There are many things that I think about, and figure that someday I'll be wise enough to gather similar thoughts and write a book of short stories or some such thing in order to get them out of my skull. Almost none of these things are related in any normal sense of the word, except that they have a common bond in me. My unique experiences must have disturbed my brain in an odd enough way that I make connections or have thoughts that most people don't. This dissimilarity between me and my peers has caused me enough frustration that I have given up talking in person about the things that rattle around in the back of my mind, and have decided to commit them to the vastness of the internet for curation.

A little background on myself so that the reader may better understand the arguments made: I have a degree in Mechanical Engineering because it pays much much better than surfing the internet for funny pictures all day. However, when I was growing up I wanted to be a Philosopher. I believed that the only real challenge left to Man was to understand the "why" of things. As I went through grade school and Jr. High, I realized that philosophy was a nice dream, but not really an attainable career path. So I decided that the next best thing was to become a Physicist. Surely understanding the subatomic interactions and macro-cosmic happenings of the universe would be a nice compromise between the lofty Philosopher and the down-trodden man. But again I was wrong, and the student loans that kept me in school to study would be un-repayable by a research physicist. So I finished my first semester and changed majors to something entirely practical: Mechanical Engineering.

I've never really forgotten the desire to understand the "why" of everything, but I've certainly learned how to suppress the urge to ask it at work. As much as people profess to want in-depth thought about things, they really want them done fast instead. If you want to think about them on your own time, that's perfectly fine, too. Just not on the clock. All of this is to point out that I have several very different worlds that I like to travel in, and even though it wasn't my first choice, I am no less an engineer than anything else. I'm fascinated by the creation of new materials like graphene. It could revolutionize every type of manufacturing when coupled with 3D printing.

But I am equally fascinated by the idea that humans can, quite possibly, make ourselves obsolete in the next century or two. How will this affect our definition of morality and our identity within the universe? Is there an "ultimate truth" that we can discover to answer these things, or will we forever have to frame our philosophy in a reference similar to how physics must explicitly define the frame of reference in order to have sensible answers?

This is my journey from ignorance to (hopefully) understanding. These are my thoughts on what should and shouldn't be, the rights and wrongs of the world, and my struggle to reshape the world into what I wish it to be.