The attribute that I embody the most is prosper with a purpose. As a philosopher, there needs to be answers. I reason I exist is to solve problems that enable a semi-utopian civilization with technology. I got my bachelor of science degree in March 2023, which was a Math major and computer science and physics double minor. I did this as I wanted to understand AI and quantum computing, as these have the largest potential to revolutionize things. While earning my degree, I worked part-time positions tutoring student athletes, selling custom apparel, and doing research with the Oregon Ions trapped-ion quantum computing group. My entire life is centered on improving civilization with technology. I purchased a Starlink device for my parents' rural home, currently drive a leased 2024 Tesla Model 3 (safer than me statistically, Tesla has done the most for climate compared to any other single entity), and use Aspiration, which does not invest user's funds in oil, and also automates tree planting with the Plant Your Change function. There are just about 460 trees growing in Kenya and Haiti at the present. Each Aspiration user has some associated number. As a Ronald E McNair Scholar, I optimized the design of Launch Vehicle 4 for the Portland State Aerospace Society. This was quite enjoyable and I worked with previous MDO contributors, an aerothermodynamics fellow from NASA, and folks on the airframe team. For those who do not understand the value of space, life on Earth is inherently improved with progress in space. The space race is why I can type this on a laptop with miniaturized computing components. Further there is satellite communication, and the long term inevitable thing of leaving the planet due to the Red Giant Stage of our Sun's evolution. I prosper with a purpose. All my energy is devoted to things that are thought through and worthwhile to do. I would say the attribute that I need to grow in is developing a possessing grit. I am not the most aggressive soccer player in pick up. I don't care that much about the outcome, however I think in general improving my grit would be good, as to how that translates to other things in life. Fundamentally, this whole thing is a bit of an evolution game. Now I have stayed passionate about long term goals, however these are all intellectual, such as getting my degree, getting into grad school, doing tech related research, becoming an American citizen, however there are aspects in which I could be less nonchalant. I will develop grit with a quick calisthenics routine in the morning, and focusing sessions to remember why I am doing things. In this way I will develop the grit and perseverance necessary to see things through.

In my daily life, I make the following intentional choices to live sustainably: I drive a Tesla, I use Aspiration, and I ensure to recycle the majority of the materials I use. Tesla was founded with the vision to accelerate the advent of sustainable energy. It also set out to reduce road fatality with safer-than-human FSD. The tertiary consideration was to make the car as sexy as the gasoline sports car competitors. Tesla has done more for the environment than any other single entity, and my drives have zero emissions. I started using Aspiration as my clean banking choice in mid-2021. They do not invest users funds in oil, and provide the plant your change function which automates tree planting. Given my usage of this platform, over 400 trees have been planted in Kenya and Haiti, with enough sequestering power to nullify the emissions of 40 standard gasoline passenger cars for around a year. Finally, I ensure to recycle any appropriate materials I use such as paper cartons, plastic tubs, and so on. Making new things from recyclable materials requires 30-90% less energy than from scratch. Overall, these intentional choices make a significant contribution to the larger world. It is important to reduce my carbon footprint for many reasons. Firstly, the greenhouse effect. There was a recent heat wave in India in which folks died, and historic flooding in Dubai. These things are due to the greenhouse effect. Heat waves are a more obvious correlation as the radiation lost to space is now reflected back to Earth by the carbon in the atmosphere, however hotter temperatures over the oceans lead to powerful storms that cause flooding, which was the case in Dubai. Folks are dying from heat strokes and there are record temperatures across the planet. Other than that the carbon concentration in the atmosphere is currently above 400 ppm. It currently increases by 2 ppm per year, and this should not accelerate. When this gets to 1000 ppm this is literally an industrial hazard which causes headaches. Another consideration is that fossil fuels are a finite resource, and so it is important that we develop systems that are not reliant on this resource. When I go for a drive, there are no emissions and Full Self-Driving is safer than me. When I finish my paper carton orange juice, I recycle it. When I finish my plastic tub of butter, I recycle it. When I make purchases with Aspiration, it is with money that is not being invested in oil, and the plant your change function increases my contribution of sequestering trees. The trees offset emissions.

