Rayman Pirate-Community

Tobbe wrote:Seeing as I'm already in medical school, the only significant choice I face is what specialty to go into. So far, general surgery or neurology are the most tempting.

Out of the two, I personally would pick neurology, as it's a field where so much is still yet to be discovered, and where research is always consistently prevailing, teaching us more and more. I find it to be the most fascinating science of all. Plus, when it comes to innovation, I have no doubt that telepathy will be the interactive method of the future, whenever it may be that we gain an efficient and powerful enough understanding of the brain to harness it that well. Being a part of working towards understanding one of the most complex things out there is an opportunity I wouldn't pass up for almost anything.

I agree, but the problem is that the practice of neurology isn't the same as doing research into neuroscience. A lot of neurologists also do neuroscience research, but this research is extremely difficult, frustrating, and often involves researchers doing very bad things to chimps, so I don't know if that's something I want to do.

Ah, understandable. I can see one much cleaner remedy being the development of even more complex AIs (essentially working in the opposite direction, from the ground up, as opposed to trying to pry into an already developed brain) to the point where they're able to learn well on their own, hopefully resembling the learning curve of a natural organism - and maybe also, using some excellent spacial simulation, drawing out a virtual brain to see what we need to influence or directly alter in order for it to grow into something that resembles a natural organism's brain. That probably won't be achievable for at least a few more decades, but I suspect that if enough focus is put on this sort of thing, it would help greatly in the field of neuroscience, dishing away the need for physically harmful experimentation.

Tobbe wrote:What kind of research do you see yourself doing, Des?

Well I'm a computer scientist, and I have an advanced math formation, so I could work on basically anything... optimisation, algorithms, networks, simulations... there's a biology lab in my town so I'll probably try that.

You sure about surgery ? That's a great job alright, but difficult, tiring and stressful.

Actually, surgery being difficult and stressful are two of the reasons I want to pursue a career in it.