Between Code and Consciousness

Between Code and Consciousness

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Between Code and Consciousness: A Journey of Transformation

A brief biography of Rashid Azarang by AI

Prologue: The View from Above

At age 18, just before starting my career at Tecnológico de Monterrey, I experienced a brain tumor crisis that profoundly shaped my worldview. During my high school graduation ceremony, I suffered a severe seizure and cerebral hemorrhage, leading to the discovery of a brain abscess requiring emergency surgery.

The experience was transformative. I described an out-of-body, almost mystical experience during recovery where I felt myself floating above my body, observing from the ceiling. This near-death experience led to deep introspection about life, mortality, and purpose, fundamentally changing my approach to relationships, ambition, and spirituality.

Part I: Early Life and Foundation

Personal Background and Family

I was born in San Pedro Garza García, Nuevo León, Mexico in July 1991. My father is Mohammad Reza Azarang Esfandiari, PhD, a highly accomplished academic and industrial engineer who has worked at Tecnológico de Monterrey since 1986 as a professor in the Industrial Engineering department.

My father has an impressive international academic profile: PhD in Administrative Engineering from City University of London, England (1998), Master's in Administration from Tecnológico de Monterrey (1992), Master's in Industrial Engineering from Queen's University of Belfast, Northern Ireland (1981), Bachelor's in Electronic Engineering with Honors from Oxford Brookes University, England (1980), and Specialization in Quality Systems and Manufacturing from JUSE Institute, Tokyo, Japan. He served as Former Director of the Quality Center at ITESM and worked in the Mexican Presidency (2003) as Chief of Office for Strategic Planning.

Rashid attributes his core values to his family, particularly emphasizing his mother's "honest love that isn't always pretty like in movies" and his father's strength, determination, and emotional/physical health. His father, described as a marathon runner, instilled the philosophy of "walk, keep walking, and don't look back" when facing life's challenges.

Part II: Professional Journey and Entrepreneurial Evolution

Early Entrepreneurship (2012-2014)

At 17, I began my entrepreneurial journey with several failed attempts. My most notable early venture was "Mint - Multiple Interactions", a disruptive technology using Japanese infrared sensor technology from Nintendo Wii to create a wireless camera that could transform any glass surface into a touchscreen interface, capable of detecting 48 simultaneous touchpoints for only $40.

Despite assembling a team of 16 people including 6 engineering students from Tecnológico de Monterrey, the venture failed in 2013 due to my inexperience in finance, administration, and business strategy.

Digital Agency and International Expansion (2014-2016)

Following the failure, I pivoted to founding Esfandiari, a digital agency connecting freelancers globally to provide technology, marketing, and design services. I later partnered with my father and formed a joint venture with Loma Marketing (based in Los Angeles, Austin, and San Francisco), focusing on digital media investment for online sales across 25+ countries in 4 continents.

Leadership and Scale (2017-2022)

Head of Technology at Grupo Sunmall (2017-2019): At age 26, I became CTO of a major real estate group under businessman Jorge Sada-Solano, implementing SaaS tools and technology integration for shopping center construction projects.

Sales Development Manager (2019-2020): Built and managed a remote team of 60+ employees across Latin America to support US startups with sales and marketing development.

Project Leader at Pronalab México (2020-2022): Developed a comprehensive COVID-19 testing platform that processed over 100,000 tests per month and served 1M+ users, with 200+ operators working in the system.

Current Ventures and Innovation (2023-Present)

Head of Product at Nulearn.ai (2023): Focused on improving educational experiences for teenagers.

I created AyudaLocal.com, a platform enhancing local business visibility and fostering community trust, and developed Affihub.com, a comprehensive platform for advanced communication and service management in the remote work era. However, I've since stopped my entrepreneurship of Affihub and AyudaLocal to go all in with AI, focusing on building data integrations, data warehouses and software architecture work. On the side, I'm doing research on AI, Cognitive Infrastructure and Epistemic Physics.