I arrived in the United States in April of 2019. My mother had married an Oregonian, and I was a Jamaican kid with a single mother who did not own a home back in Jamaica. I had an international baccalaureate diploma, a 1520/1600 SAT, and perfect 800s on Math II and Physics subject tests. On coming to Oregon, it became feasible to attend the University of Oregon. I had initially decided on a Mathematics-CS joint major with a Physics minor, as I wanted to work on AI and quantum computing as the major fields of the future. As an immigrant, I had the work ethic and optimism of the same immigrants who built the United States of America. As a freshman, I worked with Dr. Timothy J. Gardner in his laboratory focused on brain-computer interfaces and neural decoding of birdsong. I worked on MATLAB code for a direct laser write (DLW) lithography 3D printer which consisted of a femtosecond laser, a 6-axis hexapod that moves with micron precision, optics for focusing the beam, and photoresist. I contributed a routine to automate the stitching of prints. I was also working with Dr. David T.C. Allcock, doing instrumentation with a microcontroller and environmental sensor. In my second quarter of college, I had the idea to 3D print ion traps for Allcock's group with the Gardner Lab's printing technique. This work started in March 2020, and this paper (https://arxiv.org/pdf/2205.15892) was published in May 2022, in which I am mentioned in the acknowledgments as the visionary. I then founded Quantastic Physics, a student group for those interested in quantum computing and applications, and this grew to 50+ folks and hosted grad students and faculty in the field. The man my mother married lives in a rural location, and so in the summer of 2020 (which was when I became a lawful permanent resident), I pre-ordered Starlink, and this was ready in Summer 2022, with the service being a 10-15 fold improvement over previous ViaSat option. I then became a Ronald E McNair Scholar, and my project was multidisciplinary design optimization for the Portland State Aerospace Society, which is now published here (https://ourj.uoregon.edu/files/2023/10/McNair-Special-Issue-Final.pdf). I was later selected by Google to found a Google Developer Student Club at the University of Oregon, and GDSC UO became manifest and hosted meetings relating to Google Developer APIs such as the speech-to-text tool. I graduated from the University of Oregon in March 2023 with a Bachelor of Science in Mathematics, with a double minor in Physics and Computer Science with a 3.70/4.0 GPA. Given these things, I won admission to the Graduate School at Northwestern University for a Master of Science in Electrical Engineering in September 2023. I have however not yet secured fellowship funding and have deferred to September 2025. I have well-managed undergraduate debt, and am unwilling to take on graduate loans. In October 2023, I joined the US Navy as an E-3 Enlisted Reservist Electrician's Mate (although I had a 4-year degree from a US university, I could not immediately go officer as there is a citizenship requirement). I got a 99 ASVAB, went through BootCamp (our division received a Bravo Zulu from a Master Chief), got naturalized in January 2024, and graduated from EM A School. I am currently back home as a reservist and am working with an Officer Recruiter to transition to Officer Reservist (Cryptologic Warfare Officer) given that I am now a US Citizen. I am leasing a Tesla Model 3 with autopilot as my first car, and I am building a life, currently working as an AI Trainer with DataAnnotation.

