It was like that at Caltech. Caltech didn't admit people just for good grades and a high SAT score. That wasn't good enough. They were looking for people who were born scientists and engineers, people who would fearlessly look through the Gates of Hell if it would further their field.
For example, students would often do a double major, with the other one AY (Astronomy). Why sign up for all that extra work? Because AY was fun fun fun, but one couldn't get a job in it. Being around people like that is tremendously fun, I was never bored. We had Carl Sagan over for dinner once, and the entire conversation was about what would life based on silicon rather than oxygen be like. There was no class in this, no homework assignment, it was simply fun.
(Dr. Sagan went on to write about "silicon giraffes".)
Wow thank you for those stories. I took Astronomy in addition to computer science because evidently CS wasn’t nerdy enough. (Sorry to over share my stories but I really related with yours, sans celebrities and accomplishments)
My two favorite classes were cosmology (where things just bend your mind from sheer scale and spacetime effects) and another class called “life in the universe” taught by Dr. Virginia Trimble. Both of these, I had countless “what? WHAT?? did you all just hear that?” moments where you felt that you were being exposed to the most fantastical ideas.
Day one, Dr. Trimble gave us a sheet with 35 assignments. She said, do any 21 of these well and you get an A. No final or requirement to attend class. Or, you can stay and also attend the lectures and you’ll learn something.
Almost every assignment was as thought provoking like your silicon life form discussion.
One was to change one of the universal constants (like if the gravitational force was slightly stronger or weaker etc) and describe how the universe would be different.
Another was to write an Astronomy themed song/poem/short story. I wrote a short story about a boy and girl that go stargazing for a date and he tries to impress her with facts about binary stars and romance but doesn’t know that she is an Astro major and knows more but she finds his attempt endearing.
Greatest classes I took.
So it sounds like dinner parties were as fascinating as we’d imagine!
For example, students would often do a double major, with the other one AY (Astronomy). Why sign up for all that extra work? Because AY was fun fun fun, but one couldn't get a job in it. Being around people like that is tremendously fun, I was never bored. We had Carl Sagan over for dinner once, and the entire conversation was about what would life based on silicon rather than oxygen be like. There was no class in this, no homework assignment, it was simply fun.
(Dr. Sagan went on to write about "silicon giraffes".)
Yep, we were all nerds.