Adventure with Toys Ver.4

“…and they lived happily ever after.”

But they were only like 20 years old! How can nothing happen in three-quarters of their life? The five-year-old boy still had so many questions left unanswered. Frustrated by the unsatisfactory ending of his stories, he slammed his book and stormed into his room. Closing his eyes, he began to find answers in his own artificial world: a world made of toys.

From the moment I unboxed my first toy until now at the edge of teenage, these little figures have endured a steady presence in my life. My jointed rainbow rangers were not just toys for children; they were a bridge, bringing my imagination to life. With them on my side, I searched for the answers to the epilogue of novels, sudden peculiar ideas, and much more.

The 3-inch soldiers and I became the children of Harry Potter one day, and babysitters of nasty dragons the other. One adventure connected to another, sprouting new ideas along the way. As our book of travel got thicker, my sight also expanded, enabling me to explore beyond the bounds of ordinary.

As years passed, I did not find myself solving quests with magic and sorcery. Instead, I excogitated solutions through logic and calculations. As the king of Middle Earth, managing the transportation of my kingdom was challenging. Prior to the construction, I calculated the distances between 13 major towns. The first attempt at connecting all the towns to the capital did work; that was only until I saw the devastating cost of construction. So instead, linking my towns only using the shortest paths, I found the way to optimize the construction. Eventually, I found out that the method was Kruskal’s algorithm, one of the most famous solutions of Union-Find problems.

As a famous blacksmith of Camelot, I faced a difficult task of repairing the Excalibur. Mind you, I could make wonderful horseshoes in all kinds of style, but creating a sword is a totally different thing. After numerous failures, I finally took the correct approach: analyzing the features such as curviness and density of hundreds of other holy swords (I mean literally; it took two full days of Wikipedia research) and then creating the best fit for the broken parts statistically. This statistical approach, similar to the training process of Deep-Learning, sparked a new idea of repairing ancient artifacts utilizing data of similar objects and Deep-Learning models. That night, I started coding and eventually completed a research paper: Using Generative Adversarial Network to repair Korean Heritage.

I also experienced harsh lessons of convincing by talking with the stubborn gods of Olympus. Using the strategies of creating clashes and comparing worst-case scenarios to persuade the gods, I practiced my skills of debate in life or death situations (seriously, Zeus was going to blow up my demigod camp). Walking home, Percy Jackson and I discussed the flaws of the autocratic rule of Zeus and how he is definitely NOT an enlightened despot. We both agreed that his thunder is more admirable – and sick – than his personality.

           My quest continues in reality through my intellectual endeavors. Just like solving imaginary missions with toys, I tackle real-life missions that I face with mathematical algorithms, machine learning, debate, and politics. From interpreting the cry of infants to devising a novel way of construction through modular robots, I am compelled to answer every question that my curiosity discovers.

I am a peculiar boy, full of wild questions and a determined heart to seek their answers. Even now, my ‘toy expeditions’ still inspires me to question everything and seek a creative answer to them. Refusing to live happily ever after, I stroll into the unknown, wondering ever after.