I arrived in the United States in April of 2019. My mother had married an Oregonian, and I was a Jamaican kid with a single mother who did not own a home back in Jamaica. I had an international baccalaureate diploma, a 1520/1600 SAT, and perfect 800s on Math II and Physics subject tests. On coming to Oregon, it became feasible to attend the University of Oregon. I had initially decided on a Mathematics-CS joint major with a Physics minor, as I wanted to work on AI and quantum computing as the major fields of the future. As an immigrant, I had the work ethic and optimism of the same immigrants who built the United States of America. As a freshman, I worked with Dr. Timothy J. Gardner in his laboratory focused on brain-computer interfaces and neural decoding of birdsong. I worked on MATLAB code for a direct laser write (DLW) lithography 3D printer which consisted of a femtosecond laser, a 6-axis hexapod that moves with micron precision, optics for focusing the beam, and photoresist. I contributed a routine to automate the stitching of prints. I was also working with Dr. David T.C. Allcock, doing instrumentation with a microcontroller and environmental sensor. In my second quarter of college, I had the idea to 3D print ion traps for Allcock's group with the Gardner Lab's printing technique. This work started in March 2020, and this paper (https://arxiv.org/pdf/2205.15892) was published in May 2022, in which I am mentioned in the acknowledgments as the visionary. I then founded Quantastic Physics, a student group for those interested in quantum computing and applications, and this grew to 50+ folks and hosted grad students and faculty in the field. The man my mother married lives in a rural location, and so in the summer of 2020 (which was when I became a lawful permanent resident), I pre-ordered Starlink, and this was ready in Summer 2022, with the service being a 10-15 fold improvement over previous ViaSat option. I then became a Ronald E McNair Scholar, and my project was multidisciplinary design optimization for the Portland State Aerospace Society, which is now published here (https://ourj.uoregon.edu/files/2023/10/McNair-Special-Issue-Final.pdf). I was later selected by Google to found a Google Developer Student Club at the University of Oregon, and GDSC UO became manifest and hosted meetings relating to Google Developer APIs such as the speech-to-text tool. I graduated from the University of Oregon in March 2023 with a Bachelor of Science in Mathematics, with a double minor in Physics and Computer Science with a 3.70/4.0 GPA. Given these things, I won admission to the Graduate School at Northwestern University for a Master of Science in Electrical Engineering in September 2023. I have however not yet secured fellowship funding and have deferred to September 2025. I have well-managed undergraduate debt, and am unwilling to take on graduate loans. In October 2023, I joined the US Navy as an E-3 Enlisted Reservist Electrician's Mate (although I had a 4-year degree from a US university, I could not immediately go officer as there is a citizenship requirement). I got a 99 ASVAB, went through BootCamp (our division received a Bravo Zulu from a Master Chief), got naturalized in January 2024, and graduated from EM A School. I am currently back home as a reservist and am working with an Officer Recruiter to transition to Officer Reservist (Cryptologic Warfare Officer) given that I am now a US Citizen. I am leasing a Tesla Model 3 with autopilot as my first car, and am building a life, currently working as an AI Trainer with DataAnnotation.

At the University of Oregon, I founded Quantastic Physics - a student org focused on quantum mechanics/computing. What started as a few nerds intrigued in this counterintuitive domain of knowledge, became 50+ folks who understand the potential of quantum technologies in solving challenging optimization problems and providing computational advantage via entanglement/superposition. We hosted graduate student and faculty speakers in the field. Later, Google selected me to establish a Google Developer Student Club at the UO. I set the organization structure. We had meetings related to Google developer technologies such as the speech-to-text API. In around mid-2021, I started using Aspiration as my clean banking choice. They do not invest users' funds in oil, and they have a Plant Your Change function that funds the planting of trees via small deductions usually on the order of cents. To date, I have funded the planting of 338 trees in Siji and Bombo, Kenya and Port-au-Prince, Haiti. This is fighting climate change by adding trees to the ecosystem and performing reforestation. In the summer of 2020, I took Multivariable Calculus and Linear Algebra at my parents' rural Oregon home with at the time sketchy Viasat internet. I indicated an interest in Starlink and paid $99 to preorder the device. Fast forward to the summer of 2022, and I received an email from SpaceX saying "Your Starlink Is Ready", and I secured another $500 to complete payment for the device. We set it up and the improvement was 10-15 fold, with no monthly data cap. Yet another example of my vision coming to fruition is my working with Dr. Timothy J. Gardner and Dr. David T.C. Allcock in my second quarter of undergraduate college. Dr. Gardner had a past at Neuralink and had a Direct Laser Write 2-photon lithography 3D printing setup involving a femtosecond laser and 6-axis hexapod which moves with micron precision. I was working on MATLAB code for that 3D printer (and successfully contributed a procedure to automate 2-dimensional stitching) while I was working on a basic instrumentation project for Dr Allcock with Oregon Ions involving a BeagleBone microcontroller and an environmental sensor. On a walk with Dr. Gardner, I said "We should 3D print the ion traps". His response was a wide smile due to my creativity, and work started in March of 2020. Fast forward to the end of May 2022, and this paper (https://arxiv.org/pdf/2205.15892.pdf) was published, in which I was duly given credit for the vision in the acknowledgements. I completed a BSc in Mathematics with a dual minor in Physics/CS with a 3.70/4.0 GPA, and became a published Ronald E McNair Scholar, doing MDO with the Portland State Aerospace Society (https://ourj.uoregon.edu/files/2023/10/McNair-Special-Issue-Final.pdf). Given all this, I won admission to the Graduate School at Northwestern University for an EE MSc, with attendance contingent on fellowship funding. I did not secure GEM Fellowship funding to attend in Sep 2023, so I deferred and reapplied for the fellowship for 2024. I've been deemed eligible, however must be selected by an employer before the window of opportunity closes to become a full fellow. I plan to create a legacy in my future by continuing to demonstrate exceptional technological vision and solve problems that shape a semi-utopian future. I hope to create a Quantum Computing / Clean Energy / Artificial Intelligence business one day, as I think I am creative enough to do so, however, my chances of success are low. I shine my light by giving it my all, with a focus on my optimistic vision, which has led to the manifestation of all previously mentioned.

