Who do you admire and why?

[aswokei]

There may be a thread like this somewhere, but. Who do you know personally that you admire the most? Describe this person. Why do you admire him/her? Do you try to emulate that person? Discuss.

 

For me, the person I know personally that I admire above anyone else is (was) one of my college professors. He taught a few programming and database courses.

 

A few things about him:

 

- he's 56 years old

- probably the smartest person I know

- very hardworking

- is passionate about the work he does

- does bicyle racing

- very physically fit

 

To me, he is the personification of success. He has a wife whom he loves and is a successful father. But what interests me a lot is his intelligence. I know a lot of intelligent people and I know people are often intelligent in different ways, but this guy's smarts are everywhere. Very good communication skills, writing, mathematics, spatial, logical and probably most importantly, social skills. I don't know anyone else that is good at everything the way he is. He seems to always be "on" and in the moment -- his focus always razor sharp. He's one of those guys that would be useful anywhere you put him.

 

It seems like he's honed himself to be as good as possible at different things. In one hand, he's one of the most masculine guys I know (extremely logical, strong and good at getting stuff done) -- and on the other hand he's one of the most feminine (He's an incredibly perceptive and good listener and empathizer -- not just reading in on what is said, but subtle cues -- very attentive to details) It just baffles me how well-developed his mind is.

 

I can't forget to mention his enthusiasm. He invests himself into his work completely. And when he's talking about programming concepts it's sometimes hard to not laugh because you can tell how excited he gets when he's lecturing about programming. But it gets me excited too. Heh, he has more energy than most kids I know.

 

Very decent and caring man. In many ways, I think he's what people ought to try to be.

[flyboy]

Eddie Van Halen

Jimmy page

Jimmy Hendrix

Slash

 

 

these are all guitar gods

they are my heroes

[aswokei]

Ah, but you do not know them personally.

[Bettina]

Lisa Randall....I just love everything she says.

 

Bettina

[Severian]

Lisa Randall....I just love everything she says.

 

Bettina

 

You're kidding right? Are you meaning the Lisa Randall of particle physics (eg Randall-Sundrum model), or is there some other Lisa Randall?

 

If that is who you do mean, why?

[bascule]

These are the people that have most helped me figure out the universe, and for that I am quite grateful:

 

Richard Dawkins

Stephen Jay Gould

John von Neumann

Alan Turing

Vernor Vinge

Ray Kurzweil

Tim Berners-Lee

Kurt Cobain

Alfred North Whitehead

Carl Sagan

Timothy Leary

Bill Joy

Bob Dylan

Terrence McKenna

James Burke

Steven Weinberg

Daniel Dennett

Brian Greene

Ed Witten

Seth Lloyd

[ecoli]

You're kidding right? Are you meaning the Lisa Randall of particle physics (eg Randall-Sundrum model)' date=' or is there some other Lisa Randall?

 

If that is who you do mean, why?[/quote']

 

I know someone named Lisa Randal... and not the particle physics woman.

[shush]

Charles Darwin to me epitomises the ultimate scientist.

The amount of effort he put into getting his data, then honing it till he was certain that it could withstand all the possible criticism that could be levelled at it showed me what science was all about. Always the consummate logician, his mastery of words enabled him to convey what he wanted in precise and unambiguous terms. Astonishing human being.

[bascule]

Charles Darwin to me epitomises the ultimate scientist.

 

If you look at my list you'll see it's topped by the two greatest evolutionists of our age (in my opinion)

 

Charles Darwin would make an excellent name to top my list and is certainly a noticible omission...

[RyanJ]

Stephen Hawking - Why? He continues to presue his scientific career despite his progressive illness

 

Cheers,

 

Ryan Jones

[aswokei]

Bascule:

 

I expected Ray Kurzweil to be in your list.

 

Browsing through the debate subforum, I noticed that you think we're going to reach singularity within 20 (30?) years.

 

Heh, it's funny. My uncle who is a very intelligent (not genius) computer programmer has been reading up on this guy. He says that the things Ray predicts are incredible.

 

Indeed a lot of the stuff he says seem like science fiction, but then again, he is a genius and he has contributed a whole hell of a lot. I think I remember something about him working for Novelle, designing network operating systems. He also invented the flatbed scanner we all know and numerous other things. Don't get me wrong -- we'll reach the singularity. But in 20-30 years? That's really not much time at all.

 

Anyway, I'm rambling and off topic. In my own thread!

