PhD

So there is an opportunity to undertake a PhD on very favourable terms by doing it as professional work.  I should want to do it very much, but I think I might just be a dilettante. The topic would be something like developing a framework for Intelligence (as in Mind) for technological organisations that would be founded counter to the cognitivist systems, in something more like a Brookesian subsumption architecture.  I can choose to apply, but can I choose to do it?  Or will I end up faffing around for years before finally running away to become a furniture removalist?