“Wonder is the foundation of all philosophy, inquiry its progress, ignorance its end.”
- Montaigne, 『Of Cripples』
Admiration and curiosity have been the largest factors for what I chose to spend time on during college. This came with its own ups and downs as balancing curiosity and exploration with getting things done has been a challenge of its own.
But I’ve been asking myself if I can do more than just to continue exploring beautiful puzzle pieces in my own world.
I wouldn’t necessarily say it’s about “doing something for the world” as it sounds too grand and vague of a goal. Many sciences and technology fall under a grey area where there is no absolute good or bad. I can’t see myself as a romantic techno-optimist who aims to “maximize impact” as it’s a vague metric.
But at the same time, I don’t want to be someone who says “no” to AI development and be content with heroic resignation. I want to see more intelligent models in my time and also see how they could help advance the natural sciences. It’s a privilege to be living in such an exciting era.
These are difficult questions which I don’t have a clear answer for. But I do have my hopes when it comes to efficient usage of resources and energy for AI.
“The power which resides in him is new in nature, and none but he knows that that is which he do, nor does he know until he as tried.”
- Ralph Waldo Emerson, 『Self-Reliance』
Having spent a lot of time near the waters while growing up, the ocean and nature is a large part of what inspires me. The most beautiful sceneries I’ve seen were ones I saw in the underwater world. And I wish my children and the generations after will also get to see the same beauties I got to see.
And I’ve been thinking how I could best align my skills and interests to make this happen given that we’ll only use more energy to build smarter AI. I don’t necessarily mean we should sacrifice AI advancements to save the environment. Rather, I don’t want inefficient usage of compute and energy that is given to us.
This isn't to say that this is the largest concern I have when it comes to AI. I still do believe that addictive fully-generated worlds and "AI friends" replacing social interactions will bring larger harms. But when it comes to these questions, I don't have clear answers on how we could advance AI without worsening this.
Performance, on the other hand, has clearer metrics to go for. And although I can't predict how the energy landscape for AI will evolve, I want to work towards approaches with efficiency in mind.
“Today is only one day in all the days that will ever be. But what will happen in all the other days that ever come can depend on what you do today.”
- Ernest Hemingway, 『For Whom the Bell Tolls』
The baseline for now is to be able to systematically reason through large scale AI workloads. All the way from single-chip kernels to multi-chip sharding.
“There’s no such thing as winning or losing… What’s crucial is whether your [work] attains the standards you’ve set for yourself. Failure to reach that bar is not something you can easily explain away. When it comes to other people, you can always come up with a reasonable explanation, but you can’t fool yourself.”
- Haruki Murakami, 『What I Talk About When I Talk About Running』
I don’t have particular 5 year plans or 10 year plans. I like to take it day by day and give it my best. And during this path, I’ll have to remind myself not to compare with others. That others have their pace and that I have mine.
At least for me, sustained discipline of long periods of focus comes from curiosity and a vision, not through a burning passion nor a desire to “win”.
“여러 변덕스러운 우연이, 지쳐버린 타인이, 그리고 누구보다 자신이 자신에게 모질게 굴 수 있으니 마음 단단히 먹기 바랍니다. 나는 커서 어떻게 살까, 오래된 질문을 오늘부터의 매일이 대답해줍니다. 취업 준비, 결혼 준비, 육아 교육 승진 은퇴 노후 준비를 거쳐 어디 병원 그럴듯한 일인실에서 사망하기 위한 준비에 산만해지지 않기를 바랍니다. 무례와 혐오와 경쟁과 분열과 비교와 나태와 허무의 달콤함에 길들지 말길, 의미와 무의미의 온갖 폭력을 이겨내고 하루하루를 온전히 경험하길, 그 끝에서 오래 기다리고 있는 낯선 나를 아무 아쉬움 없이 맞이하길 바랍니다.”
- 허준이 교수님