As CSC148 winds down, attentions ought to be diverted to more computer science!

But which part of computer science should one divert their attention to? It mostly depends on what you aim to achieve in the field, but I think a safe bet would be A.I. As an aspiring A.I specialist I may be a bit biased but if you'll spare me some of your time I will attempt to persuade you that knowing and understanding A.I is integral to almost every programmer who isn't immortal.

I will explain the immortality is relevant in a moment.

Artificial Intelligence is about being rational not logical, because being intelligent is about being rational, not logical. This is mostly because we have problems like combinatorial explosion which prevent us from keeping track of every variable in a vast number of worlds. So in the studying of A.I you will be studying the applications and limitations as well as potential optimizations of rationality. Trying to understand A.I then is trying to understand rationality and there are few things more valuable than that.

Is that really true though? Do we really need rationality to make A.I? The answer is no we not, we could compute most problems that undergo combinatorial explosion if we had a vast amount of time and vast amount of money. Unfortunately most of us don't, either with respect to our computers or our own minds. Rationality is what turns a calculator into intelligence.

Find out more here!
https://www.udacity.com/course/viewer#!/c-cs271/l-48688925

Society needs to keep up with technological change, and it is our responsibility to help that happen.

There aren't many people who actually enjoy commuting. It is on the whole a massive drain on one's time. With an average commuting time of 32.8 minutes that means an hour of our day is on average lost to travel. Facts like these are what make an automated automotive society a necessity. But legislation for automated vehicles is practically non-existent at the moment. Many people fear the idea of a machine being so closely connected to something which has a connection to mortality. Irrational fear on the part of our race could be the inhibitor of massive innovation and quality of life improvement. Computer Science is in the business of making things better. It could be improving a destructive or creative machine but it is improving nonetheless. But developing theorems is not enough. We need to convince the world that it is safe to accept these theorems. I plan to do my best to help clear away as much confusion and fear as I can and I hope you do the same!