Is my age stacked against me?

[durrtygoodz]

This thread needs posting to /r/iamverysmart

[Techno-Druid]

No, because you're already insufferable and have opinions on things you have no idea about and nothing anyone ever says makes you budge even in the slightest about them.

I accept I have opinions on things when many times I don't fully understand, but I at least try to learn.

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You do realize nobody here knew your age, thus their responses weren't based on age at all but on the things you wrote and the ideas you held.

Yes, but the reason I was asking for advice was for the purpose of seeking advice about talking to people on a more personal level outside of MMOC Gen-OT

[Stelio Kontos]

Maybe try to talk less about animals, uplifting animals, animals, more animals.

Also, enjoy your youth while you have it, stop using it to try and create talking animals.

[Chirri]

I would take you more seriously if you did not use the word "conversate" when "converse" will do. (I also do not like "orientate," though I understand most people understand what the speaker means, it still irritates me; you can regain my interest by being coherent and open to the exchange of information and ideas rather than simply behaving as though you're looking for an audience for a monologue - not that you've done so in your OP, but it's a habit some people have, young or old)

[Bathory]

Keep honing your knowledge. Keep learning.

[Hey There Guys its Metro]

Nope, luckily that's not how age works, unless we are talking about driving or something.

Its just a number!

[Techno-Druid]

Maybe try to talk less about animals, uplifting animals, animals, more animals.

Also, enjoy your youth while you have it, stop using it to try and create talking animals.

Ecology, Mammalogy (specifically Primatology) is what I have the greatest knowledge on

[Techno-Druid]

I gave you advice on the previous page, which you apparently ignored. Stop asking for advice or trying to show off on an MMO forum. Use that energy to focus on your schoolwork, ace your exams, and put forward a little independent research. You love animals and ecology? Cool! But there are kids your age who have set up their own labs and designed thermal tracers for use on wild populations of everything from mice to mountain lions. You like transhumanism? Awesome! But only talking about it just makes you a blowhard, considering there are thousands of teens with programming/coding experience who are preparing to become the next generation of AI scientists.

The point is, talk by itself is cheap. Start developing skills and the means to display them (write a scientific review paper, do an experiment, learn to code an interface demo, build a robot) in your chosen field. Then get into a good school, and participate in research/outreach efforts with others whose knowledge and experience will help focus your interests.

You're right, talk is all I've really done, I could bring myself to a whole other level. Thank you

[Simulacrum]

I have aspergera, but the reason I talk the way I do is largely because I what I idolize, I do notice that a lot of times I think try to sound smarter, but that's largely because I'm used to being to talked down to by people. I should just speak more from the heart.

Which ironically actually makes you sound dumber. An intelligent person knows how to modify their speech to accommodate their audience (though this involves properly understanding your audience, which is another part of being intelligent, which you suggest that you're not in failing to do so).

[Techno-Druid]

I gave you advice on the previous page, which you apparently ignored. Stop asking for advice or trying to show off on an MMO forum. Use that energy to focus on your schoolwork, ace your exams, and put forward a little independent research. You love animals and ecology? Cool! But there are kids your age who have set up their own labs and designed thermal tracers for use on wild populations of everything from mice to mountain lions. You like transhumanism? Awesome! But only talking about it just makes you a blowhard, considering there are thousands of teens with programming/coding experience who are preparing to become the next generation of AI scientists.

The point is, talk by itself is cheap. Start developing skills and the means to display them (write a scientific review paper, do an experiment, learn to code an interface demo, build a robot) in your chosen field. Then get into a good school, and participate in research/outreach efforts with others whose knowledge and experience will help focus your interests.

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I'm willing to bet your knowledge in that arena is far less robust than you believe--reading an article or two online is not the same as doing actual research, kiddo (and that's coming from a professional neuroscientist who regularly works with primates). And to those people claiming "age is just a number"--you're doing this kid a disservice. I'm sure as hell not going to let a 13-17 year old with no life experience or well-developed sense of personal responsibility intern at my lab just because he wants to show off. People have to earn the right to be taken seriously, which comes with effort, which takes time. Unless the kid's achievements are such that he is a clear prodigy in his field (exceptionally rare, despite what headlines would lead you to believe), his age and academic progress are quite reasonably the only things anyone offline is going to look at when he asks to participate in research-oriented discussions.

