1. Medium of communication:
A recurring theme in both the history of humanity and computing is that all struggle to communicate. As Neon Genesis Evangelion puts it, there exists an “AT Field” between each of us that makes information symmetry impossible. For distributed systems, we have the Byzantine general problem compromising network integrity and low-bandwidth links affecting neural network convergence, which echoes the myriads of issues introduced by misinformation and language barriers in history, creating profound socio-economic effects. Thus, I enjoy exploring the medium in which machines (ML, decentralized systems) and humans (linguistics, memetics) can better communicate to develop a more efficient computing infrastructure and a more trustworthy society.
2. & 3. Algorithmic autonomy and Agency:
I care about how humans manifest the ability to act and self-sustain and how machines could acquire these capabilities or develop their own. While I relish in the ongoing debate about the intelligence and consciousness of humans and machines, echoing Tarski’s theory of truth, it is harder to fundamentally study them using constructs produced by an equivalently intelligent and conscious human. Additionally, the properties we care about that are results of such do share a lot in common with autonomy and agency, which are easier to define and study. More specifically, my interest in the former aims to create long-lasting entities self-supporting across complex environments, and my focus on the latter concerns how agents (human & non-human) react to an outside environment in a more structured way than an “unthinking,” deterministic process.
A recurring theme in both the history of humanity and computing is that all struggle to communicate. As Neon Genesis Evangelion puts it, there exists an “AT Field” between each of us that makes information symmetry impossible. For distributed systems, we have the Byzantine general problem compromising network integrity and low-bandwidth links affecting neural network convergence, which echoes the myriads of issues introduced by misinformation and language barriers in history, creating profound socio-economic effects. Thus, I enjoy exploring the medium in which machines (ML, decentralized systems) and humans (linguistics, memetics) can better communicate to develop a more efficient computing infrastructure and a more trustworthy society.
2. & 3. Algorithmic autonomy and Agency:
I care about how humans manifest the ability to act and self-sustain and how machines could acquire these capabilities or develop their own. While I relish in the ongoing debate about the intelligence and consciousness of humans and machines, echoing Tarski’s theory of truth, it is harder to fundamentally study them using constructs produced by an equivalently intelligent and conscious human. Additionally, the properties we care about that are results of such do share a lot in common with autonomy and agency, which are easier to define and study. More specifically, my interest in the former aims to create long-lasting entities self-supporting across complex environments, and my focus on the latter concerns how agents (human & non-human) react to an outside environment in a more structured way than an “unthinking,” deterministic process.