About

Zayn Wang (Zayn Lie/Zayn Wong/Zeen Wang)

Contacts and Accounts

NYU students in UTokyo

(Visiting UTokyo as an NYU Courant junior)

Interests

Education

Basic Education

I received basic educations under C.C.P. for both middle and high school (non-international, standard high school). Although there was a significant amount of bias in the history, politics, and philosophy education, thanks to my friends and teachers from the best school in the area, I was able to focus solely on the facts (events themselves), distinguishing between “answers” and my own critical thinking.

I have also mastered basic Math, Physics, Chemistry, and Biology, standing out from the intense competition, which helped me to obtain 7 5-s AP (CSA, Cal BC(AB), Physics C Mech&EM, Chemistry, Biology, Statistics), only studying AP for half a year. At the same time, the school team for the Olympiad of Informatics provided me a free and open place for study what I am interested in. My tech interest and ability were also partially shaped by the experience as a school team member.

Tertiary education

I received my undergraduate education from New York University. I was interested in Machine Learning, where I have done some researches in the Convolutional Neural Network. But because of the black box problem, I gradually deepened my insights and interests in the fundamental Math and Computer Science, especially experimenting how the logic being different between humans and machines, the limits for those logics, and the computability for human minds.

After meeting professor James Walsh from Philosophy department, I learned a more precise perspective for computability with machine (Turing Machine) and incompleteness with human reasoning (Math and Modals), and truly found my love in logic and the limitation for machine and human cognition, which forms my current interests.

Philosophical Ideas and My Preferred Name

  • I believe the nature of human is supposed to be freedom of mind, which identify human from other creatures, promoting the evolution of our language, literature, philosophy, and science. Thus, I regard and defined the freedom as a right to express truly anything no matter how anti-humane or anti-social it will be. Regulations and laws should not limit the freedom of expression but physical actions, which protect humans from being afraid to express violating the right of freedom. Therefore, any doctrine should free human free mind from collectivism. The only conflict between humans should be debate, and the rational debates should be promoting.

    • My proof that $p$: Humans are free (If $x$ is human, then $x$ is free) by my belief, and I am human by my awareness, so I am free by Modus Ponens. Then I have the right to express anything by the definition of freedom. So I have the right to assume $p$ by instantiation;
    • My answer to the Philosophy Light-Bulb Joke: How many Zayn does it take to change a lightbulb? Two. They will debate the reason for changing lightbulb, the concept of lightbulb changing, and the process to change a lightbulb.

  • My preferred name Zayn Lie comes from my life.

    • Zayn, or Zayin, which is the seventh Hebrew letter, is inspired from the Continuum Hypothesis (I am currently a supporter) that could be expressed as $\aleph_1 = \beth_1$ using the first Hebrew letter $\aleph$ and the second Hebrew letter $\beth$. The hypothesis along with the Russell’s Paradox helps me to explore my interest in Math, CS, and Phil logic.
    • And the last name, Lie, has multiple meanings.
      • First, it contains my hope for me to slow down my life and study (躺平 in Chinese);
      • Second, it is a conclusion and a warning to my life in P.R.C. When I was in P.R.C., I gave up my freedom from my mind, accepting the party to define concept as good or bad (Good or bad should be a subjective judge on the definition, but not the concept itself. For example, “socialism is defined as a good thing” is mal-defined). Although it is true that I could feel the safeness, avoid the loneliness, and even being emotional to release pressure in this way, I gave up the most important value being a human, freedom. It is a warning for me to keep suspicious to things around, always thinking if I express as my free mind really want.
      • Last but not least, the past participle of lie, lain, is one of my favorite anime.
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