No.287
Hello /th/. I'm a high school senior and later in my life I want to do research that will significantly contribute to transhumanism. I need to make a decision by next month and I was just wondering where you guys think the best choice would be for me to being this path. I have been accepted to the following schools:
MIT
Columbia
Harvard
Princeton
UPenn
Dartmouth
Cornell
Georgia Tech
UCLA
UCSD
Johns Hopkins
Rice
Duke
Rutgers
Uillinois (urbana)
UMichigan
I'm currently leaning towards MIT but I thought I should get your input before I make a real decision.
Any opinions?
No.288
Depends on your major.
If you're going to focus on robotics/bionics, you probably want MIT, which is receiving DARPA funding for it. You see the guy in the other thread with the bionic legs? That's Hugh Herr of MIT.
If you're going to do genetics/biology, you almost certainly want Johns Hopkins (world-famous school of medicine) or Duke University (which has an extensive stem cell/regenerative medicine program). Harvard and Stanford also have stem cell programs (Stanford is behind Folding@Home) and SENS has given research funding to both.
I'm not familiar enough with AI/computing research to give you any advice there.
If I were you I'd try to make friends with people in your chosen field at any of these given universities and ask what the best path is to becoming part of their teams. Ask who and what they need research-wise.
No.291
>>288I think what I'm most interested in working with is molecular nanotechnology, although it's possible that this may change, or that I might simultaneously explore multiple research tracks. Given this context, do you have any other advice?
No.292
>>291No more than Google would tell you; a search on the subject pulls, of your universities, Rice University at the top.
http://cnst.rice.edu/nano_and_rice/That university is making obesiance towards correct goodthink even on its nanotech page, but it almost certainly is the place you want to be anyway.
No.298
My plan is to go into network security. Partly for the potential of researching into a network based AI or collective intelligence, and partly so that when our bodies become completely reliant on machines I will have somewhat of an upper hand.
No.305
>not pursuing cs with specialization in ai
No.342
>>291
I honestly don't know how good/bad RiceU is in nanotech at this point, but the Smalley Lab _broke_ people in the 90's. Now that Smalley is dead, things may be different, or the lab may be a shell with the celebrity gone.