Interests and Preferences

Books

21 Lessons for the 21^st Century (Yuval Noah Harari)

Momentarily after reading Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind and Homo Deus: A Brief History of Tomorrow (the former being about the past and the latter being about the future – both of which I found informative) I started reading this book. It was like having a personal chat with the author himself, not about the long-gone past or far-ahead future, but the present. The experience was delightful.

The Martian (Andy Weir)

I am not a huge fan of novels. Nonetheless, I enjoyed reading Artemis and The Martian, especially due to being noticeably realistic and well-grounded. Moreover, the latter is filled with attention to scientific and engineering details and that is what I like the most about it. This is what I would call a true science-fiction!

Other

Some other books that I'd strongly recommend:

• The Gods Themselves (Isaac Asimov)
• The Pattern on the Stone (Danny Hillis)
• Blown to Bits: Your Life, Liberty, and Happiness After the Digital Explosion (Hal Abelson, Ken Ledeen, Harry Lewis)
• Everybody Lies: Big Data, New Data, and What the Internet Can Tell Us About Who We Really Are (Seth Stephens-Davidowitz)
• Calling Bullshit: The Art of Skepticism in a Data-Driven World (Carl T. Bergstrom, Jevin D. West)
• Your Deceptive Mind: A Scientific Guide to Critical Thinking Skills (Steven Novella)
• The Death of Expertise: The Campaign Against Established Knowledge and Why it Matters (Tom Nichols)
• Predictably Irrational (Dan Ariely)
• Factfulness: Ten Reasons We're Wrong About the World – and Why Things Are Better Than You Think (Hans Rosling, Anna Rosling Rönnlund, Ola Rosling)
• Why Nations Fail: The Origins of Power, Prosperity, and Poverty (Daron Acemoglu, James A. Robinson)
• How an Economy Grows and Why It Crashes (Peter Schiff)
• Guns, Germs, and Steel (Jared Diamond)
• Upheaval: How Nations Cope with Crisis and Change (Jared Diamond)
• Prisoners of Geography: Ten Maps That Tell You Everything You Need to Know About Global Politics (Tim Marshall)
• The Power of Geography: Ten Maps that Reveal the Future of Our World (Tim Marshall)
• Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind (Yuval Noah Harari)
• Homo Deus: A Brief History of Tomorrow (Yuval Noah Harari)
• Rubaĭat (Omar Khayyám)
• Shahnameh (Abul-Qâsem Ferdowsi)

Movie

Gravity (12572 JH)

Not everyone might consider it the best. Moreover, this movie indeed contains some technical flaws and mistakes (e.g. the unrealistic proximity of the orbital parameters of a random Space Shuttle orbiter, the International Space Station, and the Tiangong space station). Still, I love Gravity so much! Every moment of this movie was so magnetizing to me and made me overladen with emotions. Chiefly its characterization – the way it represented the personal emotions of the main character – and its breathtaking music were enchanting.

“OK. Alright the way I see it, there's only two possible outcomes. Either I, make it down there in one piece and I have one hell of a story to tell, or I burn up in the next ten minutes. Either way whichever way, no harm no foul. ‘Cause either way, it'll be one hell of a ride. I'm ready.”
— Mission Specialist Ryan Stone

Also, strong symbolism could be seen around the plot. The protagonist appears to lose all meaning in massive chaos and metaphorically dies. But then gradually she experiences a reborn and a somewhat stressful regrowth and finds meaning again.

Video Games

Fallout 4

I like the Fallout franchise. But while many fans are crazy about nostalgic versions like Fallout 3 and Fallout: New Vegas, I love Fallout 4. This game is a masterpiece! The most satisfying aspect of Fallout 4, in my opinion, is the plot. It features a non-linear narrative, allowing the player to choose the storyline based on their worldview and philosophical perspective. For example, the base game requires your general opinion on synthetic humanoids — droids indistinguishable from humans. Should we, humans, treat them as our tools and machines? Should we consider them some rights? Perhaps human rights? Are they a threat to humanity and must be exterminated? Or maybe we should drop the whole problem and move on? Or take the Far Harbor add-on as another example: there's a cult that jeopardizes others because of their beliefs. Should it be eradicated with all of its members? Should you let them be (and maybe even consider joining them)? Should you bring peace but through immorality? Isn't Fallout 4 a great game?

