Jul 14 2008
Life is Grand
(Yes that title is a Benigni reference. The gist of this post got me to thinking about Benigni’s and other’s movies that present an unshakable core of optimism in the face of unspeakable tragedy.)
As those who know me well would tell you, at my core I have a bit of an optimistic streak concerning our future as human beings, as a race, as a society. Some might look around and see all the potentials for disaster and collapse (see some of my previous posts on the Unabomber and Jared Diamond). But I can’t help but look at the other side of the coin. I don’t think I am naive, or unaware of the very real problems that face us as a race, I try not to be an unabashed technophile. I suppose the general outlook does somewhat go hand in hand with being a geek and a technophile, how can you not be excited (but frightened as well) by the things being unleashed around us, by us; by the very interesting times we are living in!
Case in point. I can’t believe I haven’t mentioned the Grand Challenges of Engineering yet. I have even used these as a theme for a talk I gave this spring for our TAMUC college days to prospective students. If you want an example of something that gets me out of bed in the morning, something that really excites me, look through this list of items. The list was developed by some of the top minds of our days in the engineering and scientific field. Minds like Larry Page, one of the founders of Google and Ray Kurzweil, inventor and technologist (and a scarily unabashed technophile if there ever was one).
I’ll just point out to student who might be reading, most all of my research being done here at TAMUC, by me and my research group and colleagues, falls within one or the other of the areas given in this article. Much of my main research touches on reverse engineering the brain, trying to build smarter artificial systems by studying and emulating neural processes. We have recently become more involved in virtual environments for training. And I have always had a strong interest and involvement in computational modeling and scientific computing, which is the heart of the types of new tools we are building for cutting-edge science of the 21st century. So again to any of you student, if you are interested in learning more or even working on some of the Grand Challenges mentioned in the article, you might want to stop by and talk with me sometime.