Can we go to Iceland yet? Pleeease? Not only does the weather never get above 80 degrees F, but they have geothermal hot springs (mmm) and pretty much the best musicians in the world (múm, Sigur Ros, Valgeir Sigurdsson, Olafur Arnalds, Johan Johannsson, Amiina, etc.)

And views of the sea.

And the aurora borealis.

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In other news, I’ve been thinking quite abit about the future, how all the pieces of my life are going to fit together after college. When dividing my webness into two parts (my Facebook, professional website, etc. vs. Black Nix), the impetus was the need to differentiate between work and play, career and hobby, image and substance whathaveyou.

And then, this morning, I realized that my life itself is heading in the direction of that same division. Of course there will be connections between the two, overlaps (they won’t be *disjoint sets*), but the same basic structure will remain.

Work: AI research, hopefully. And I think much more can be done with AI than is currently the case, even if you don’t consider future technological progress. I mean, I don’t know a *whole* lot about what’s going on in the field, but it seems to me that most AI researchers are concerned with a little segment of intelligence, with finding logical algorithms that would create an output able to pass the Turing Test. But, seriously, our brains don’t work like that… we don’t have a “conversation” sub-brain and a “music” sub-brain and an “art” sub-brain with structured modules to accomplish a certain task and only a certain task. Actually, experiments have been done in which researchers transplant pieces of one segment of the brain into another segment of the brain and the animal adapts just fine. This is strong evidence that all out sub-brains, all our little modules, are composed of exactly the same stuff, and it’s really the interaction between the little modules that creates the complexities and differences of our intelligence. Mm yeah, that was a bit of a tangent. Sorry.

Play: Music, of course. Also, finding cool Icelandic friends (because I’ll be living in Iceland, don’t you forget) and playing music with them. And watching the sea. And the northern lights.

Why am I a math major, then? Why not just major in computer science and, I dunno, neurobiology? I think, in a sense, what I’m getting from this major is not necessarily the content but the process. The ability to think analytically, to logically step from one argument to another. And I think that’s something that will help me whatever field I happen to work in, or whatever hobby I happen to enjoy. I used to think that my life had to head in *one* direction, that I had to do a single *something* with it, that I had to find that *one right thing* to major in and pursue. But, really, life is grand enough in scope that I can pursue several things at once. I can be an AI researcher AND a web developer AND a mathematician AND a musician. And a lover of beautiful things.

Wouldn’t I just get bored any other way?