Of course I don't have a thorough knowledge on all of the primate order, that doesn't mean I'm trying to show off.

[Stelio Kontos]

Incidentally, to the people telling the kid to fuck off because he wants to make animals talk or whatever--I recommend you all take your own advice. There's some pretty amazing research going on in animal cognition, communication, and neurolinguistics. We can accurately determine the neural correlates for various emotions in some mammals, identify communication markers in dolphin vocalizations (they have unique "name" calls for one another), and determine the extent to which language comprehension can or cannot develop in primates (they can learn to recognize words for objects and simple actions, for example, but have little capacity for abstract language use).

If the kid is smart enough to do good research in the field, more power to him. So long as he focuses that energy productively (and not in an MMO-C forum) I know that there's plenty of researchers, myself included, who are always on the lookout for new talent to add to their teams.

Cool, he can go do that, it'd be better than animal uplift polls on MMO-C. All the best to him, good thing about science is there's less pressure to develop proper social skills. People can be as weird, anti-social, and obtuse as they want in science.

[Deleted]

While I'm interested in getting into politics and discussions on ecology and posthumanism, I feel as if my age would hinder my perception.

Granted I am still a teenager, a young teen at that and I recognize my standpoints on issues evolve as science and the people I conversate with leave lasting impressions, any advice on how I could persue my interests without being discriminated against due to my age?

While the mentioned fields are not my personal speciality, there are some general tips. Most importantly keep thinking on your own, but also be honest to yourself: learn to recognize when your thoughts are actually your own, and not fed to you by youth culture, fashion, friends or politicians. (Natural sciences could be considered as a sort of exception, because most basic knowledge has been thoroughly tested and verified over decades by tens of thousands of scientists.) Never allow an ideology to do your thinking for you; be wary of everyone who try to flatter your ego by saying "all smart and progressive people must think this way". Too many people just run after whatever sounds nice, without actually giving any thought to the contents or consequences. Sometimes your thoughts coincide with the views of the majority, sometimes they don't. Stay critical, stay honest.

[Techno-Druid]

Incidentally, to the people telling the kid to fuck off because he wants to make animals talk or whatever--I recommend you all take your own advice. There's some pretty amazing research going on in animal cognition, communication, and neurolinguistics. We can accurately determine the neural correlates for various emotions in some mammals, identify communication markers in dolphin vocalizations (they have unique "name" calls for one another), and determine the extent to which language comprehension can or cannot develop in primates (they can learn to recognize words for objects and simple actions, for example, but have little capacity for abstract language use).

If the kid is smart enough to do good research in the field, more power to him. So long as he focuses that energy productively (and not in an MMO-C forum) I know that there's plenty of researchers, myself included, who are always on the lookout for new talent to add to their teams.

What field do you specialize in?

You know of Kanzi the Bonobo right? While he doesn't have the largest vocabulary of any hominid taught communication (Koko has a higher vocabulary I believe, but was taught by ASL and is less self-aware). One of my weird things I'm trying to grasp the concept of is why grammar is nearly non-existent in non-human primates.

[Stelio Kontos]

No, they really can't. Being a completely awkward person or an absolute tool means you'll never get recruited to a lab, nor secure any kind of funding for your own projects. Social norms exist in the scientific community just as they do everywhere else, and the idea that they do not is a myth that needs to be laid to rest.

Besides, who among you can honestly say you had "proper social skills" in high school? Everyone is a social retard in high school, including (I would argue especially) the popular kiddies.

I'll admit, my experience is limited, but my brother works in computer science, his pet passion is NLP (Natural Language Processing), and between how he is and the co-workers of his I've met, I'd definitely say there's more room for their....idiosyncrasies than in the fields I studied in (law and foreign policy). That's not even a bad thing, mind you, I feel bad for the marketing and accounts guys I know, so much pressure to conform to a very narrow view of how one's supposed to live.

