CURRENT MISSION

To become wise.

ABOUT ME

The tl;dr of it is that I am a science-minded individual, and eventually I will become a research scientist in the field of cognitive neuroscience.

For the longer story...

In my undergraduate, I was a student of psychology,
but I also had a strong focus in the natural sciences, especially physics. In that capacity, I worked with remote data analysis from a particle collider in Brookhaven, New York. In concrete terms, we were given data from certain types of collisions, and it was my job to work with algorithms to separate the signal from the noise in that signal. It was my first real experience with programming, and in the end I got to see the particle collider itself. Easily one of the best experiences of my life.

Currently, I am seeking research experience more related to my field of interest in an effort to improve my resume for graduate studies. Unfortunately, I haven't had the exposure to research in neuroscience that would be ideal. It's a shame, because it really is a perfect marriage between many of the scientific fields that interest me the most.

I have a very respectable background in philosophy and mathematics, and my knowledge of the natural and social sciences is considered by many to be encyclopedic.

PHILOSOPHY

I am very much a believer in the scientific method. Those who make positive claims are the ones who possess the burden of proof. The null hypothesis, i.e. the thing that is to be believed at default, is that something does not exist. Only when a positive claim is based on observable and repeatable experimental evidence is that claim to be given validity.

I consider the existence of the universe--and by extension, life, itself--to be arbitrary events of incomprehensible meaning. I believe that human behavior is largely deterministic. Everything that you are and can be is manifest in your brain. Your memory, your personality, the way you interact with others and understand the world you live in; All of these things can be lost or changed irrevocably while you still live if that precious organ is damaged. Nothing of what you are lasts, and this is both beautiful and tragic. It is beautiful because it means that as you grow and develop as a person, your brain is changing. This is what it means for you to learn; you gain neurological complexity as concepts literally link together in the dendritic mesh that is the substance of your identity. But it is tragic because all of that growth is subject to decay. Every neurological structure you create over the span of your life will ultimately be destroyed, either through the slow attrition of dementia, or by means of a more sudden and immediate death.

However, even though we may lose the infrastructure of the mind we build for ourselves, there are generations that will succeed us. For millenia, our ancestors have honed and refined the knowledge they ultimately passed down to us, and it was greatly to our benefit. Where would be be without the great philosophers, artists, scientists, and engineers who came before us? In turn, our part in this legacy will further the hopes of those who will come after us.

I live my life because I want to be a part of that legacy. I wish to understand the world I live in better than my ancestors did, and I wish to pass along whatever lucidity I might gain in this life.

Why I’m on Couchsurfing

HOW I PARTICIPATE IN COUCHSURFING

It's a bit premature to say this, considering that I have neither hosted nor visited anyone.

Interests

I am interested in philosophy, especially mathematical logic and phenomenology. Neuroscience is the discipline I hope to make a profession out of researching. I also have significant interests in psychology (especially cognitive theory and behaviorism), sociology, physics (I did research in high energy physics during my undergraduate), computer science (although I acknowledge I am a complete scrub when it comes to really accomplishing big things with code), and the art of rhetoric.

I also have a lot of interest in the life sciences and chemistry, but admittedly they take a back seat to everything else, neuroscience-related elements aside.

• arts
• cooking
• coding
• chemistry
• computer science
• logic
• mathematics
• medicine
• neuroscience
• physics
• psychology
• science
• social science
• sociology

Music, Movies, and Books

My favorite book is The Design of Everyday Things. It taught me so much about how I interact with the things I encounter in my world, and how to better create things that I know others will use.

My favorite song is Adios, Nonino by Astor Piazzolla. It does not hurt that in the best rendition of the song I am familiar with, it was accompanied by a very handsome pianist. But the song itself is so full of emotional depth it is practically palpable. It was a song written for Astor's dead father, and it encapsulates much of joy, tranquility, dischord, and loss.

My favorite movie is Metropolis, by Fritz Lang. In addition to being the primogenitor of the Science Fiction genre in film as we know it today (featuring the image of the android, as the public imagination came to grasp it nearly half a century before other films and media would do so), it is just so full of dazzling visual imagery and antiquated charm that it is the best of both the obsolete and the modern.

One Amazing Thing I’ve Done

Brookhaven, New York is a small town in Long Island. It is home to Brookhaven National Labs, which is a sort of Mecca of government-funded science. For a week, I stayed at a dormitory there as an emmisary of Creighton's physics department, attending lectures on subjects I only had the most abstract grasp of. I saw fully grown men, both with the title "doctor", literally bicker and argue over details maybe one in several hundred thousand people would even slightly grasp. I got to rubberneck with Harvard and MIT men with advanced degrees as though I deserved to be considered, in a way I had never previously considered possible, equals. I got to see RHIC, the relativistic heavy ion collider, a structure easily 1.5 miles in diameter; it was dizzying to see a cross-section of the collosal metal donut from the inside. It was something that comparatively very few people ever get to see. And by sheer circumstance, I got to be one of those few. I got to see where particles were born.

Teach, Learn, Share

I am an excellent cook. In fact, I even used to work at a restaurant. I am able to make good use of inexpensive ingredients to produce highly nutritious and enjoyable meals. I am more than willing to cook for those who would have me, and to teach what I know of the craft.

All that I know of the sciences and philosophy is at your disposal. While I have listed those in greater detail above, my areas of expertise are psychology, neuroscience, and physics. Do you wish for a brief lesson? I would be happy to dispense of what knowledge I have.

In turn, I ask for whatever knowledge you would be willing to part with.