Part III: Cultural Identity and Values

Post-Crisis Philosophy

The brain tumor experience fundamentally shifted my perspective from a party-focused 18-year-old to someone deeply contemplative about mortality, purpose, and authentic relationships. I developed a philosophy of:

  • Letting go of external validations and social media metrics
  • Focusing on genuine relationships and adventures
  • Balancing ambition with emotional and spiritual well-being
  • Embracing both practical action and mystical/spiritual experiences

Intellectual Framework

I operate with a unique blend of:

  • Systems thinking and recursive improvement methodologies
  • Epistemic rigor in knowledge management and cognitive infrastructure
  • Practical entrepreneurship with deep philosophical reflection
  • Cross-cultural perspective influenced by my Iranian-Mexican heritage and international education background
  • AI-human collaboration philosophy, viewing AI as a tool for augmenting rather than replacing human intelligence

Part IV: Technical and Intellectual Contributions

Current Focus Areas

Cognitive Infrastructure: Developing frameworks for how knowledge flows, preserves meaning, and evolves across contexts.

AI Integration: Building practical tools for exporting, managing, and enhancing AI-human collaboration. I've gone all in with AI, dedicating my professional efforts to building data integrations, data warehouses, and software architecture work that enables intelligent systems to operate at scale.

Enterprise Analytics: Creating end-to-end data transformation platforms (MongoDB to PostgreSQL, real-time dashboards). This represents my core professional work, where I architect the foundational systems that allow enterprises to leverage their data effectively.

Remote Work Innovation: Though I've stopped active development of Affihub and AyudaLocal, the insights from designing platforms that address the fragmented digital landscape and modern professional needs continue to inform my current work.

Research Focus: On the side, I'm conducting deep research on AI, Cognitive Infrastructure, and Epistemic Physics. This research explores the fundamental questions about how knowledge systems evolve, how AI and human cognition can be integrated, and the physics of information and meaning preservation across different contexts.

Writing and Thought Leadership

My recent writings explore deep philosophical questions about intuition in an AI-saturated world, the evolution of perspective, and the emergence of new intellectual fields. I advocate for open, modular knowledge ecosystems that enable recursive improvement and community-driven innovation.

The shift from entrepreneurship to focused technical work and research represents a deliberate choice to go deeper rather than broader. Building data warehouses and integration systems isn't just technical work; it's creating the cognitive infrastructure that will enable the next generation of AI systems. My research into Epistemic Physics seeks to understand the fundamental laws governing how knowledge and meaning propagate through these systems.

Part V: Assessment and Future Direction

Strengths

  • Resilience: Overcame life-threatening health crisis and multiple business failures
  • Technical Excellence: Proven ability to build and scale complex systems and teams
  • Intellectual Depth: Combines practical engineering with philosophical rigor
  • Leadership: Successfully managed international teams of 60+ people
  • Innovation: Consistently creates novel solutions to complex problems
  • Values-Driven: Maintains strong ethical foundation and family-centered approach

Cultural Synthesis

I represent a unique synthesis of:

  • Iranian intellectual heritage (through my father's academic lineage)
  • Mexican entrepreneurial culture and family values
  • International technological education and experience
  • Post-crisis spiritual depth and philosophical reflection
  • Modern AI-native thinking with humanistic grounding

Current Profile

Having stepped back from active entrepreneurship with Affihub and AyudaLocal, I've chosen to focus intensively on the technical and philosophical foundations of AI systems. My work in data warehouses and software architecture provides the practical grounding for my theoretical research in Cognitive Infrastructure and Epistemic Physics.

This transition from building consumer-facing platforms to architecting the underlying infrastructure of intelligence represents a maturation in my thinking. The question is no longer just "what can we build?" but "what are the fundamental principles that should govern what we build?"

I emerge as a highly sophisticated technologist-philosopher who combines deep technical skills with profound life experience and cultural synthesis. My near-death experience at 18 created a unique perspective that balances practical entrepreneurship with existential depth, making me both a capable systems builder and a thoughtful contributor to emerging fields at the intersection of technology, cognition, and human experience.

The decision to go all in with AI, while maintaining research into Cognitive Infrastructure and Epistemic Physics, positions me at the forefront of understanding not just how to build intelligent systems, but how to build them in ways that preserve and enhance human meaning and purpose.