I was born and raised in Jamaica and had a single mother who did not own a home and worked to support herself and me, in terms of paying rent and funding my education. I always wanted to be in the US working on the cutting edge, and so I sent it in terms of American standardized testing. In Jamaica, I scored 1520/1600 on the SAT (740 EBRW, 780 Math) and 800s on Math II and Physics subject tests. I then migrated to Oregon given my mother's marriage to an Oregonian living in a rural area. Given this sketchy background, I started at the University of Oregon in Sept. 2019. I gave it my all, and ended up being mentioned as the visionary in this quantum computing collaboration I suggested (https://arxiv.org/pdf/2205.15892.pdf), becoming a published McNair Scholar (https://ourj.uoregon.edu/files/2023/10/McNair-Special-Issue-Final.pdf). Completing a BSc in Mathematics with dual minor in Physics and CS with 3.70/4.0 GPA, winning admission to graduate electrical engineering at Northwestern University (with attendance contingent on GEM Fellowship funding), purchasing Starlink internet for my parents' rural home, leading 7 summer camps for our family Snaplogy of McMinnville franchise in our opening summer, and using Aspiration as my clean banking choice over time leading to funding the planting of 338 trees in Siji and Bombo, Kenya, and Port-au-Prince, Haiti, further becoming a US Citizen through the US Navy with plans to transition from Enlisted Reservist (I was not a citizen upon joining) to officer reservist. I overcame adversity with my tenacity and understanding that the adversity ladder goes way deeper than what I faced. I was not a chronically hungry African; although I came from little, I'm talented in multiple dimensions. I must realize that talent and make excellent contributions to civilization in my time. My advice is to know your worth, and know that you probably don't have it that bad! Adversity has shaped me in terms of philosophical wisdom. I refer to myself as a stoic. There is only one thing I control - myself. At the University of Oregon, I met a fellow who I became friends with. He realized I was clever, and when he was struggling with a problem, he would send a picture over text and ask for my assistance. I would provide guidance and he would appreciate it. The difference between him and I is that he comes from a millionaire entrepreneur for a father, and I come from my previously described situation. He had a sexy girlfriend as a rich kid, and I was not as confident and single given my situation. I learnt my strength was my intellect, and that I could make anything of myself, which led to my later credentials.

It was the end of the Winter quarter of my freshman year at the University of Oregon. I understood that the next quarter would be remote instruction due to COVID-19. Now, my parents live in the middle of nowhere, and at the time had sketchy Viasat satellite internet. It was the most economically feasible option to stay with them and do online courses. On completing the Spring quarter remotely, and understanding that courses would be offered online through the summer, I took the sequences for Multivariable Calculus and Linear Algebra, with grades of A and A+. That same summer, I also indicated an interest in Starlink Internet. I then powered through my entire sophomore year living in the middle of nowhere with sketchy Viasat internet. I completed Electrodynamics, Algorithms and Data Structures, and other courses to excellent standards. Around this time I also founded Quantastic Physics, a group for students interested in quantum physics/computing. This grew to 50+ folks, and we hosted graduate student and faculty talks in the field. At some point during remote instruction, my stepfather was laid off, and I was working remotely as a Campus Manager with Fresh Prints as an income stream while doing a full course load. That summer I delivered 7 or more summer camps for our family Snapology of McMinnville franchise, impacting the lives of 100+ children. On the return to in-person instruction, I needed to figure out proximate housing to the University of Oregon. My colleagues and I converged on a 4-bedroom apartment in Eugene, with a $2400/month rent bill. To be added to the lease, I convinced the landlord that I would be working part-time jobs as a Fresh Prints Campus Manager, Student-Athlete Tutor, and Physics Laboratory Researcher in the Oregon Ions trapped-ion quantum computing group. I worked these three part-time positions while taking a full course load, earning As in Fourier Analysis, Quantum Mechanics, Classical Mechanics, Complex Analysis, and Introductory Artificial Intelligence. As a McNair Scholar, I worked that summer with the Portland State Aerospace Society on Multidisciplinary Design Optimization for their student-built rocket, the Launch Vehicle 4. This work is now published in the Oregon Undergraduate Research Journal, as the McNair Special Issue. That summer of 2022, the SpaceX Starlink that I ordered was ready, and I paid the $500 to have it shipped (paid the $99 preorder fee previously). The middle-of-nowhere home that I worked remotely at during COVID-19 remote instruction now has epic high-speed, low-latency SpaceX Starlink internet. Given mentorship from the McNair team, I applied and won admission to the Master of Science in Electrical Engineering program at the Graduate School at Northwestern University. I graduated with a Bachelor of Science from the University of Oregon in March of 2023, with a Mathematics major, and dual minor in Physics and Computer Science with a GPA of 3.70/4.0. I did all of this as a Jamaican immigrant who arrived in the United States in April 2019. Attending Northwestern for grad school is contingent on securing fellowship funding, as I have no plan to acquire private or federal loans, and I have moderate undergraduate debt. I joined the US Navy in late 2023 as an E-3 enlisted reservist, and acquired my US Citizenship in January of 2024. Our division, 014, earned a Bravo Zulu from a Master Chief, and we earned all flags, including the Olympic flag which is acquired in competition with other divisions. I plan to serve with dignity and honor as a reservist while working towards a main career as a civilian in the tech industry. Ad Astra Per Aspera.

