I'm going to help save the world (or do nothing at all)

The second paragraph explains my motivations. If you just want a more impersonal/objective version skip to the third paragraph.

We can make the world a good place. There is so much work to do and I think entire "dimensions" of hidden potential. It's too easy to get caught up in the politics of the country one lives in or the ideas society plants in our brains that we have never really analyzed on our own. I have walked the unbeaten path most of my life and by now the way I think is almost foreign to most other people. I do seem to have a knack for a certain type of philosophical thinking that is becoming real science today. That thinking, that I think I am good at, is about analyzing consciousness. I mean from a "what is consciousness?" point of view not from the point of view of someone who wants to be a psychologist. I'm more interested in turning the metaphysics of consciousness into hard science. A scientific understanding will help us know who we are, lead to true artificial intelligence, and fundamentally change the reality we live in. Humans have existed for ~200,000 years and right now we are on the bridge between being ants and a whole new continent. I want to help get us there in a real way.

I'm a 30 year old software developer of slightly above average intelligence. I have a Bachelors degree from DeVry which is basically worthless in terms of real academic credibility. I have horrible credit and no family. I used the military to pay for my first degree so that well is dry. I want to go back to school to study the natural science of the mind (human, animal, AI) but I have no good way, that I know of, to pay for this. I would travel to another state, or country, if that made getting into a school more realistic. Everyone knows about FAFSA and the like but those things aren't really geared for someone like me. Do you have any advice about how I can get back in school?