Re: what would it take for a "bachelors in extropian studies?"

Anders Sandberg (asa@nada.kth.se)
05 Nov 1999 23:11:57 +0100

"Leonardo Gonzalez" <magos@extropian.net> writes:

> It would be nice to be able to study self-organizing systems without needing
> to be engaged in a post-graduate math or physics program. Or AI without
> needing a bullet-proof computer science and math background. Or cognitive
> neuroscience without a degree in biology, or psychology.
>
> The technical nature of these subjects require substantial preparation. But
> by not addressing these topics at the undergraduate level, I think too much
> of the "good stuff" is saved 'til later and not many students get exposed to
> them.

This is likely something that differs from university to university. Here we have undergraduate courses in neural networks, cognitive psychology, AI and even some biomedicine including neuroscience. It might not be that deep, but it is at least possible to get a "sip" of the stuff. But it is still clear that many students feel that all the good stuff is beyond their level, and they get very excited when you drop it into their courses (I have had great fun throwing in the occasional neuropsychology perspective in a course on text and image processing I helped with).

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Anders Sandberg                                      Towards Ascension!
asa@nada.kth.se                            http://www.nada.kth.se/~asa/
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