectivist pick a career?

thank you, and I have read The Fountainhead, and Atlas Shrugged. I am actually quite happy working all the time. I have a great deal of passion for being as physically and mentally strong as possible. I need to work 40 hours a week at least, and I need a full-time school schedule. I have chosen to get rid of a social life because I have no time for it. I spend all my spare time working out, making music, or researching neurotechnology so I can obtain a summer research project studying interfaces between neurons and silicon chips after I finish up my associates. So I guess my own hierarchy of values has placed my work at the top, and when I am not working I am most likely practicing the guitar or piano. I can spend the next 8 years doing this so I can spend the rest of my life with friends, and play. Thanks for the posts, this gave me an idea for another post about something that has bothering me for a while. BTW, sorry for not capitalizing Objectivism. I have a great deal of respect for Ayn Rand, and her accomplishments throughout life. I will make sure I do so for now on.

I see the connection between all interests groups and how they operate, I was just showing an example of this particular case. I didn't mean to paint the picture of this happening in all cases. I know I have alot to learn, but I really can't sit by and watch this plan happen. They are trying to close all the stores, they are just starting off small so they don't piss off to many people. After they close the stores they want to start closing the bars and clubs. They have a whole plan that will go into effect if someone doesn't do something about it. I don't go to the bar or eat pizza, but I want every one else to have the right to do these things, and I want the owners to have the right to make a living. They say it is to decrease crime, yet the only time I see police officers on the block is during the day time when all the business leaders are out. At night, when the crackheads, hookers, and drug dealers are on the block I rarely see officers out. A couple weekends ago they were doing registration checks about 40 feet down the street as I walked out of my apartment to see the local crackdealers serving a crackhead. I can't sit by and watch all this happen anymore. I don't care if I am just starting out and I am inexperianced. I can't do any worse than they are doing. They will not listen to us no matter how many signatures we recieve from the cities constituents, thus we have to get on the city council. I don't see any other option.

I am focusing on ideas, and their ideas appeal to their special interests groups, not what's right. You obviously see the connection, but you don't make a big deal out of it because you are accustomed to believing it has happened, and will continued to happen as the bolded line in your statement tells me. This is not my home town, I have actually lived in about 15 towns across the US, I have, however, been living here since I rearranged my life. The race and age are being used to show who the special interest group is in this case. So I would say it has everything to do with it. It is wrong, regardless of how long it has happened, and how long it will continue to happen, I want it stopped. I will read into this tonight, but I believe representatives have failed to do their jobs by representing the principles they are being elected on. I do not plan on neccesarily doing what the masses want in any case. Let's say they want to enact legislation that wants anyone residents who parks on the streets over night to pay a parking fee. Then being that this is immoral, I would not vote for it. So I suppose you are right, a direct democracy is not what I should do, but as a representative I should at least take into serious consideration what the people want. This is something the current representatives are not even doing. They made it clear to my roomates their minds were made up regardless of her petitions with 2000 signatures not to do it. I have spent 4 years improving my record. I was released with youthfull offender status meaning my record is now clear. If my past is brought up I will, however, accept the consequences of my actions, not matter how misguided I was at the time.