inquilinekea

Hello Dr. Wilson,

I'm a graduate student in the Geoscience department at Brown, and I was really inspired by your most recent book a lot. It contains so much of the advice that I aspire towards, especially since I have a very non-traditional background and often have to deal with skepticism from others who expect students to have more traditional backgrounds. Also, a lot of departments don't like interdisciplinary students (I was going to work with a PhD adviser in the Physics department here, but sadly, the department won't allow it so I'll have to look elsewhere).

Originally, I was thinking of going into doing climate modeling on the atmospheres of exoplanets (preferably potentially habitable exoplanets - where I could possibly merge my passions in astronomy, climate science, astrobiology, and ecology - are you familiar with Jim Kasting, by the way?). But unfortunately, it is difficult to find an adviser with funding in the area. I also have extremely diverse interests, which makes it even more difficult for me to find an adviser, as most advisers want students who have more focus than me. Furthermore, the professor who was in the best position of taking me on there (who does paleobiological research on mass extinctions, and who is also interested in astrobiology) is now leaving to another university.

So I'm trying to look for a new adviser [either here or elsewhere]. I love ecology+evolutionary biology a lot (and have a 810 on the GRE Biology, though I majored in astrophysics), and have been thinking of moving into computational ecology for some time. I would also be highly interested in anything that involved the consilience between ecology and earth/climate science. Do you know anyone who might be willing to take on new highly interdisciplinary PhD students who are interested in the intersection of climate science and ecology, or computational ecology itself?

I'm also wondering - have you ever taken on a PhD student with highly interdisciplinary interests, or who were really into consilience? I do know some professors who have very interdisciplinary interests, but who simply can't take on interdisciplinary students due to funding issues. So I'm trying to learn more about what highly interdisciplinary professors look for in new PhD students. Your book Consilience was one of my favorite books of all time. I also know that you often say that passion of interest in a subject is the key to success in a science. My passion is in consilience though, which makes it somewhat harder for me to find an adviser than most others.

Have you also thought about contributing to the edge.org World Question Center? For many years, I've been hoping to see your name on there, but I've never seen you contribute there yet.

PS: Do you know if it's possible if it's possible for me to visit you to talk to you in person? Since I live in Providence, I would be close by.

What do you think about computational ecology? I'm really thinking about moving into the field. Are the funding opportunities in the area good? How do they compare with the funding with other areas in biology?

Do you think that some of the biggest leaps in ecology will come from the consilience between ecology and the earth & planetary sciences (especially climate science)?

I'm also curious - how much did you interact with the Harvard EPS department while you were there?

Do you think that "too much" education is a reason behind declining birth rates among the educated? (and do you hope to increase the impact of your pro-natalism by writing "The Case Against Education"?)

What do you think about the Singularity?

What do you think of Peter Thiel? How about his "20 under 20" program?

Do you think Coursera/Udacity will finally provide an alternative to traditional education for social signalling?

What do you also think about the future of work? Do you think that machines will replace human labor, and do you think that there are good things that could come out of that?

I'm curious - have you heard about the Maxis game Spore? What did you think about it?