A couple years back, I wrote about my experience in professional life without a degree, and the challenges it posed. At 50 years old, I recently completed a master’s degree in computer science at Dartmouth College, with a focus including Formal Methods and Artificial Intelligence. The way Dartmouth is organized, I was able to integrate some Electrical Engineering courses into my academic work as well. I’ve waited for half a century to finally earn something, and so for me it’s a meaningful personal accomplishment; having my family proud of me means the world. In retrospect, I’m so fortunate to have waited as long as I did to attend college, as the science we’re studying today is so incredibly cutting-edge.
Education is often squandered on the youth, before students can fully appreciate the problems we’re trying to solve in the world today. There is likewise a deep sense of ethical responsibility required to handle sensitive technology in this day and age, and the burden of showing restraint until an advancement can be ethically contained. The stakes have never been higher for ethics in tech. Powerful knowledge without a deep moral sense of responsibility may be why we’re losing the battle for industry ethics. Most young students naturally prioritize education in hopes of attaining some form of professional achievement and success. That’s admirable, but success typically provides only temporal reward. In my own journey, I’ve felt something deeper and far more valuable; empowerment to make greater contributions to advancement – and to the common good – than professional success alone can. I also pursued formal education for personal reasons: I wanted the opportunities denied in my youth. I was a troubled teenager, who ended up failing out of high school and later got a GED. I had been told I’d be pumping gas my whole life, and the most depressing thing about that is I let myself believe it.