Most Influential

What is your biggest influence?

It's an open question - the {noun} that most influenced your calling/work/studies/career/purpose/etc to date: book, article, movie, paper, film, photo, story, person, relative, musician, artist, website, event, gadget, activity, anything! What's the one thing that got you into what you're into?

For me it's the Towards 2020 Science Report (2.3MB PDF). The buzz I had after reading this report was incredible. We are standing literally on the precipice of scientific revolution - just as the discovery of algebra and calculus prompted the scientific revolutions of ages past, the development of computation is completely changing how we can look at the universe. Everything can be modeled. We can create "artificial scientists". This awesomeness is why I do artificial intelligence.

Right now - what is that thing? What is your biggest influence? What sparks your fire?



Edit: Had to republish and refocus on school/career/interests - in the grand scheme of things there are other influences of greater or equal stature. :)