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William Yam Research Affiliate
William received his bachelor's degree in physics from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI) in 2012, where he had the opportunity to conduct research in observational astronomy, analyzing data from the Milky Way using the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS). He later pursued graduate studies at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), joining the MIT Laser Interferometer Gravitational Wave Observatory (LIGO) group focusing on studying the effects of thermal noise on the optical coatings of interferometric gravitational wave detectors. He decided to take a break from physics after 2016 to pursue other activities after realizing that the universe is a simulation. However, having always been interested in fundamental physics and alternative viewpoints, he was compelled to learn more about the Wolfram Physics Project by watching livestreams on Twitch. Therefore, he subsequently joined the Wolfram Summer School in 2020, where he worked on a project to find gravitational waves in Wolfram models. Besides having an interest in physics, other activities that occupy his time include gaming, playing the piano and playing sports like basketball and tennis.
Location
USA
Research Topics & Interests
- Investigating gravitational waves in Wolfram models
- Anything that could possibly be used as a method to probe fundamental physics and its various implications
- The physical limits of computation of the anthropic principle
- Implications and limits of artificial intelligence
- The Fermi paradox
- The computationally irreducible fate of humanity