Question: So, What's Alec Up To This Summer?

fourthquarter
Jul 30, 2018
4 min read

Updated: Aug 1, 2018

Alec Lau

July 30, 2018

Answer: Interacting with the two extremes of STEM work.

There is a new Professor of Physics named Ben Feldman, specializing in the quantum Hall regime, which is basically a domain of physics that churns out incredibly surprising physics every few months. Since Feldman is new, the lab consists of three people: Feldman, a first-year graduate student, and me. He is so new that we are still setting up his lab this summer by making customized machines for studying this hidden area of physics. Also this summer, I am doing some background reading about the potential applications of this physics, as well has doing directed reading in Algebraic Topology with a graduate student in the math department.

The problem solving in theoretical physics and pure mathematics has its own texture and personality. Depending on the level of theory of physics one is pursuing, physical intuition can rarely be applied. (In my opinion, the paper I am reading right now, "The Mathematics of Topological Quantum Computation," is guided by exactly zero physical intuition). Indeed, we may be of the universe, but we are not a few nanometers thick, and I rarely get seasick from the wave nature of the ground beneath my macroscopic feet.

This domain of thinking is pure and clean, but also leads to the austerity of its challenges. These are silent, monolithic problems, intimidating by their sheer size and scale. The lack of clarity as how to fell these monsters stems from the very purity that makes them so elegant. They sit in a plane of immense mental fog such that, in one's adventure through this theoretical landscape, the only hope of proceeding relies on stumbling through this fog with baby steps. Slip off the trail, and it is a tumultuous open season on you from uncertainty and obscure counterexamples. Solving problems in this realm demands ultimate understanding, as the notion of proof is unflinching and unforgiving.

This world, however, is one all by one's own creation. There is no therapeutic benefit of meditation I have not experienced from being here, alone with my thoughts without the noise of reality. Solving these problems is like an orgasm for the ego (egasm?), but the true pleasure lies in this theoretical scavenger hunt in a world explored by very few, and sometimes none at all.

Here, even reality is up for discussion, which may help to explain why I have been continuing to binge watch this shit. Aside from (obviously) Avatar: the Last Airbender, the Eric Andre Show has rocketed its way to the status of my favorite television show. A lot of my free time has consisted of watching this show. Unfortunately, though I have tried a multitude of times to describe it, this show occupies a subspace devoid of reality and cannot be adequately described by any human language we currently have. It suffices to say that whether you would be in my friend group in high school or if you are sane, this show offers either the most hilarious or most disturbing amalgamation of nonsense ever put to film:

For those who like wrestling.

For those who like 30 Rock.

For those who like morph suits.

For those who like pizza.

For those who like makeup.

For those who like insects.

I guess this connects my free time and work time, as I am an adventurer through the tickling and tweaking of surrealism. (I lightly encourage checking these six links out, but I heavily encourage checking out the links at the bottom of this post).

If Avatar: the Last Airbender has taught us anything, it's that there is a yin to every yang. The problems in engineering have a different feel to them. Here, we have energetic beasts with teeth, savage and gripping challenges that force one to navigate through details innumerable. If pure math and theoretical physics is a barren and pristine cliffside ascent, then engineering is a visceral plummet into a swamp of sawdust, solder, and smoke. If the former is a scavenger hunt, then making a part for a machine is a treasure hunt, where it is easy to get swept up by the jangling of a vacuum pump or ambushed by a tiny strand of wire shorting a circuit. Overlook these concerns and you could end up draining your P.I.'s account, a very real consequence.

Under certain circumstances, if one gets a tiny bit dirty, one is uncomfortable. However, when one is knee deep in filth and covered with mud, there is a certain primal pleasure in being completely dirty, where the mind stops caring and just enjoys the experience of being completely immersed in the world. My summer offers a mental analogue. I enjoy either being calm and clean or totally greasy and dusty, and anywhere in between is uncomfortable.

It is here where I deal with the pleasures of concrete reality as well. It feels good when one solves a problem in pure math, but one can feel a finished product they've made themselves.

In the interest of balancing this post, I interact with reality in my free time as well by attending taekwondo practice. Y'all should join. It's a lot of fun, although here staying in reality is a necessity, lest one get injured/knocked out. (This requirement is what annoys me about that Robert Downey Jr. Sherlock Holmes movie. Fighting isn't a primarily theoretical exercise. One mainly has to jump in and adapt).Anyhoo, building devices for applied physics and taekwondo is my tether to reality.

On an unrelated note, here are some movie recommendations for the summer. I have tried to pick out movies people are not likely to have seen so as to make this list more interesting. Attached are trailers/samplers:

Jackie Brown (1997)