Your backgrounds?

[ChrisV]

I have a B.Sc. with majors in organic chemistry and computer science. I also have an interest in biology, psychology & neurology, cosmology, and philosophy.

[Metric]

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So I'm just wondering what backgrounds you guys have? Education, career fields,

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Ph.D. student in theoretical physics. Thesis is turning out to be defining and creating generally covariant quantum information theory.

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maybe give some honourable mention to favorite work/texts/articles to go with it all

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Quantum Gravity by Carlo Rovelli, available in preprint form here: http://www.cpt.univ-mrs.fr/~rovelli/book.pdf (far and away the best text on loop quantum gravity and generally covariant quantum theory)

Quantum Theory: Concepts and Methods by Asher Peres (best text on quantum information)

Quantum Mechanics of Measurement by N. Cerf and C. Adami, available here: http://xxx.lanl.gov/abs/quant-ph/9605002 (a completely under-appreciated paper from ~10 years ago, which contains a truly beautiful idea on which much of my current work is based)

[vhawk01]

I have a B.Sc. with majors biology and chemistry, and I'm a second year medical student. Probably going to be an internist, or some internal med subspecialty.

[Drag]

Master degree in theoretical physics from a Russian university. At the moment I am a Ph.D. student in France, in engineering and telecommunications.

I switched to applied science as I didn't feel that there wouldn't be any major development in the theoretical physics in my life time. I am looking at it from a practical side, from which General Relativity Theory wasn't quite a big development. (We don't expect to have any application of this theory in the 100+ years to come.)

As for the interests, I am interested in AI development, and I believe that the next major breakthrough would happen with the development of AI in a strong or weak term. Hopefully, I’d find the courage to switch the field once again (after finishing my Ph.D.), and get into the development of AI.

[bluesbassman]

I have B.S. and M.S. degrees from Virginia Tech, and a Ph.D. from The University of Texas at Austin, all in aerospace engineering. The general research area for my Ph.D. was control theory.

These days I work for an aerospace company designing attitude control systems for spacecraft.

Yes, as my 2p2 name suggests, I also play bass guitar in local blues bands.

[MiloMinderbinder]

BS Engineering Physics, MS Electrical Engineering. Worked towards PhD in EE a bit before finally admitting that I didn't really want to be a professional engineer despite an aptitude for it. Now I'm deejaying one night a week, working in a coffee shop, writing some, and loving life more than ever. I am researching teaching opportunities and would like to teach high school physics or calculus to help correct what I believe to be a glaringly poor approach to teaching math and science in this country. Most kids believe it to be a boring subject because it isn't presented as a human endeavor but more like the equations were just discovered laying about. I want to teach kids more context and help them appreciate math and science as an approach for seeking knowledge and truth, not just a collection of mundane facts to memorize for the next test. And I want to help them appreciate more than just the materialist approach to life -- there are better ways to really live than the American consumerist model.

Other interests include philosophy, literature, libertarian politics, and intellectual debate on an array of subjects. My intellectual heroes are probably Mencken, Russell, Thoreau, Emerson, Einstein, Chomsky, Sartre, Nietzsche, and Kepler.

[Sephus]

i have a BA in economics with a minor in linguistics. i've been an online pro for a little over a year, but i take way too much time off so i never really get anywhere. at the moment my primary interest is in understanding how i make decisions and whether there's a way i can stop feeling like i ought to borrow money and leisure time from my future self like it's going out of style, which i've been doing since i got out of high school.

[madnak]

I am a student, pre-med majoring in physics, but I'm not attending classes this semester because I'm a lazy bum.

[Phil153]

Started college at 16. B.Sc. w/ physics & math majors. Was really young when graduating and didn't want a boring professional career just yet, so I travelled for a couple of years, working in bars and resorts. Had a blast. Returned to my home country. Worked for a while longer in hospitality, final job was assistant manager of functions in a large resort. At 24 I'd had enough of bumming around, but still couldn't see myself being a physicist, so I decided to go to law school.

That lasted two months. I loved the work, but by the second month it started to dawn on me that most lawyers and judges are cynical and unhappy people. Most of them work incredibly long hours for the majority of their adult lives, and never find fulfillment or reasonable wealth. So after two weeks of agonizing over the decision, I quit. Actually I deferred, but I never went back.

Now 26, own a share in a seafood restaurant with friends (I'm a vegetarian too [img]/images/graemlins/crazy.gif[/img]). I look after accounts, employees and the computer stuff. Probably average 20 hours/week of work, much of which I can do from home.

Among other things, I play poker in my spare time.

I'll probably return to physics one day. It's like a calling for me - I've never felt challenged by anything else. I think my life will eventually feel like a cop out if I don't at least try to work on challenging and useful research at some point.

[Subfallen]

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...I decided to go to law school.

That lasted two months. I loved the work, but by the second month it started to dawn on me that most lawyers and judges are cynical and unhappy people. Most of them work incredibly long hours for the majority of their adult lives, and never find fulfillment or reasonable wealth. So after two weeks of agonizing over the decision, I quit. Actually I deferred, but I never went back.

Now 26, own a share in a seafood restaurant with friends (I'm a vegetarian too ).

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So I was...sort of...half-right. RJT was much righter.