Welcome to Entangled Mind!
"To know what you know and what you do not know, that is true knowledge." - Confucius
We live in a symbiotic relationship with technology. Humans augment their abilities with smartphones and smartwatches; companies create machine learning models to better understand their customers or improve their products; governments leverage complex computational simulations to design better policies; hedge funds leverage AI to find and exploit patterns in the financial markets to generate alpha; neuroscience is being pulled out of the lab and into science-backed products to help individuals understand their brain and improve habits; and recently, quantum computers have emerged as a disruptive alternative to classical computing, promising to solve previously unattainable challenges. So, why are some disciplines and researchers still reluctant to embrace these tools? Is it because they are too complicated to learn? Is merging these fields of study really as beneficial as it seems? What can we learn from other disciplines?
Focusing primarily on an economics perspective, I designed Entangled Mind such that it serves as my playground to explore these questions. I graduated in May 2022 with a double major in Economics and Data Science, with a minor in Mathematics, and will continue my doctoral studies at Claremont Graduate University. By specializing in Neuroeconomics, I intend to combine my technical data analysis skills with economics and neuroscience techniques. I am particularly interested in better understanding individual and collective decision-making processes. In a sense, this blog will serve as a knowledge database where I will share any insights I learn along the journey as a PhD candidate. After all, what I want to understand is you! By challenging myself to break down complex topics into clear and easy-to-understand blog posts, I intend to: show the power of transdisciplinary work; spark a flame of curiosity in you that motivates you to pursue some of these, or other, questions yourself; help you navigate the learning process by sharing my mistakes; and hopefully learn from you via comments and constructive criticism.
The name Entangled Mind attempts to capture the essence of this blog. Entangled is used in the sense of quantum entanglement, referring to the seemingly unprobable, but existent, relationship between various disciplines and economics. Mind's purpose is twofold: to capture my curiosity for the human mind and a special way of thinking about economics (an entangled way, if you may). Clearly, the name is still a work in progress. I believe there is a better way to represent these ideas in a title. If you have any suggestions, please send them my way :)
Finally, here is a little bit about myself outside of the academic environment and the origins of this blog. I grew up playing rugby, soccer, and basketball. At 14 years old, I switched to tennis, which would eventually take me to the United States for my undergraduate education. I attended the College of Charleston my first year and then transferred to Marist College in New York, seeking a higher athletic scholarship. I was involved in research for four years, on topics ranging from solar panels' environmental impact to implementing AI-powered chatbots in educational institutions. As a senior, my work in Natural Language Processing (NLP) culminated in a paper that was published in CSEDU, one of the biggest international conferences for computer science in education. These experiences boosted my confidence in solving and tackling complex, real-world issues. My latest efforts in merging my interests with various other sciences include learning quantum computing to solve high-dimensional Matrix Riccati differential equations. Currently, I am exploring Quantum Machine Learning, Computational Neuroscience, Artificial Intelligence in Finance, and Behavioral Economics.
I would love to get to know you, share a coffee (maybe via Zoom) or simply have a chat to exchange ideas. So, please reach out with any questions or ideas! LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/augustogbono/
Instagram: @augustobonorino
Email: bonocsc@outlook.com