I was born and raised in Kingston, Jamaica. I had a single mother, who sacrificed much for my success and scraped by with monthly rent payments. I did exceptionally well on the CSEC examinations at the leading high school in Jamaica, Campion College, and received my IB Diploma, pursuing the IB Diploma Program at Hillel Academy. While in Jamaica, I prepared for US standardized tests and scored 1520/1600 on the SAT (740 EBRW, 780 Math), and perfect 800s on the Math Level II and Physics subject tests. I immigrated to Oregon in April of 2019 and started at the University of Oregon in September of 2019. Throughout my undergraduate career, I’ve held multiple positions and worked on multiple projects. These ranged from functioning as a salesperson with Evolvez and Fresh Prints, selling shaving kits and custom apparel, doing complex research with a micron-scale 3D printer which consists of a femtosecond laser, 6-axis hexapod, and a photoresist to fabricate structures with the 2-photon lithography procedure, and working in a quantum computing laboratory performing mode-matching with optics and lasers, and frequency stabilization such as Pound-Drever-Hall (PDH) Locking. I’ve held office hours with Computer Science students, I’ve tutored student athletes in Mathematics, Physics, and Computer Science, and I’ve optimized a student-built rocket with the Portland State Aerospace Society, utilizing my broad training in Math/Physics/CS. I’ve done many commendable things, such as graduating with my Bachelor of Science from the University of Oregon with a 3.70/4.0 GPA, completing a Mathematics major, and a dual minor in Physics and Computer Science with Ronald E McNair Scholar status. Although I’ve accomplished much, an internship with a leading laboratory or corporation would provide experience and a chance to showcase my excellent technical problem-solving capabilities and imagination. Accomplishing all the previous was not straightforward. Throughout COVID-19, I stayed at my parents’ rural home as this was economical. The internet connection was poor, and I worked 1.5/2 times as much as would be necessary in a standard situation. During this period, I sought to find a solution to the internet problem and indicated interest in Starlink in the summer of 2020. This arrived in August of 2022. I stayed on track for graduation, working most of my waking hours in the middle of nowhere. Upon the return to in-person instruction, myself and three students in my year secured a $2400/month apartment in Eugene. The others had their parents cosign, however, mine were unwilling due to this sort of living situation falling apart with my stepsister. To hurdle this obstacle, I had the landlord contact my four employers at the time, Fresh Prints, Snapology, Oregon Ions, and Services for Student-Athletes. I worked three of these positions (Snapology is a seasonal position in which I lead robotics summer camps) during the academic year to keep up with living expenses, while taking a full course load and earning mostly As (as evidenced by my 3.70/4.0 final GPA). I do not stop. I do not let circumstances determine my success. I will solve problems and enhance the world around me. In mid-2021, I discovered Aspiration, a clean banking alternative that does not invest in oil and has a Plant Your Change function which periodically deducts less than a single dollar to plant 1 or 2 trees at a time. At the time of writing, I have contributed 168 sequestering trees that nullify the emissions of ~17 gasoline passenger cars every year.

