01 — papers
I
Published · 2025
Agent Formalism · First-principles engineering · NLP

BRAIN: A First-Principles Blueprint for Cognitive Agents

Formal specification of a deployed conversational AI agent as ⟨S, A, P, π, R, M⟩. Hybrid policy architecture combining rule-based reasoning and learned components. Ethical constraint formalism. Memory model grounded in cognitive science. Built and deployed in production at EngineCX.

II
In progress · Expected Aug 2026
Deontic Logic · Formal Verification · Agent Ethics

Deontic Constraints in Cognitive Agents

Formalizing operational constraints of a deployed conversational agent in Standard Deontic Logic (SDL). Three theorems: (1) consistency of constraint set Γ via Kripke model construction, (2) completeness w.r.t. harm set H — every harmful action has F(a) derivable from Γ, (3) safe constraint updates form a lattice under set inclusion. Extends BRAIN with formal proofs.

02 — research interests

The questions that keep me up at night — and the fields that are trying to answer them.

Mathematical Logic

First-order logic, completeness and incompleteness theorems, proof theory, model theory. Working through Enderton systematically with Dr. Oliart.

Modal & Deontic Logic

Standard Deontic Logic, dynamic epistemic logic, Kripke semantics for normative reasoning. What agents know, believe, and ought to do — formalized.

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Theory of Computation

Computability, complexity classes, the Church-Turing thesis. The diagonal argument as the skeleton of Cantor, Gödel, and Turing simultaneously.

Formal Verification & AI Ethics

Provably correct systems. Ethical constraints enforced by construction, not by policy. The research question: can machines be kind — and can we prove it?

Quantum Computing

Qubits as unit vectors in ℂ², Born rule, quantum gates as unitary linear maps. The mathematical physics of the next computational paradigm.

Set Theory & Foundations

ZFC axioms, ordinals, cardinals, the Axiom of Choice. Building mathematics from ∅ upward — the universe where all of mathematics lives.

03 — schola arcana

A self-directed mathematical curriculum

My SWE degree does not teach mathematical logic or proof theory. So I built my own curriculum — public, rigorous, ongoing. One proof written in full every week, no exceptions. Five tracks running in parallel.

Visit Schola Arcana ↗ Proof Vault ↗
Track 01 · Active

FOL & Incompleteness

Enderton. Currently §2.4.

Track 02 · Starting

Modal & Epistemic Logic

Blackburn, van Ditmarsch.

Track 03 · Upcoming

Set Theory

Enderton — Elements of Set Theory.

Track 04 · Planned

Model Theory

Marker. EF games, types, QE.

Track 05 · Last

Proof Theory

Troelstra & Schwichtenberg.

04 — primary references
Mathematical Logic
  • Enderton — A Mathematical Introduction to Logic
  • Smullyan — First-Order Logic
  • Blackburn, de Rijke & Venema — Modal Logic
Theory of Computation
  • Sipser — Introduction to the Theory of Computation
  • Arora & Barak — Computational Complexity
Mathematics
  • Axler — Linear Algebra Done Right
  • Velleman — How to Prove It
  • Enderton — Elements of Set Theory
Quantum & Deontic
  • Nielsen & Chuang — Quantum Computation
  • von Wright — Deontic Logic (1951)
  • Fagin et al — Reasoning About Knowledge