StatisticianFuzzy327 OP t1_j6ncye0 wrote on January 31, 2023 at 3:43 PM

Reply to comment by objectsession in Students planning for career relevant to Transhumanism or Singularity? by StatisticianFuzzy327

That makes sense, the point about PhD being contributing to the field with novel research rather than just acquiring large amounts of knowledge. I thought that a PhD involves specializing in a very narrow subtopic of a discipline, but recently I have discovered that there exist interdisciplinary and joint PhDs that allow you to tackle a subject from multiple disciplines. That might be what you are talking about, and what is more aligned with my plans. I'll definitely look into it.

I'm also reaching out to professors and researchers working on my research interests and trying to get in touch with them. I do intend to eventually get a PhD, so I plan to do the right things during my undergraduate years to maximize my chances of getting into the PhD program of my choice and develop the skills needed to carry out independent research.

I like the point about not studying what seems to be the next big thing, and just going with what's the most popular thing and basing such important career decisions based on such unreliable criteria, I'll make sure to not fall for such traps. I'll work on what I find interesting and also allows me some degree of financial security.

I'll also try to choose something that won't be automated anytime soon. Plus I was planning to study neuroscience and psychology but this comment has made me seriously reconsider that decision: https://www.reddit.com/r/singularity/comments/10pvu7z/comment/j6mq8tg/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web2x&context=3

Anyway, I'll try to make an informed decision based on my interests, abilities, financial prospects, and the type of life I want, as you said. Thank you very much for sharing your comments.

objectsession t1_j6njlay wrote on January 31, 2023 at 4:25 PM

I have a interdisciplinary PhD (media arts and technology). Personally, I think any PhD could pull from multiple disciplines and, really, most dissertations must to some extent. If you are doing something new in your field, you need to at least check what is relevant in other fields.

It’s good to know interdisciplinary programs are an option, and I wish I knew sooner, but I’d recommend joining one only if there’s a good reason. In other words, I’d suggest looking into a more typical program by default. The reason is that you will have to work with established disciplines at some point. For teaching positions, you will probably need to demonstrate both that you can do innovative research (thus the requirement of a dissertation) and that you can teach more broadly. And just generally, academics are actually pretty conservative as a whole, so you’ll have to fit your research into their view. Having a PhD in an established discipline just makes it easier to do that.

But the programs are still useful. For me, it would have been pretty difficult to get into a music or art program based on my past studies and work. I wouldn’t necessarily plan on doing that from the start though, because I could have studied music and engineering (for example) from my undergraduate degree onward.