Friday, April 15, 2011

One of My College Application Essays, haha

Just thought of posting it up. Felt that it'd be a waste if I did not, considering the amount of time spent on it (4 days only actually). It's not necessarily thoughtful or anything, but...well.....haiya, post just post la, need explain so much for what.

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Brandeis University

Please include a short response to one of the following prompts. (250 words or fewer)
1. Why would you like to attend Brandeis?
2. Supreme Court Justice Louis D. Brandeis said, "If we desire respect for the law, we must first make the law respectable." Tell us about an unjust law(written or unwritten) that you believe should be broken.
3. If you could choose to be raised by robots, dinosaurs, or aliens, who would you pick? Why?

Who would I choose among robots, dinosaurs, and aliens to spend my growing years with? This is not a decision I would love to make. We know too little about aliens. Could it be that the fundamental construction of alien life forms are so different from ours that communication is impossible? As for dinosaurs, I doubt I would want to spend all my childhood looking for food and running from predators; that would be a waste of my human intellectual capacity.

All in all, what I fear losing the most in this childhood-exchange game is my human qualities. Because of that, I choose to be raised by robots, in the case of
which I would probably acquire a distinct world view while still retaining my human identity. I can imagine a parallel world of robots in which different robots are programmed to carry out some specific tasks, such as repair, oil drilling, and other engineering works. Of course, there would be a robot who could prepare organic food for me instead of feeding me new batteries. I would learn from the robots, and with the breakthrough of artificial intelligence, these robots are able to communicate in a human language. Albeit being raised by robots, I don't think I would grow into an emotionless adult. The lives of robots are similar to ours. We humans have our limits inherent in our biological existence, while robots are programmed with different capabilities and limitations. We exist with limits, but to live is to function in a way that makes that existence meaningful, whatever that means to a robot. Growing together with robots, I will have a different attitude towards machine and a different notion of what life is. The experience of growing up with robots would make me unique among my human peers, but not to the extent of preventing exchange of ideas among us. I could learn the human perspective after returning to our world and offer my "robotic" perspective in return. This would make growing with robots much more exciting than the remaining two options.

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*Essay (barely) finished 5 minutes AFTER the deadline. Oh...the horror...the thrill.
*I got admitted by the way, probably not because of this essay, haha.

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