An Introduction

Just a wee bit about myself

We are born curious. Immensely curious. From day one, as it seems, we are filled with wonderment about the world around us: we want to try, we want to discover, we want to know.

As kids at age 3 or so, once we start to exercise that great ability that distinguishes us from other animals, language, our curiosity takes a big leap. We ask, we inquire, we demand; about this, that and yonder: what is this, why is that, yes but why?

And then comes school, ostensibly the avenue for us to be imparted with knowledge, surely that should whet our curious appetite, enhance it, augment it even more? But it turns out, school kills curiosity. Our education system prioritizes conformity over curiosity. Material regurgitation over knowledge exploration. Examination over experimentation.

But I was having none of it. Without going so far as to claim some kind of exceptionalism, I’d still like to think that I fought exceptionally hard to preserve my curiosity, at the cost of conformity, all the comfort conformity brings, and perhaps much else. A trait which by adulthood seems severely attenuated I retained, even fostered, further amplified.

A large part of my journey through life has been dedicated to satisfying this insatiable curiosity. It has often been at the cost of other pursuits and pleasures. It has been across several fields. It has been in the sciences and in the arts. In technology and the humanities. In engineering and in history. In fields perhaps useful perhaps useless and perhaps somewhere in between: etymology, epistemology, economics, business, finance, geopolitics, rhetoric, futurism; the sciences such as mathematics and physics alongside social sciences such as anthropology and psychology; philology and philosophy.

Each new stone I turned, each new door I opened, each new gem I uncovered, I only realized that there was so much more, beyond each horizon there was a world far vaster, with each new milestone reached there was another one beckoning: run rabbit run, dig that hole, forget the sun, and when at last the work is done.. it’s time to dig another one.

It’s been exhilarating going down these rabbit holes, finding tasty nuggets of knowledge; it’s like a squirrel collecting nuts even though winter is not nigh; a python devouring everything on its path even when not hungry. Hungry but not hungry.

With the advent of modern Artificial-Intelligence systems in the form of language models that can think and reason, that can use human language and apply human knowledge, that offer to expand the capacities of the human brain a thousand times over; and having worked within this field building or enhancing such systems, I realized the puniness of the human brain, and with that the fleeting nature of our existence.

And then of course arose the inevitable question: what happens when I have shuffled off this mortal coil. What of those nuts, the nuggets?

The ancient Egyptians took their precious possessions with them to the afterlife, I have no such assurances, nor such vanity. But yes, what happens when the frail flame of my own existence flickers. What then will happen to that one possession I price: all that I’ve learned?

Technological futurists, conversant in the field of remaking the human brain in machine form, have prognosticated that by the 2040s, we will be able to upload our brains into the cloud, and thus, achieve, as it were, immortality, or as it matters and appeals more to me: cognitive immortality.

But that still seems a long way away. While I remain hopeful, certainly desirous of seeing such a thing come to pass, can we let this flame of existence flicker in the wind?

The more I’ve learned the humbler I’ve become with the realization that it’s perhaps still a long way to go before I ever get to true humility and wisdom, even a modicum of it. So if nothing, if not a transfer of knowledge, perhaps this is a desire, maybe it’ll be the outcome, to share my journey of seeking this humbleness and wisdom.

This aspiration is perhaps in the spiritual realm, which I do not claim to have much familiarity of: all I can really relate to is the raw physical reality, which in my case as relevant here is the raw intellectuality of my cognitive and epistemic journey. That’s all I have.

Stephen Covey said, live, love, learn and leave a legacy: lest that be too lofty for me to labor, here’s my little shot at sharing what little I’ve learned in my life.