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

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!