Bio

My name is Afrizal Hasbi Azizy, but you may call me Afrizal. I'm not good at introductions, so let's get it over with: I was born in Sleman, Yogyakarta in 2001; I have a bachelor's degree in psychology; I currently work as an AI Engineer at feedloop.ai.

I suppose I could build my identity around my intellectual interests. When I was in high school I was tremendously exposed to arthouse films. Funnily, it started because I was consciously looking to get a new hobby, watching movies in the cinema. But one thing led to another, and I somehow became familiar with figures like Bresson, Bergman, and Tarkovsky.

My high school years was a profoundly formative experience, though not because of the typical growing pains teenagers usually have. You could imagine what a highly impressionable young man would feel when he saw the images of Persona or Au Hasard Balthazar.

From then on I have made intellectual pursuit an active goal of my life. During that time, arthouse films are my main outlet. During the later high school years and from college on I began moving towards books. I distinctly remember the months that follow after I read Brothers Karamazov during the 3rd year. I also remembered being quite happy of finally being able to read Shakespeare shortly before I began my first semester of college.

Then college brought me to a different turn. I was interested on science--I believe, on a whim--and one thing led to another, I was in love with empirical inquiry. Some might see it strange that someone chronically cultivated (I'd like to think) by art became so enamoured with dull, boring science. But it's simply how it went.

It's also ironic, perhaps, that my preferred field of study is cognitive science--the hard-nosed, dry, and mechanical kind. Yes, I do find the possibility of understanding the human mind as a machine to be deeply profound. It's a zero-mysticism discipline; much removed from the mysterious conception of humankind as fundamentally irreducible, which some artistic works appear to promote.

I would say this: it is precisely because of the conception of the human as qualitatively infinite that the fact that we can understand the mind in such dry terms is profound and highly stimulating. Perhaps it subverts my rooted conception of what people is like, and thus it's why I like it. Who can tell?

This obsession with science had for a long time diverted me from my artistic interest. I am a narrative writer. I've written some... not sure, perhaps 400+ pages worth of writing. My preferred form is a "novelette" of around 50 pages each.

The form is highly inspired by moving from consuming films to reading novels. It appears a stark contrast, how magnificent films in just 90 minutes--terribly short compared to novels--can contain a dense and complete human story where novels need hundreds of them. As such I try to make my writing a dense tale where everything about the characters an their life is fully and exhaustively described.

So far, none of my writings have been published. I have sent two of my representative stories to publishers. But, perhaps because they are too short (50 pages are in financial terms not worth printing) they were rejected. Or perhaps they were not as good as I think they are. I'd like to think it is the former; one of my stories were 'shelved' by Gramedia. A good sign, I suppose, that it was not outright discarded. It doesn't help that I'm terribly anxious of showing my writing to somebody else.

Well, I'll talk about my stories in detail some other time. Suffice to say, although no man have ever read them, they are my most cherished property. I love my stories and writings, as strange as it may sound for a writer to like their own story. But I write things that resonate with me, and who can resonate with me better than myself?

I have described my love of arts and sciences, but I suppose it's worth separating technology to a different segment. I have mentioned that I am an AI Engineer. Well, it is more ironic for an art-oriented individual to love AI, with all the anxiety that it will (or have already begun to) replace art.

I find it quite difficult to form a firm opinion on AI artistry. Should we curse them, or not? Should we embrace them as artistic tools, or not? I might talk about in more detail later, but here's an unambiguous summary: they are not beautiful. I won't say that I don't enjoy them, or that they are bad (for now). But they are not beautiful.

But in an intellectual spirit, I believe we should all cherish at the amazing technological achievement that is contemporary artificial intelligence. At the end of the day, AI is just a series of matrix multiplication. Yet how is it possible that with "just mathematics" we can tamper with, or create a mind from scratch? There are a lot of unfairness and narrow ignorance around AI, yet we should never deny it as a marvel of civilization. A lot of the cursing of AI reminds me of Subagyo Sastrowardoyo's poem of denouncing the moon landing as detached from beautiful everyday world. The poem itself garnered praise, but I think it's a highly shallow piece of thinking. On the other hand, AI advocates are terribly ignorant of social realities, and believes that they hold the key to many of the world's problems. Ignorantly they believe pundits who are against them are enemies, unaware that their hostile reaction may stem from their own unwillingness to listen to perspectives. It's a complicated story.

My, I've written a lot of words for a secret website. And I think this is the most I've revealed myself in the digital world. When I began writing the bio I expected a dry and dull summary of my formal attainment. It appears I've digressed. But it felt, strangely, nice. Perhaps not being in an unhealthy social platform helps. I suppose this is a good place to stop my mouth, as abrupt as it may be.

First upload: 29 October 2024