[aswokei]

Btw, I appreciate the responses everyone, but if you read closely, I'm trying to make this discussion be about people who we personally know.

[flyboy]

does getting an autograph count?

[shush]

Btw, I appreciate the responses everyone, but if you read closely, I'm trying to make this discussion be about people who we personally[/i'] know.

 

What can I do....Science is my passion and I am a self taught scientist

[bascule]

Bascule:

 

I expected Ray Kurzweil to be in your list.

 

#6 from the top

 

Browsing through the debate subforum' date=' I noticed that you think we're going to reach singularity within 20 (30?) years.[/quote']

 

Or less...

 

Heh, it's funny. My uncle who is a very intelligent (not genius) computer programmer has been reading up on this guy. He says that the things Ray predicts are incredible.

 

Indeed. Although not to sound like an arrogant blowhard, but much of it I predicted myself before I found out about the "Singularity" label. I read The Age of Spiritual Machines in 2000 and was not impressed. The Singularity is Near is basically about 80% of what I've been thinking about recently, but with all sorts of empirical support for his ideas, with an excellent presentation. On the whole I've been very impressed so far.

 

Indeed a lot of the stuff he says seem like science fiction, but then again, he is a genius and he has contributed a whole hell of a lot. I think I remember something about him working for Novelle, designing network operating systems. He also invented the flatbed scanner we all know and numerous other things. Don't get me wrong -- we'll reach the singularity. But in 20-30 years? That's really not much time at all.

 

Kurzweil's predicted date is 2045 (it was 2099 in The Age of Spiritual Machines)

 

At this point, Kurzweil predicts that by 2045 $1000 of today's money will buy a computer with a billion times the computational power of all human brains on earth.

 

The Singularity is an event waiting for what James Burke called "The Trigger Effect" to occur. Designer consciousness is the trigger of the Singularity, and there are all sorts of ways to implement designer consciousness. Whenever the first one happens, the Singularity happens. Some of these will take a long time to complete (i.e. complete molecular level simulation of the human brain on a computer) but others could happen in as short as 5-6 years (i.e. neocortical column-based seed AI)

[Bettina]

You're kidding right? Are you meaning the Lisa Randall of particle physics (eg Randall-Sundrum model)' date=' or is there some other Lisa Randall?

 

If that is who you do mean, why?[/quote']

 

I'm really sorry.....I didn't see the "personally know" part of the OP.....forgive my stupidity.

 

Bettina

[bascule]

I'm really sorry.....I didn't see the "personally know" part of the OP.....forgive my stupidity.

 

Me either. Oops.

 

Who do I personally know that I admire? I live in a corrupt world of debauchery... not really anyone.

 

The boss of my research group, I suppose, for standing up to alarmism...

[Severian]

It terms of people I know, I think it would have to be Dick Roberts. He is the UK's most cited particle physicist (last time I looked) but is incredibly modest and doesn't shout about his very significant contribution to particle physics (like a lot of people do). He is an incredibly nice guy and a good friend. If I could be just a 1/10th of the person he is, I would be very happy.

 

Here is his publication list: http://www.slac.stanford.edu/spires/find/hep/www?rawcmd=ea+Roberts,+R+G

[starbug1]

Me either. Oops.

 

Who do I personally know that I admire? I live in a corrupt world of debauchery... not really anyone.

 

 

I agree with with Bascule. No one I've met can be considered close to admirable or influential. I'm still young though.

 

Can it be someone we've met in a dream? (In many cases it can be real enough to say you know them personally)

[.:azurite:.]

well i don't know anyone famous but i really admire my 8th grade science teacher. he really got me interested in science and to me he's like the most smartest n energetic person i've ever know. He's classes were just so fun and the way he taught was really kool. Lol if me and my couple of friends used to love his classes, we'd hate going to the language arts classes but whenever it time for his class we'd be like 'kool what are we blowing up today'. he was really nice, never seen him get mad at his students and he talked to us like if he was really our age. i never really was into science until i got him as a teacher, now i really love science, he taught us lots of interesting stuff and we actually learned it since we did the labs ourselfs so we understood wat was going on.

 

fun times. n he used to tell jokes n stories from his experiences, sometimes i'd wonder what he was doing teaching there, he was like a hero to us.

i think he taught me more than any other teacher ever did. made me a better person. one thing i really like about him is that he can make you smile so easily, very easy going guy.

i think his last name is cesaretti, if anyone knows him.

[MindOfChaos]

I admire me.