How has your formal education affected your experience with biohacking?

beckertasticbeckertastic
edited July 2015 in Community
I've been out of high school for 5 years and only went to community college for a few months before losing interest and joining the 9 to 5 life. My problem was being interested in too many fields and not being able to hone in on one. This was due to a fear of hating the field years later or going another route and wasting my time. Biohacking and transhumanism have gotten me more excited than any of the other educational choices I've considered and I have decided to try to choose an education that will directly, or indirectly, relate to the movement.

So enough of the back story. I'd like to go over how your education has benefited your involvement in transhumanism and biohacking.


Edit: realized most of my original question was in the wiki.
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Comments

  • bciuserbciuser
    So if there is a *single* field of sudy most relevant to biohacking (of your own body) it would probably be Bioengineering/Biomedical Engineering. I totally share your feelings of being interested in far too many fields than I have time to explore. To give you some context, I entered college two years ago as a Computer Science major, switched to Biology (now Neurobiology), and I work in a lab that deals mostly with Electrical Engineering and Signal processing. More recently I've become fascinated with abstract math. 

    As for a degree choice, I think if you want to understand some fundamentals of the human body before sticking things in it, Biology or Biomedical Engineering are both very good choices of degrees to pursue. However, while earning a degree has helped me understand why things are the way they are, becoming part of a research lab at my University has contributed the most to my ability to understand and create devices that could be used for biohacking. I work in a Brain-Computer interface lab, and most of my work has been designing, building, and writing software for a device that uses electrical stimulation to generate functional movement. Before joining I had no background in engineering or circuit design, and yet it's amazing what you can learn in a lab. If you do decide to go back to school, I would highly recommend joining a research lab in the engineering or biology fields ASAP. Plus its just a plain awesome experience.
  • TravizzleTravizzle
    I'm also a 9-5 slave, with only an Office Education course for secondary education. As well, I've never been able to hone in on anything... until biohacking. I found this online, an introduction to Biomechatronics.

    http://www.amazon.ca/Introduction-Biomechatronics-Graham-Brooker/dp/1891121278

    I'm extremely hesitant to take on debt for education, so I plan on purchasing this as a real intro. Hopefully it beats reading on the internet.
  • minnellaminnella
    edited October 2015
    While am implant is likely in my future, id say the most important, rather, the most useful thing ive learned in college is proper R&D techniques including testing methods.  once i learned that its as though the knowledge never stopped streaming in.  ive learned more after formal schooling than i did while attending.
  • chironexchironex
    A lot of my degree has sort of shown me a bit of what is and isn't possible. So a lot of biohacking ideas I may have had were tempered with the knowledge of my professors. And since it's a biology degree it certainly helps. A lot of my genetics or bio projects are spin offs of something my proff said in class. Proper technique for a lot of sutff was great as well. How to handle yourself around dangerous and delicate things. Sterile procedure. I'd say it is severly lacking though. If I didn't supplement my studies with my own research it'd be less useful. But that's mostly due to the program and how my school is structured. 
  • glimsglims
    Most off the time I think it helps. It really allows you to understand some of the fundamental workings of a system if you have some legitimate schooling about it. That being said. Learning is really about getting the information. While I'm not a huge fan of conventional education, one thing it seems to excel at is getting the whole picture. Self education has a tendency to be gappy.  Without someone to point out certain things, there are areas that you miss.

    What type of education you have is also very crucial. It steers the way you approach a problem. A lot of the habits that you build from the repetitive education of research, medicine, or the like, are important when you are working on your own.

    And of course, a background in bio makes it easier to see where some of the limits are. This isn't a hindrance. Roadblocks can be worked around, but only if you can see them.
  • minnellaminnella
    edited October 2015
    I deffinatly agree about having holes in self education.  I had 2.5 years at an engineering school before i had to take a break and make money full time again.  That was 3 years ago this month.  And while ive learned a boat load researching on my own, it wasnt until i wanted magnets that i realized im primarily into energy engineering (my old major) and mechanical engineering (life experience) and this leaves a huge gap as in chemical and material science.  This hole in my education became very clear when i began doing research into biocoatings and even the coating processes beyond my fields left me googling deffinitions left and right.  within a day i told my wife i need to get into some night classes or something.  i can see trine university from my front porch and i hear they have a very good chemical engineering program.  With this i could segway into biochemical and also suppliment my energy engineering knowledge.  Luckily ive got a couple years of my GI Bill left from the Army.
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