Do long in the tooth programmers get drawn to neuroscience? I've been a professional programmer for 13 years and studied electronic engineering at uni. In the last few years I've developed this urge to learn more about the brain and neuroscience even though biology and medical sciences have never interested me in the past. I think after programming machines for a long time the natural extension is to want to learn more about the "computer" inside one's head. Is that a common feeling or just me? |
Having said that, I know or have heard of several people that have gone from EE/CS into neuroscience. One of my friends is a programmer and EE graduate like you. He spent quite a bit of time studying neuroscience and taking biology/chemistry prereqs as a grad student recently. Jeff Hawkins (Palm, Numenta, wrote a book called On Intelligence) is yet another person that fits the pattern. Does this mean anything important? I don't think so, unless you're contemplating changing careers. I think it's just that this is a relatively new but promising field (I know it's over a century old, but bear with me), just like molecular biology was the hot thing to get into during the 50s if you were into physics.