User:NWSE

Just cloned myself here from Wikipedia.

Semi-retired software engineer with a nearly religious regard for these projects. They represent one of the most practicable new mechanisms of task or goal achievement, allowing us to seek to dispense with the historically-predominant "institution" as the mechanism for working together.

I started life (as best I recall) working toward a career in science. I had some incredible opportunities to be educated in microbiology and clinical chemistry beginning when I was 11 in a VA hospital lab and then six years in a research lab at the same facility. I worked a bit in all the different departments in the facility, and because it was a relatively small hospital and I had such a fine relationship with all the employees, I learned much about the overall workings of a medical centre (sorry us Yanks, them Brits rule the language here it appears) of that time. I had begun taking mathematics (Ha! I thought "math" was a word) and computer science courses at a local university and then becoming a full-time student at a larger U, I found myself gravitating toward the machines. As a student there, I continued being oriented toward scientific uses of computing, working in nuclear medicine and cardiology research. This ranged from image manipulation in assembler for DG minicomputers to statistical analysis on larger machines. When I got married, I first was employed in Management Information Systems at a local manufacturer. I shortly transferred to Engineering as a software designer, but had a chance to learn quite a bit about business-related areas in MIS, which has been valuable since. After a lay-off and being hired by a former co-worker, I began designing computer keyboard products. I hadn't had any formal EE training, but digital circuit design came pretty easily and was quite enjoyable.

After a few more engineering posts, I took a job in a research project regarding the Social Security Disability Program. I had continued maintaining my relationship with the VA since those early days often as a volunteer, mainly doing stats, software development, and some EE-related work. But, working with SSA reconnected me with the federal bureaucracy and expanded my understanding of it. Since that time, I've ended up researching social and political issues much more than scientific and engineering ones, because I've found that social and political situations have really directed the use and misuse of science and engineering, and thus require correction before it is useful or even safe to enhance science and engineering.