"Where do I start?" is somewhat rhetorical. A major issue is that I feel my ambition would be quickly stunted by the lengthy and difficult decade-long process to get the point where I could start tinkering around with the problem, at which point I may no longer be naive enough to have the confidence to try.
I often wonder if making something like "curing cancer" (I know it isn't as simple as that) a concrete, immediate puzzle could be more effective. Kids on the internet often successfully crack security and protections professionally developed by skilled veterans- simply for the sake of anonymous notoriety- perhaps because the puzzle is immediately there for them to try to solve.
Perhaps we would focus this application of ambition to more productive problems if they were public and global, instead of sheltered behind thick, opaque layers of academic and corporate organizations.
I'm aware that there is a massive amount of training and preexisting knowledge required in tackling this sort of task- but I also can't help wondering how many minds lose their ambition or confidence going through this training and competition, eventually being frustrated or losing sight of the goal.
Nevertheless, I'd like to hear your ideas on where to start.
I often wonder if making something like "curing cancer" (I know it isn't as simple as that) a concrete, immediate puzzle could be more effective. Kids on the internet often successfully crack security and protections professionally developed by skilled veterans- simply for the sake of anonymous notoriety- perhaps because the puzzle is immediately there for them to try to solve.
Perhaps we would focus this application of ambition to more productive problems if they were public and global, instead of sheltered behind thick, opaque layers of academic and corporate organizations.
I'm aware that there is a massive amount of training and preexisting knowledge required in tackling this sort of task- but I also can't help wondering how many minds lose their ambition or confidence going through this training and competition, eventually being frustrated or losing sight of the goal.
Nevertheless, I'd like to hear your ideas on where to start.