Wednesday, September 7, 2011

Finding Cog Sci

I'm Ned. I came to SUNY Oswego in the fall of 2007 with a major. By the fall of 2008 that major somehow found itself changed to philosophy psychology. My interest in both fields was growing, and this seemed like the perfect major for such interests. I quite enjoyed the change, but I found myself haunted by this other mysterious major, cognitive science. Several of my friends had this major, but all I knew about it was that it somehow involved computer programming, something I could not be bothered with learning. So I ignored it. It kept coming up though, in both psychology and philosophy classes, and the more I heard about it the more I became intrigued by it. I started expressing interest to people who were hip to the major, figured out why that computer nonsense had to be there, and decided it wouldn't hurt to declare it as a minor and see how I liked it. Doing it as a minor even let me skip the whole programming thing, it was perfect! Cog 166 did, however, make me program, but I quickly found out it wasn't nearly as bad as I thought it would be, and found comfort in the fact that I would never have to program again. Sometime during that class it started occuring to me, though, that I was becoming less interested in the psychology classes I was taking, which at the time focused more on social aspects of the field, and wanted to learn more and more about the brain, which I had never realized didn't quite make sense to me. An organ capable of logic, with awareness of the world around it? And this mysterious subconscious thing who is pulling the strings? It's so intriguing! And here it is thinking about itself. That's pretty weird. Soon everything I did, just little things like walking around and thinking about girls, became these amazing events. I even liked the programming stuff, which I never thought would happen. I needed more, so I sucked it up, decided I could (and actually wanted to) take 212 and filled out some more paperwork and soon found myself with cognitive science as another major. It has yet to loose my attention, which nothing else has been able to do before or since.

5 comments:

  1. What was it about computer programming that caused you to enjoy it/get over your initial fear of it?

    ReplyDelete
  2. With philosophy, psychology, and cognitive science as your majors, what kind of career options are you looking into? Is there something you can do to combine all of your interests?

    ReplyDelete
  3. Question: My 212 Professor said that 212 was going to be the most difficult class I would take. Is this true, or are their more complicated programing classes that I will need to take as a Cog Sci Major?

    ReplyDelete
  4. how was the haunting of the major manifested? was it embodied or was it some sort of epiphenomenal effect from a lack of sleep? this is very important to me because often Cognitive Science haunts me too, like a terrible metaphysical strip tease. it shows a little bit of interesting material, but never delivers empirical evidence. it whispers seductively, "let's think about consciousness, and then acts sooo surprised when I want more. "you wanted me to go all the way and give you conclusive answers...fat chance! you can go meta yourself!" but college is about exploration, so i'll probably decide to pursue this major anyway.

    ReplyDelete
  5. hey thanks for all the comments! lets see, concerning computer programming, two of my favorite things to do are solve puzzles and build things. i had no idea what programming would entail beyond typing mundane code on an ugly screen, but found that to do homework i had to build something up to make it solve a puzzle, and found myself enjoying that. it is also very frustrating, just as a warning, but if you like doing those things you'll probably end up enjoying it more than you expected. as for 212 being the hardest class you will ever take, i'm calling that bluff. its a tough class, but as long as you like pay attention and everything you'll be just fine. 241 is the hardest class you will take. as for careers, i have an interest in the HCI program here. i am still deciding what my plans after this semester are, but that is the direction i am looking to go towards. you need a background in psychology and computer science (among other things: see karlys posts), so its a good fit after cognitive science. its using your knowledge of human nature and minds to design better interfaces so computers won't be as hard to use in the future. on to the hauntings. if you're looking to find all the answers and solve the mystery that is the mind, you'll probably be disappointed. most questions you'll have probably won't have answers at the moment, but when they do it's so much fun. if anything, the brain and the mind and existence and whatever make far less sense to me now than when i started, but the mystery is what keeps me going. if you have any more questions let know, ill try to keep up.

    ReplyDelete