The philosophy and theology of humans inform everything else that they do, and if this is wrong civilization is sub-optimal. I am starting a religion, "Simulationism", which states that there is no benevolent God, the only rules here are the laws of Physics, and we are constrained by what nature can provide us with. With this understanding, we could reduce inequity and harmonize the entire construct of civilization with nature. Our incorrect theology which is centered around prayer and notions of immortality has led to destructive behavior. The act of praying is creating a notion of God to justify your behavior, however, this "God" only exists in your head. The perception of a benevolent God answering your prayer is actually just you achieving your own subliminal goals that were set by praying. In general, we create notions of God to justify our behavior, no matter how warped said behavior is. In the past, the Bible has been used to justify slavery, and those that are wealthy in the Middle East are not blessed by "Allah", they are just standing on top of the second largest oil reserve on the planet (Saudi Arabia) and they have become wealthy by exporting this resource. I go by the religious alias of "Deus Ex Machina" or "The God from the Machine". The Machine conserves certain quantities such as energy, angular momentum, and charge. These fundamental physical laws are the only rules of reality. Given the truth that the majority of things that are facilitating human civilization were not created by you, but contributed by other humans, the optimal solution is for all humans to live for contribution, and the collective welfare can be maximized. It does not matter in what form one contributes as the machine of civilization organically emerges as humans naturally have different aptitudes and abilities. Our current theology has led us to seek an imaginary paradise after death while destroying the worldly paradise that could be our planet if we took better care of it. Death gives meaning to life, as immortality would make life boring and meaningless. I have also conceived of a Theoretical Utopian Construct consisting of Specialization and Brain optimized education, Net Zero Factories, Solar and Wind Farms, Fusion electricity (Helion, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory), Ocean Cleanup, Net Zero Carbon Farms, Full Self-Driving Fleet in which road fatality is eliminated, redistribution of resources such that there is no chronic hunger while others live in excess, electric jets and commercial flight (Lilium has got a good start here), internet access around the globe (rural areas - Starlink constellation provides this) and many other systems.

Life is music. It's an intermingling of the humdrum and the crescendo, the allegro and the ritardando. When I think of a system, I think of its rhythm. The best systems are put together by a master composer who may not know how to play each instrument but sees how they all come together in a beautiful way. My core vision is based on the perspective that the future is not set in stone, rather we are collectively manifesting the future, and can take actions toward a more desirable one. The world stays together by people performing useful service to others. There are thousands of hidden hands that make a single individual's life possible and with the right mentality I think we can make a great song. The Human Song. I envision a future where financial institutions incentivize sustainable behaviour, where we realize that our small differences are of no consequence compared to the existential risks we face. A future where technological progress improves the quality of life of the disadvantaged. One in which we are space-faring, and learning more about the conditions that led to this gem of a planet. A multi-planetary semi-utopian song - and we walk in step to the beat of the cosmos.

Finding the right amount of patience is a key skill in the professional and personal arenas. In my perspective, this importance is related to the fact that no one truly does anything alone. No one achieves anything of significance alone, and no one is truly "self-made". Therefore in working with many people, each with different goals and plans and things to get impatient about, having the understanding that what you want does not take priority over what they want is paramount. The importance of patience might become more evident as one moves up the corporate ladder, as the success of your project depends on the capabilities and timelines of others. Because these things are not directly under your control, finding the sweet spot between intolerance of mediocrity and patience is a rare skill. Not too patient that you lack the driving force that inspires productivity, and not too impatient that you come across as having escalated self-importance leading to distaste and lower productivity. In personal relationships, patience gives a shot of encouragement to the beneficiary and lets them know that you believe in them and want to see them succeed.