Beyond: Two Souls

This game is more like a playable movie, and a fabulous one! I typically do not enjoy supernatural plots, but this one made me mesmerised until its ending (and even a while after that).

Other

Some of my other favorite game titles:

• Ace Combat: Assault Horizon
• Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2
• Battlefield 4
• War Thunder
• Arma 3
• SWAT 4
• Ghost Recon: Wildlands
• Splinter Cell: Blacklist
• Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood
• Grand Theft Auto V
• Just Cause 3
• Saints Row: The Third
• Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit
• Kerbal Space Program
• Spaceflight Simulator
• Universe Sandbox
• Portal 2
• Portal Reloaded
• Stray
• Life is Strange 2

Vehicle

ISS

The International Space Station is my favorite vehicle. This magnificent scientific lab is the most complex and expensive artificial object and was built and developed through the international cooperation of various countries from almost every continent. It represents the power of science, engineering, technology, economy, collaboration, and peace.

МКС

Международная Космическая Станция мой любимый аппарат. Эта великолепная научная лаборатория — самый сложный и дорогой искусственный объект и была построена и развивалась благодаря международному сотрудничеству различных стран почти со всех континентов. Она олицетворяет мощь науки, инженерии, технологий, экономики, сотрудничества и мира.

Celestial Object

Moon ☾

Setting the Earth aside since it's too good to be in any fair comparison, I adore the Moon so much that I could be recognized as a selenophile. You see, other natural celestial objects require some manner of magnification or filtration to be observed clearly from the Earth. But the Moon, the sole natural satellite of our home planet, can be seen by the naked eye every day. Moreover, we've been there! Think about it: there are actual man-made probes, scientific equipment, and footprints on the lunar surface. How mind-blowing is that?!

“Don't tell me the sky's the limit when there are footprints on the moon.”
— Paul Brandt

Animal

Cat (Felis Catus)

Stardenburdenhardenbart! 🐈‍

People

Especially in terms of science, I don’t truly believe in following authorities (but rather methodologies). Nevertheless, here are some people who inspire me:

Alan Turing (12471–12513)

This colleague of mine was a genius and I am so proud to be a small part of what he has established! Turing was basically prospecting decades ahead of his time. In one of his renowned papers (Turing, 1950), he dedicated a whole chapter to “learning machines”, arguing that instead of trying to produce a program to imitate an adult mind, why not simulate a child’s – uneducated but capable of learning? That is the very concept of the machine learning we recognize today!

Isaac Newton (12201–12286)

Although most recognize him for developing classical mechanics, I highly admire Newton due to his philosophical innovations. He essentially revolutionized mankind’s perspective on natural philosophy and could indeed be considered a founder of modern science.

Charles Darwin (12367–12441)

Even though the natural-selection-based theory of evolution was still incomplete until the era of genetics, I celebrate Darwin for restructuring our ideas about ourselves, our surroundings, and our stance in the universe.

Albert Einstein (12437–12514)

I daresay the magnificent general theory of relativity shall be regarded as an absolutely perfect example of a scientific theory. And the fact that it was mostly developed by only one individual is astonishing!

Maryam Mirzakhani (12536–12576)

She, principally, could be mentioned as the Leibniz of the JH126^st (CE21^st) century! Not unlike Leibniz (as well as others like Newton) making significant contributions to calculus, Mirzakhani’s studies on Riemann surfaces were marvelous.

Numbers

2

Two: Prime but also even; not one and not too many; sufficient for a fully functioning standard positional numeral system; adequate for a Turing machine; gives you Zusammengehörigkeitsgefühl. What else would you want from a number?! Two is good; I like two!
2 ۲ २ 𐤚 Ⅱ 二

e

Euler's number is satisfactorily enchanting in the realm of mathematics. Everywhere you look—in nature, statistics, economy, biology, logarithms, exponential growths, calculus, et cetera—there is a fair chance for this irrational number to rationally jump at you, and I love it every time it does!

e = Σ +∞n=0 ¹⁄_n! = limn → ∞ (1 + ¹⁄_n)ⁿ ≃ 2.718281828459045235360287471…

Also speaking of this mathematical θεά, I must show you this magnetizing equality, known as Euler's identity:
e^iπ + 1 = 0

Color

Jet Black

Because it's cool!

