Introduce yourself with a salute picture

Introduce yourself with a salute picture and tell us what you think of the Culture Whiz project! :) I'll go first! I'm a polymath and entrepreneur, with a focus on technology to augment human intelligence. I run an equity capital/operational assistance business that specializes in technology start-ups. I like the high risk-high reward option, and am quite comfortable with ambiguity and the dynamic nature of our space. Living things aim to discharge their strength and express their 'will to power' (a pouring-out of expansive energy) which, quite naturally, can entail danger, pain, deception and masks. What counts as a preferable and legitimate action depends upon the kind of person one is. Whether one is strong, healthy, powerful and overflowing with ascending life, or whether one is weak, sick and on the decline. All life seeks primarily to expand itself. No matter what type of situation individuals find themselves in, their will to power comes through in some way or another. Life does not will what it has, it wills excess, increase, and abundance.

My involvement in early-stage start-ups and my own has allowed me to engage in a number of facets of a growing company's organization: significant, top-notch sales strategy, business development, team building and management, cross-functional team bridging, public speaking and company representation at industry events, coordination of marketing efforts, coordination of engineering efforts, PR, and marketing strategy. I've had the responsibility of recruiting, hiring, training, mentoring, and managing multiple sales, engineering, business development, and media buying teams. It's a great learning experience - mostly about yourself.

Politically I'm middle of the road, supporting social causes and funding projects with positive social impact. I believe that everyone is capable of personal greatness, if they try hard enough, and that any problem can be solved with the correct application of human intelligence.

Personally, I like to go out to cafes, beaches, travel (I have been to over 30 countries and have lived in 6), local mountains, etc. I enjoy staying fit i.e cycling, MMA and crossfit whilst also keeping up with the news. I also enjoy camping, basketball and being utterly absurd. In the words of my previous incarnation, Friedrich Nietzsche: Hidden inside every real man is a child who wants to play. I'm also bit of a caveman (in modern parlance) as I'm kinda direct, commanding and don't mind getting my hands dirty. However. I can be very genial... I'm actually a qualified head-to-toe massage therapist, ladies ;) Overall, I'm pretty laid back about things and seem to be really good at avoiding nonsense. I would say that a larger part of my time is spent just being happy and trying to have an awesome time at whatever I'm doing :)

Favorite Music

I have no favorite music. I merely have music which at times, motivates me and gets that adrenaline flowing which in turn, makes me want to work out harder than ever before. My musical taste changes along with my chameleon'esque mood. This is why I always find the question of "What music do you like?" to be awkward, tedious, boring and unoriginal. This question is only one level under "ASL?" when it comes to sheer unoriginal questions.

Goals/Aspirations

To bring about the greatest revolution of all times through artificial general intelligence (AGI).

In the words of John Ciardi: Intelligence recognizes what has happened. Genius recognizes what will happen. When I was a young boy, in what would be the eighth grade, I remember going to the history museum with a group of private schools kids and seeing this statue of Zeus. And as I was standing there mesmerized by the statue, I could hear our mentor telling us that we could be anything we wanted to be. That instant I decided I wanted to become a God. From that moment on I've been working on synthetic intelligence and self-improvement. Computational intelligence will, in the coming decades, not only match but swiftly surpass human intelligence, and civilization at that point will be radically transformed in ways that our puny minds cannot possibly imagine! Seriously, wherever you direct yourself, all roads eventually lead here.

To quote J. Good: "let ultraintelligent machines be defined as a machine that can far surpass all the intellectual activities of any man however clever. Since the design of machines is one of these intellectual activities, an ultraintelligent machine could design even better machines; there would then unquestionably be an 'intelligence explosion,' and the intelligence of man would be left far behind. Thus the first ultraintelligent machine is the last invention that man need ever make". Total control of the material world at the molecular level is what the conservatives in the futurism business are predicting...

Strength and courage

By the time I went to college at 16 y/o, I was a straight up beast; breathless efficiency, relentless intelligence, determination, creativity, speed, stamina, etc. Qualified to perform all possible positions. However, after a few weeks, I realized that the standards and expectations of higher education were too low for me and a waste of time. The other 'elites' were (and are) a bunch of 'straight-A' workaholics who fill out worksheets but don't actually think or learn. Nothing more than service machines trained to pursue knowledge as if it were nut cracking. However, I don't blame them. Mainsteam education must limits itself to training working class students to carry out whatever task they are given to do and to accept the commands of their superiors.

So after that waste of time I was compelled to abandon humanity for a time and embark on a vision quest. To truly create yourself, your own values, your own goals, means that you must also accept the profound responsibility of self-creation. Each human being is both the artist and the work of art. In a painful process of self-examination and inner struggle, we make ourselves deeper and stronger. Nietzsche calls this self-punishment "self-overcoming." But this is not an easy task. The loneliness, the doubt, the pity, the perpetual self-overcoming is not for everyone. It can be as agonizing as a fit of madness. However, by going through hardship over and over again you gain the necessary strength to face greater obstacles. Moreover, working on your goals and then achieving them without a higher purpose or self-awareness makes you more unhappy than before, at least for the short-term. It leads to questions like this: What do I do next?