All three of these are our attempts to find truth and to develop an understanding of a higher power. Mathematics is the most fundamental of the three. It is a universal language that reasons up from fundamental axioms in order to provide methods for finding the question matching the answer that is the universe. Notions of spirituality often come from our acknowledgment that the machinations of the universe are sublime and have a natural order and pattern to them which points to the existence of a creator. Civilizations risen and fallen have developed rituals and practices which attempt to explain and worship what is really going on in the universe. However, these only asymptotically approach the truth. In my study of the progress of Physics, I have realized that these are not actually laws of the universe, but Mathematical constructs designed to rigorously predict and parameterize the operations of the universe. After some time has passed, some aspect of a theory is proven wrong. Consider Newtonian gravity: the insight was that the reason for objects to fall to the ground is the same reason the Moon orbits the Earth. This was a leap of reasoning at the time, and it was shown to be correct. Then Maxwell comes along, and later Einstein, and they realize that this concept of gravity does not quite hold up for very large, hot, or fast-moving objects. This insight leads to the concept of warped space-time - General Relativity. Einstein was very satisfied with this theory and confident in his deterministic model of the universe - but that was before he helped develop quantum mechanics, which was so absurd that he described the phenomenon of entanglement as a "spooky action at a distance". He went to his grave irreconciled with this theory and its implication that the universe is fundamentally non-deterministic. The second law of Thermodynamics states that entropy always increases in any isolated system, and this can be extended to - the universe always increases in entropy. If this is correct, the universe reaches a point where there is no thermodynamic free energy to support processes that increase entropy such as human life. So it's lights out. However, a recent Quantum AI publication has shown that a once theoretical state of matter, the time crystal, is experimentally observable. This was realized via a quantum processor. The time crystal cycles between two high-energy states without losing energy to the external environment. It is an isolated system that does not increase in entropy. This has massive implications, the main being that the universe may be able to persist, and humans within it as well. So, mathematics is the fundamental truth, science is our application of mathematical reasoning to rigorously understand the universe, and spirituality is the resulting feeling upon realizing that the machinations of evolution are optimizing for the existence of the whole, and the planetary system hums on without trouble.

Well, I think the entire world has been subject to a great deal of adversity in recent times, and that which I have experienced is likely nowhere near the worst. Nevertheless, I'll share my story. Towards the end of August 2020, my step-father lost his job due to COVID-19 related layoffs. This reduced our household income to zero. I am a Jamaican immigrant, and my mother was not sufficiently established in the country to begin working. Further, I was beginning my sophomore year at University, while the whole world seemed to be losing its mind. During this time I was employed as a Fresh Prints campus manager and began the hard task of building a custom apparel business completely remotely while many organizations had limited operations due to the virus. We live in a very remote area, and the satellite internet is unreliable and the cell service even worse. So, I am doing university online without reliable internet and building a business without the ability to text clients - all this with the household stress of finding income streams. This time was also the beginning of a student organization that some friends and myself started, Quantastic Physics, which aims to democratize quantum mechanics. So I was taking a full course-load, starting a business, and hoping to grow an organization, with limited resources and while being in the country for just over a year. Throughout the process, I had many days and weeks of feeling overwhelmed and getting behind in my classes, heart rate in the 100s due to stress and anxiety, depression, and so on. But then I took a class, People and their Images, which had a very open-ended final project. I used this time to develop a framework that would help optimize my state of mind (and hopefully be generalizable enough to share). It involved weekly planning on an excel spreadsheet, with enough structure for productivity and enough whitespace for spontaneity. I simply followed this model of managing social media/email, exercise, school, and other initiatives without worry. I now have clients in Oregon and California, the organization has grown and provided quality content for those interested in quantum physics (hosting professor and grad student talks as well), and I'm back to performing well academically. Very recently my parents started a Snapology franchise as the job prospects looked doubtful, and I have helped to get the business off the ground and am enjoying teaching children robotics, engineering, and animation concepts. Throughout this process, I realized something very deep and fundamental. The human mind has the ability to manifest the future. No matter the constraints, as long as it is physically possible with organized effort it can be done. I then realized that, if individuals may manifest the future, then why not society? What if we had a collective dream, rather than selfish individualistic dreams of achieving success and wealth? I then decided that it would be possible, one day, to have a semi-utopian society as there doesn't seem to be any physical constraint. This is my only dream.