[Revi]

The problem is that almost without exception, you think you know far more than you really do when you're young. Not just facts, but about how to perceive the world and information you're given.

It could be sometimes young people are taken less seriously when they shouldn't be, but I think a lot more often than not it is entirely justified.

[Irian]

You can't.

Never believe you can keep up with the experience that age gives. As someone who's mid 20s now, I thought I understood a lot but I'm blown away now by how ignorant I was and likely will be when I'm 30 compared to now as well. You simply don't have enough time in your life to be at the same level of knowledge as many in politics are.

My suggestion is to never attempt to be "taken seriously". Instead, attempt to be taken as you are; a young adult trying to understand the subject. People are often really cool when you express your desire to learn and your willingness to accept that you're not experienced in a subject.

[Tomservo]

You have zero real world experience, so yes, your age is stacked against you.

[Heladys]

You're too young to have any worthwhile experience, but you're not too young to adopt an interest in learning and thinking for yourself.

[hrugner]

While I'm interested in getting into politics and discussions on ecology and posthumanism, I feel as if my age would hinder my perception.

Granted I am still a teenager, a young teen at that and I recognize my standpoints on issues evolve as science and the people I conversate with leave lasting impressions, any advice on how I could persue my interests without being discriminated against due to my age?

Use internet anonymity when you can, don't lie, correct, or clarify any assumptions people make about you. Research before you ask. Check sources even if you trust them and try to remember those sources if they need to be looked at more closely. Keep a journal of links and notes on those links.

specifics for politics:
-it's happened before whatever it is. Look at historical examples of events.
-propaganda is impossible to avoid. Assume that you don't have the full story and look for internal consistency about everything else.
-stupid is much more common than evil.

specifics for post humanism
-it's a buzzword. Look at specific tech based cultural shifts and human replacement tech.
-Read up on post scarcity and remember that applies to labor. Post scarcity is also a buzzword, but it's hooked into the other one.

ecology
-get a degree. This is big science that people get wrong due to poor fundamental knowledge. I'm trying to think of better advice, but I'd go to one of the three people I know who work in that field for answers.

Don't sweat it and embrace being wrong as an opportunity to improve.

[shadowmouse]

I have aspergera

Your thought process may be more stacked against you than your age. Your age may, however, magnify some of the traits associated with Asperger syndrome.

My familiarity with AS is limited. I teach, so I try to be aware of it as one of the things I may encounter and need to adjust for.

It may be a quirk, or I may not be up on the latest PC versions of the topic, but you've used "aspergera". A quick check of Google, to make sure that I wasn't misunderstanding your point, shows aspergera to be used in Polish. If you're a non-native speaker, that can further complicate some of your writing -- and writing is often a less than forgiving form of communication.

Reading your posts in just this thread, I notice that your sentences tend to run on. Punctuation helps break your thoughts into clear groups for the reader. Get used to editing your messages before you post them. Watch for sentences that go on for several lines and have multiple commas. Break them up when you can.

Some people have commented on your use of words. That's in line with AS. Apologies for using wiki, but the Great Firewall limits my ability to do effective searches.

Children with AS may have an unusually sophisticated vocabulary at a young age and have been colloquially called "little professors", but have difficulty understanding figurative language and tend to use language literally

That last part goes towards one of your exchanges here, where you say you don't get the point someone is making.

Children with AS appear to have particular weaknesses in areas of nonliteral language that include humor, irony, teasing, and sarcasm. Although individuals with AS usually understand the cognitive basis of humor, they seem to lack understanding of the intent of humor to share enjoyment with others.

You have a particular interest in certain topics, something that has also been commented on in this thread.

Pursuit of specific and narrow areas of interest is one of the most striking possible features of AS.[1] Individuals with AS may collect volumes of detailed information on a relatively narrow topic such as weather data or star names, without necessarily having a genuine understanding of the broader topic.[1][9] For example, a child might memorize camera model numbers while caring little about photography

I'm not an expert in this area, but if you do have AS you might want to talk to one to find out if there are strategies that you can use to adjust for it.