The search for meaning

My early college years consisted of a religious search for purpose. To this end, I focused on the pursuit of knowledge and became a voracious reader in everything from psychology to engineering to physics. My primary college degree was in computer engineering but I became very interested in the idea of “intelligence” and in particular, sought to explore what gives rise to human intelligence. I started studying brain and cognitive sciences but realized I needed a deeper understanding of the underlying mechanics of the individual parts of the brain which lead to my studies in computational neuroscience. I dug deeper and deeper into smaller building blocks which resulted in a temporary minor in quantum physics. At this point I started losing direction. I can still remember the day I put down my last solid state mechanics book on top of 4 other quantum physics books that I had been reading and felt completely lost in life. Something was missing…continue