Last post I wrote a little bit about how I got here. This time I'll go over what I plan on doing here. This is mostly for my own use, so that I have a record of what I intended on when starting the program - hopefully I'll still be writing it when I'm finishing the program, and it'll be fun to look back and see how things have changed.

I'm going to be taking a BSc-IS through the SCIS here at AthU. In particular, my current plan is going to be focused on Artificial Intelligence, Augmented Reality, and Mobile Programming. These are basically two distinct areas. The first is the nuts-and-bolts of making computers do the hard work so that we don't have to, and giving us better access to those 2 exabytes of data. As it is we're drowning in data, but have very little information out of it. Crowdsourcing, data mining, search optimization - all of this is basically just different ways we can exploit the huge masses of data out there to make better decisions. The faster and quicker we can do this, the better our decisions will be. I think that's a goal worth pursuing.

The second part of my studies is AR/Mobiles, and I think that's a very important part of where we're going. Tablet and smartphone sales are skyrocketing, whereas sales of PCs have stagnated. Most people simply don't *need* a PC. They want to browse the web, they want to watch cats on YouTube and Twitter and FaceBook. They hardly need to be shackled to a desk for that anymore, and no one should ask them to be. Computers are turning invisible, becoming a part of the scenery. That's the future of this technology.

Do I think we're all going to be wearing fancy AR-glasses in the next five years? No, not tremendously (maybe if a good reason is found). Are we going to use our smartphones to overlay information overtop of the world? Heck yes - we do it now in simple ways. Ease of access. Invisibility. Brings us better decisions, faster and without having to sit at a desk to do it.

I think this trend is important, because it directly relates to human happiness. As AI continues to eat up the boring, mundane and annoying tasks, we're going to be freed to do more of the interesting and fun jobs. As computers get smaller and smaller, we're going to be freed from our desks and cubicles and will be able to move about in natural ways again. As AR advances in capability, our access to the sea of data will become seamless, and we will be freed from the artificial constraints of mice, keyboards and glaring 21" flatscreens (though I suspect these things will linger for a long time, like tape drive data storage - they're just too useful to drop entirely)

I'm also very interested in the impact of these changes on our social lives. FaceBook and Twitter have changed the way the world works, as has the smart phone. Even considering how new these technologies really are, they have already had deep effects and will continue to change the way we act and think in fundamental ways. I admit to having a soft spot for sociology and crowd psychology, and I find the way society fits together to be absolutely fascinating. Hopefully I'll be able to look at that deeply in my studies.

My optional courses are entirely geared towards the goals above, plus a little pragmatic cruft. Most of my options are in Math, basically enough to get me to MATH480, Mathematical Modeling I. I think this will be a very useful set of skills to bring to the table in Comp Sci, and will let me diversify into a wider range of jobs once I'm out of school. On a personal level, I'm approaching it as my biggest challenge. I'm *bad* at Math. If I can climb this mountain, then I'll know that I've finally beaten that failing that's lingered with me since elementary school.

The remainder of my options are focused entirely on Entrepreneurship and the management of a professional team of programmers. I intend on building my own start-up software company once I'm out of school, and with luck these courses will provide me with an introduction to what I'm going to need. I've owned a business already as well, which has given me some practical experience. This time though, I'm *certainly* hiring an accountant.

In any case, these are my goals with the program. With luck, I'll be able to transit from these pie-in-the-sky wishes to something real, and I'm sure it's all going to change along the way, but I'm confident that the core of my intentions will remain.

January 1st can't come soon enough!