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And Mathematics! Don't forget math, it is the foundation to all science and engineering .

I think what PeterJ meant to say was that that science has superseded philosophy in almost all respects, and is therefore unable to come up with a credible answer to how philosophy has any relevance in this day and age

I disagree; free will as is generally understood certainly has properties that can be tested, and so far the science has shown that we don't indeed have much conscious control over our actions. You may be interested in this short article that sums up the scientific evidence against the existence of free will; LINK: http://io9.com/5975778/scientific-evidence-that-you-probably-dont-have-free-will You may also be interested in watching this video by Sam Harris, who provides a convincing argument against it (and the corresponding science that supports his assertions): On a more general scale however, the fact that everything is governed by the laws of physics (and higher up on the scale, in biology, all behavior can be reduced to whatever is encoded in genes) would implicitly imply that free will doesn't exist, since all behavior can be ultimately reduced to a set of physical interactions and phenomena within the brain, of which can be described rationally.

I would say that this problem has largely been solved actually i.e. we most likely do not have any free will, at least in the classical understanding of the term. It is notable that this problem was solved by science rather than philosophy though. It is more like everyone is in denial rather than there being an actual debate over the topic...

I find the CS50 channel on youtube from Harvard University to be quite helpful for beginner programmers: http://www.youtube.com/user/cs50tv It is also quite amusing and lighthearted as well. Highly recommended!

I would say that it depends on your temperament or comfort level when considering which programming language to learn first. Typically Python is recommended as a first learning language due to its ease of use and also because its learning curve is not anywhere near as steep as, say, Java or C. However, if you do want to get into serious programming or want a deep understanding of computer science, then C++ is a must. I'm currently in the process of learning C++ for this reason, though I have already learned Python and Ruby to a certain degree.

Hello, I am joining this forum because it seems like a vibrant community of scientists/engineers, and I want to find a place where I can learn new things and discuss various ideas. I studied physics in the past, but found to my dismay that I wasn't fond of it at all. As such, I am actively working on a new career direction since I find myself much more interested in game theory and AI than I do in studying the minute details of physical phenomena. To assist with this I am going back to school soon so that I can both master the subject I actually like, and develop a viable network to get the desired career. Other than that, I hope to have a lot of fun here and discuss interesting topics!