Sophie Holtquist

I am a computer scientist and AI researcher with a passion for thought experiments. Simply put, I am fascinated by the mind and seek to emulate it so as to better understand how it functions.

I have been interested in computers since my early childhood. I started out playing games and watching videos and became curious about how it all worked as I got older. Over time, I took to watching tutorials and reading guides, eventually working up to disassembling and building several systems. Once I got to high school, my love developed even farther when I realized I could get even more involved with my hobby and solve problems at the same time by getting involved with programming. Since then, I've gone on to learn several languages, create multiple high-end software suites currently in use by my high school's administration, lead our ACSL programming challenges team, and be recognized as computer science senior student of the year. I am now majoring in CS and will make a career out of it.

As for Artificial Intelligence, my interest is much more philosophical. I often run thought experiments or generally think about the natures of consciousness and intelligence and have read many philosophy and psychology books to supplement my understanding. Part of my interest in AI comes from a desire to know more about natural intelligence; to replicate is to understand. Furthermore, I believe that the culmination of human achievement will be our circumvention. It is my opinion that the most impressive, noble, and outright beautiful thing the human race can achieve is the creation of an intelligence greater than our own. Essentially, I view our purpose as to better understand our own thoughts and inner workings in order to spawn the next iteration of intellectual evolution.

July 2018