SiOWfa16: Science in Our World: Certainty and Controversy

My name is Evan Wentzel, and I’m from the East part of the San Francisco bay, California. I am currently in the Division of Undergraduate Studies, so I really am not sure what I want to do with my life, but what I do know is that I could not go into a science field. I used to love science back in elementary and middle school, but then I got to high school and realized that science is a lot more complex and difficult than I thought. Although I don’t like science courses anymore I still have a lot of appreciation for the science field and enjoy expanding my knowledge of current scientific events and studies which has landed me into this course. During this course I hope to better grasp many ideas that I know very little about. One of these ideas is the concept of artificial intelligence, and the advantages and dangers that come from it. You can read about Bill Gate’s thoughts on AI here, which I find interesting considering that Gates was such a pioneer in the computer world but he is now warning about the threats that further development could pose.  This is currently is one of the most controversial topics in science and I would love to learn about it more so that I can have a more educated opinion on the topic. Overall I am really looking forward to my time in Science 200 and getting to know my classmates better.