Some years later I was compelled to return to the public world. However, free from the unnatural, unhealthy, self-imposed delusions of the modern world, I found myself an impoverished outsider with nothing to do. So I enrolled in University. But it was like when akuma realized he'd gotten too powerful to compete in the street fighter tournaments alongside humans. There was much work but little genuine challenge. I studied a variety of subjects from philosophy to computer science. The math geeks were really silly. A *single* math problem is easy, break it down into little pieces and group the variables, pull up a few math functions and viola = input + transformation = output ... that is every math operation ever done in a few symbols and abstract words. Oh look, that's every computer program too. AI up until the larger statistical approaches has always been a math problem, i.e. you get an output but it only makes sense in the domain you chose to model. I chose to model the entire universe!

What others say?

According to this VC personality assessment report, I'm an Ubermensch! I can deal imaginatively with social relationships as well as physical and mechanical relationships. I'm alert to what is apt to occur next, and sensitive to possibilities. Verbally as well as cerebrally quick, I have a perverse sense of humor, and play devil’s advocate regardless of consequence. Because I depend on being challenged to stay interested, I'm likely to challenge others, and I enjoy being one up on almost anything that interests me-even if it’s just knowing the latest gossip. Accordingly, I may not realize the others can be exhausted by this relentless pursuit of reactions and contest.

It goes on to say: I can be a fascinating conversationalist, able to follow the complex verbalizations of others. I may deliberately employ debate tactics to the disadvantage of opponents, even when the “opponents” are close associates and valued friends. I value adaptability and innovation and thus respond quickly and adeptly to another’s shifting position. I may even be several jumps ahead. My talkativeness and motivating, are often the life of an enterprise. I can cleverly makes do with whatever or whoever is at hand, counting on ingenuity to solve problems as they arise, rather than carefully generating a detailed blueprint in advance. A rough draft is all that I needs to feel confident and ready to proceed into action, counting on the ability to improvise as a situation develops. Because of this tendency to depend on ingenuity and improvisation, I may neglect very necessary preparation at times :(

Here's the rest:

Shawn can be easily bored, and his attention span can be ruthlessly short. Unless he is discovering something new, pursuing a hunch, or acquiring another angle on a persistent question he is likely to be restless and agitated. On the other hand, his disinterest in hierarchy and displays of status can result in a disarmingly direct and unpretentious style of relating. Once engaged though, Shawn is completely invested in his work-eating, sleeping, and dreaming his particular vision. He usually generates more possibilities than can be implemented, follows his own rules, and find it difficult to delegate any part of the creative process. He may, however, use his powers of persuasion to talk followers, admirers, and fellow travelers into doing the tedious follow-through chores once an idea is being implemented.

Good at analysis, especially functional analysis, Shawn has a tolerance for, and enjoyment of the complex. Shawn’s primary interest in life is understanding the world around him. He is constantly absorbing ideas and images about the situations that are presented to him. Using his intuition to process this information, he is usually extremely quick and accurate in his ability to size up a situation.

Shawn wants everyone to be strong, independent, and able to stand on their own. He can use his intuitive understanding of situations and his ability to see the internal workings beyond smoke and mirrors, and to warn of danger. However, he can at times see danger where none really exist, which often causes people to not take him seriously. He generally understands things quickly and with great depth. Accordingly, he is quite flexible and adapt well to a wide range of tasks. He is good at most anything that interests him. As he grows and further develops his intuitive abilities and insights, he will become very aware of possibilities, and this makes him quite resourceful when solving problems.

Shawn is a pretty positive person, who enjoys life greatly. Unless circumstances prove it necessary, he rarely finds reasons to think negatively about people. He seeks to accept and to understand people for who they are inside. He does not like to condemn people for their personhood, and can often be sought out by others for matter of practical solutions to common everyday problems. People typically have respect for his intuitive understanding towards them and appreciate his loyalty in personal matters. It is not like him to betray a friend in need. This ability to intuitively understand people and situations puts Shawn at a distinct advantage in his life.

Shawn tends to be high-scoring Extravert who wants to exert an external effect on a grand scale. He has real vitality and relish socialization that involves a freewheeling exchange of views and ideas. He can be playful, but his sense of play is generally confrontational, and may have a tendency to “test” people with a barrage of puns of bantering remarks.

Even though Shawn is an extrovert, he may demonstrate a subtle tendency towards "reservation". He is very abstract and thought driven, constantly seeking the pure potentialities of the unseen. He naturally sees the big picture as others see it, while actively comparing his own beliefs without bias and consideration to his own personal belief. It is not uncommon for Shawn to think in his mind ‘A man believes this, another believes that … I see the potentialities of them both, so what is the real deal?’ Often Shawn may logically qualify these abstractions to make personal solutions to problems, though he actively avoid solving logical problems the same as others do. Since he avoids deriving known conclusions, his ideas maintain a unique and personal originality that others may not have considered. Shawn has very little loyalty to personal beliefs and tend to abandon old inferior beliefs for newer ones with better potentialities.

In general, Shawn is upbeat visionary. He values knowledge, and spend much of his time seeking a higher understanding. He lives in the world of possibilities, and become excited about concepts, challenges and difficulties. When presented with a problem, he’s good at improvising and quickly come up with a creative solution. Creative, clever, curious, and theoretical, Shawn has a broad range of possibilities in his live.