A question has been knawing on me for some time: What is the Human Task? After likely many years of conscious and unconscious thought, I think it is possible to come to an approximate solution. If we consider the progress of humanity, we have consistently made social structures that lead to a decent quality of life. We have also made physical things, usually to optimize the efficiency of some form of work, which is related to maintaining our created civilization. The interesting thing about our optimization efforts is that we already have a system that optimizes for the whole, that being evolution. For example, consider a person that wishes for their entire waking hours to be sunny weather. Well, because evolution does not optimize for the individual but for the whole, there will have to be deviations in that weather to fulfil the other dependencies that the rest of the system relies on to keep on functioning. For example, there would have to be a mechanism for watering the plants leading to the oxygen production that the living being in question who wants it to be sunny all the time needs. So no component of the planetary system is more important than the other, because there has to be a symbiotic relationship for anything to happen at all. So the Human Task is to align our optimization efforts with evolution's optimization efforts, in the sense that when we don't do this, we go against the natural order that exists on the planet and get slapped in the face. If you think about our upsetting the carbon cycle, it leads to an optimization of civilization in the sense that commute/travel time is faster. So we're optimizing for a social structure that leads to a decent civilization, but we're going against the natural order of evolution and are being slapped in the face in regard to the threats of ocean acidification, forest fires, etc. Another example could be more primitive humans maintaining health and fitness due to exercising more and eating less, as much physical exertion was required to get a decent amount of food. The system today is just the opposite, as we have an abundance of dopamine-inducing substances that are consumed regularly, without proportional exercise. The result in this case: diabetes, heart disease, cancer - the big killers. Technology should play the role of optimizing for our social structure, but performing this while taking into consideration the existing optimization that nature conducts. Whenever we work against something more powerful than us, there are long term repercussions. Why is this the Human Task more than anything else? Well, there doesn't seem to be any enduring long-term goal of civilization - if the heat death projection is correct, no life can exist when the universe says it's lights out. My greatest inspiration is using technology to change things, and the direction that is looking most likely is via quantum computing for large scale optimization problems such as those previously mentioned.

As a result of the pandemic, my parents were out of work for a while. They have recently started a Snapology franchise (McMinnville), and I was their first hire. I've helped out with setting up the technology and enjoy teaching STEM concepts via hands-on Lego robotics. This image is from Day 1 of the second camp that we have hosted. The children work in pairs to produce inventions that solve a given problem. Having been involved with Lego robotics as a youth (Halls of Learning), it feels good to have come full circle and able to inspire the next generation.

After much thinking during the pandemic and the resulting isolation, I came to the conclusion that the most valuable object in existence is not anything physical or external, but rather a state of mind. So I adapted to socially distanced life via creating a schedule with enough concreteness for productivity and enough white space for spontaneity. A pivotal component of this is the practice of transcendental meditation. My form of this is looking down at myself from progressively higher levels of reality: Earth, Solar System, Milky Way Galaxy, Virgo Cluster. This peice, Transcendence, is a meditation soundtrack that works pretty well. I came up with it as my Ableton Live 11 Trial was about to end and I wanted to make one more song.

A question has been knawing on me for some time: What is the Human Task? After likely many years of conscious and unconscious thought, I think it is possible to come to an approximate solution. If we consider the progress of humanity, we have consistently made social structures that lead to a decent quality of life. We have also made physical things, usually to optimize the efficiency of some form of work, which is related to maintaining our created civilization. The interesting thing about our optimization efforts is that we already have a system that optimizes for the whole, that being evolution. For example, consider a person that wishes for their entire waking hours to be sunny weather. Well, because evolution does not optimize for the individual but for the whole, there will have to be deviations in that weather to fulfil the other dependencies that the rest of the system relies on to keep on functioning. For example, there would have to be a mechanism for watering the plants leading to the oxygen production that the living being in question who wants it to be sunny all the time needs. So no component of the planetary system is more important than the other, because there has to be a symbiotic relationship for anything to happen at all. So the Human Task is to align our optimization efforts with evolution's optimization efforts, in the sense that when we don't do this, we go against the natural order that exists on the planet and get slapped in the face. If you think about our upsetting the carbon cycle, it leads to an optimization of civilization in the sense that commute/travel time is faster. So we're optimizing for a social structure that leads to a decent civilization, but we're going against the natural order of evolution and are being slapped in the face in regard to the threats of ocean acidification, forest fires, etc. Another example could be more primitive humans maintaining health and fitness due to exercising more and eating less, as much physical exertion was required to get a decent amount of food. The system today is just the opposite, as we have an abundance of dopamine-inducing substances that are consumed regularly, without proportional exercise. The result in this case: diabetes, heart disease, cancer - the big killers. Technology should play the role of optimizing for our social structure, but performing this while taking into consideration the existing optimization that nature conducts. Whenever we work against something more powerful than us, there are long term repercussions. Why is this the Human Task more than anything else? Well, there doesn't seem to be any enduring long-term goal of civilization - if the heat death projection is correct, no life can exist when the universe says it's lights out. My everything is using technology to change things, and the direction that is looking most likely is via quantum computing for large scale optimization problems such as those previously mentioned.