First and foremost, don’t bother with Java, it’ll be dead in 5 years. (Okay, just kidding, sorta.)
Okay, so jokes aside: what do you want? As in, what do you hope that the world will accomplish before you die? Even if you aren’t the one who makes the breakthrough, you still benefit. So, what do you hope that someone, anyone, it could be you, it could be some scientist somewhere else, what do you hope they will do, more than anything else?
You seem to point to things that revolve around life extension, and your thought that current methods aren’t going to get it done. So, conceptually, what DO you see getting it done? You mention, effective robots to do experiments, and AI to interpret results, but what does that actually mean? What types of experiments? Why a robot instead of a human? As for AI: what results need to be interpreted? What answers are you hoping to find?
I have found that turning a more analytical eye towards your long-term goals, and changing them from purely conceptual to something more actionable, is a great first step for determining what you want to do with your life.
I’d much rather learn C++ for all it’s faults, since it meshes so nicely with R and Python, but people keep telling me to learn Java...
What I”m referring to in my field specifically is understanding gene regulatory networks. I’ve become convinced that the only way we’re going to get a hold on them is by actually simulating the biochemistry. Searching for higher level abstractions within them just doesn’t work that well. This will require lots and lots of experiments, which are currently done by hand, to be automated, and the results to be synthesized into very complex simulations. Humans are too slow, and their minds too small.
As for what I want, that’s a good question. I’m not particularly enthusiastic about pouring our resources into tiny, high cost, low quality life extensions, which is what I see most of biology like cancer research, doing now (those parts of it that are aren’t just furthering careers). I’d be more enthusiastic about improving quality of life for large numbers of people, or averting catastrophic risks.
First and foremost, don’t bother with Java, it’ll be dead in 5 years. (Okay, just kidding, sorta.)
Okay, so jokes aside: what do you want? As in, what do you hope that the world will accomplish before you die? Even if you aren’t the one who makes the breakthrough, you still benefit. So, what do you hope that someone, anyone, it could be you, it could be some scientist somewhere else, what do you hope they will do, more than anything else?
You seem to point to things that revolve around life extension, and your thought that current methods aren’t going to get it done. So, conceptually, what DO you see getting it done? You mention, effective robots to do experiments, and AI to interpret results, but what does that actually mean? What types of experiments? Why a robot instead of a human? As for AI: what results need to be interpreted? What answers are you hoping to find?
I have found that turning a more analytical eye towards your long-term goals, and changing them from purely conceptual to something more actionable, is a great first step for determining what you want to do with your life.
When Python 2.7 (or gasps 2.6) and even COBOL won’t die, Java is going to be around for a long time.
I’d much rather learn C++ for all it’s faults, since it meshes so nicely with R and Python, but people keep telling me to learn Java...
What I”m referring to in my field specifically is understanding gene regulatory networks. I’ve become convinced that the only way we’re going to get a hold on them is by actually simulating the biochemistry. Searching for higher level abstractions within them just doesn’t work that well. This will require lots and lots of experiments, which are currently done by hand, to be automated, and the results to be synthesized into very complex simulations. Humans are too slow, and their minds too small.
As for what I want, that’s a good question. I’m not particularly enthusiastic about pouring our resources into tiny, high cost, low quality life extensions, which is what I see most of biology like cancer research, doing now (those parts of it that are aren’t just furthering careers). I’d be more enthusiastic about improving quality of life for large numbers of people, or averting catastrophic risks.