Flag

International Flag of Planet Earth

As a vexillophile, I admire the International Flag of Planet Earth. It is an unofficial flag, proposed as a representation of planet Earth – regardless of politicos, organizations, et cetera. I love it so much that I have one on my desk!
The symbolic explanation from the original website is as follows:

“Centered in the flag, seven rings form a flower – a symbol of the life on Earth. The rings are linked to each other, which represents how everything on our planet, directly or indirectly, are linked. The blue field represents water which is essential for life – also as the oceans cover most of our planet's surface. The flower's outer rings form a circle which could be seen as a symbol of Earth as a planet and the blue surface could represent the universe.”

Language

Esperanto (EO | EPO)

Naturaj lingvoj estas fundamente kompleksaj (rimarkeble por nedenaskaj parolantoj). Sekve, instrui ilin necesigas amasajn financajn kaj tempajn rimedojn. Cetere, ili estas implikitaj kun kulturoj, kaj disvastigi oni kondukas al disvastigo de specifa kulturo (kaj endanĝerigi aliajn kulturojn). Surbaze de tiuj kialoj, mi kredas, ke simplisma kaj zorge konstruita lingvo – kiel Esperanto – devus esti peranto inter ĉiuj nacioj, precipe en internaciaj komunikadoj, akademiaj artikoloj, aŭ uzantmanlibroj. Estas la lingvo de paco kaj unio Esperanto!

Natural languages are fundamentally complex (noticeably for non-native speakers). Therefore, teaching them necessitates massive financial and temporal resources. Moreover, they are entangled with cultures, and spreading one leads to spreading a specific culture (and endangering other cultures). Based on these reasons, I believe that a simplistic and carefully constructed language – like Esperanto – should be a mediator among all nations, especially in international communications, academic papers, or user manuals. Esperanto is the language of peace and unity!

Operating system

GNU/Linux

I like FLOSS (Free/Libre and Open Source Software); therefore, I like GNU/Linux — as simple as that! For the matter of distros, my favorite one is (and always has been) Fedora for bringing cutting-edge technology alongside simplicity. However, I often tend to use Mint (Cinnamon desktop) on personal workstations. Though not cutting-edge as Fedora, it is stable and easy to use. Also in comparison with Ubuntu, Mint seems to run faster (noticeably on older hardware).

Programming Languages

Python (scripting language)

Regardless of the default programming language, every programmer needs to know a scripting language to be able to implement some logic on the go whenever needed (one not always might be planning to implement an enterprise app). That being said, my scripting language of choice is Python. I love its friendly community, the philosophy behind its design (the Zen of Python), and indeed the vast number of its useful libraries and frameworks.

Julia (compiling language)

I find Julia well-designed and satisfying to use. While being a compiled language, its syntax is similar to common scripting languages. However, the ecosystem is quite data-centric at the moment and I wouldn't recommend it for cases like enterprise web development (Go, with its great ecosystem and helpful community, is my favorite on these matters).

Rust (system language)

I do not code in Rust — at least not for now. However, it appears to me as a mesmerizing language, and especially a great future replacement for C/C++.

Developer Tools

Visual Studio Code (code editor)

I feel most comfortable using VS Code due to its swiftness, as well as its helpful extensions. However, I am mostly inclined to use one specific binary release of it: known as VSCodium (not everyone might notice, but in contrast to the MIT-Licensed source code, the official build of this editor has a proprietary license and also contains tracking capability).

Git (version control)

There is little need to explain why Git is useful. Instead, I would have another argument: why should such a useful tool remain exclusive to software developers? Why shouldn’t there be a super-simplistic GUI for Git, so that even a basic user with minimum knowledge about computers could be able to use it? Into the bargain, why isn’t there a Git GUI for mobile phones yet? I urge fellow developers to consider this matter and try to bring Git accessibility for any user who knows how to turn on a PC.

Docker (virtualization)

Isn’t Docker one of the most hilarious IT innovations of the 2010s?! The fact that you could set up any desired environment with only a minimum number of keystrokes makes life a lot easier!

Other

A few other tools that I use for my daily work and enjoy them:

• Grepper
• GitHub Copilot
• ChatGPT

Machine Learning Libraries

Libraries and frameworks occasionally come and go; one cannot stick to any of them forever. At the moment, I would rather work with the following:

Tensorflow

I enjoy using TensorFlow for deep learning purposes. It’s well-documented and I find the codes more readable. In addition, it gets even more fun when Keras is used as a wrapper on top of it.

NumPy

Another library that appears charming to me is NumPy. It is so well-designed and I love to use it as a replacement for MATLAB when it comes to linear algebra.