Hi, everyone;

I saw this invitation and decided that it was finally time for me to register and say hello. I was led here by reading Eliezer's excellent website, and have since really gotten quite a wake-up call from Less Wrong and the Sequences. So, thank you to all of you who have participated in this community and the craft. I hope that I will be able to learn a lot and contribute a little.

My focus and interest is artificial intelligence, but I've always known that I just don't know enough to make an attempt yet. Thus, I've been studying other complicated systems such as weather, molecular biology, and neurology. At the same time, I am buffing up my math skills via correspondence courses. It's intense, but I like intense, and it provides me a good distraction from the unpleasantness of living in an oil rush town such as I do.

Just a little background. I've done a bit of reading into akrasia and how to beat it (one of my big enemies), and hope to eventually have something interesting to say about it, but I'm content to continue research for now.

Thanks for all the wonderful material, everyone.