Writing

I’ve been writing for a while. When I was young, this mostly meant low-brow fiction; later I branched out more, and as a reluctant adult I now mainly write discursive, personal, and educational non-fiction. Much of this last is available elsewhere, such as on the Medicine page.

Each section is organized in more or less chronological order. Some older pieces that no longer represent my ideas or style are periodically removed. All of the philosophy pieces are assigned papers from college courses, unless otherwise noted.

Miscellaneous non-fiction

• Diablo II Macroeconomy: A macroecon term paper I wrote in college on the economics of Diablo II Battle.net. Very historical.
• UseofForce.us: A breakdown of self defense law in the US. All content written by me for a high school project.
• MMR Vaccination: Individual Risk/Benefit Analysis: An amateur research review analyzing overall positives and negatives on both sides of the debate surrounding the MMR vaccine. From before my medical career began. Heavily cited.
• Graspability in your Local Village: A simple explanation of a basic principle of usability when designing for the web.

Philosophy

• Utilitarianism and the Transplant Surgeon Objection: A paper arguing against the “transplant surgeon” objection to utilitarianism.
• Propositional Content as a Millean Defense of Artistic Expression: A paper arguing for protection of artistic expression under JS Mill's defense of free speech
• Structural Assumptions in Philosophical Arguments: A paper examining some low-lying structural differences in a couple of philosophical takes on “consciousness,” namely those of Nietzsche and Kant.
• Computational Complexity in the Chinese Room: A short paper attacking John Searle’s “radical empiricism” argument against formal AI, using some common tactics, but employed in a way I enjoyed.
• The Long Arm of Physicalism: A short paper attacking Frank Jackson’s “Knowledge Argument” for the existence of qualia, breaking little new ground on the matter, but utilizing a somewhat novel interpretation of physicalism which I found convincing.
• Is Pragmatism True Pragmatically?: A paper considering whether William James’s theory of truth can itself be found true by its own lights (that is, on pragmatic grounds).
• James and Radical Empiricism: A paper attempting to explicate William James’s notion of “radical empiricism” in a clear and relatively defensible way.
• Nomic Regularity versus Induction: A short paper prompted by Michael J. Murray’s work with the anti-theistic problem of evil. A little plodding but makes at least one interesting point.
• Leslie and Design: A short paper responding to John Leslie’s work on the theistic “Argument from Design.” Lays out the peculiar model I’d started using to understand probability, determinism, and the flow of time.
• Seeking Normative Guidelines for Novel Future Forms of Consciousness: Included in a special issue of the International Journal of Machine Consciousness which dealt with philosophical and technical topics involving mind uploading. This paper was originally written for a college course, completely rewritten for submission in a much earlier attempt at this special issue, and finally found release (literally) years later due to a change of venue and other publication mishaps. This is a pre-print version.

Fiction

• Flash Fiction: Flash fiction (~250 words) written for creative writing class. My first attempt at moving away from pure action writing.
• Monologue #1: A dramatic monologue written for creative writing class.
• Monologue #2: Another, looser monologue written for creative writing class.
• Scene: An isolated scene of domestic troubles, for creative writing class
• Story #1: A full—short—story for creative writing class.
• Story #2: Another story for creative writing class.
• Baby: A short story based on a concept from a friend. Grim.
• Missing: A short, semi-fantastical story exploring an element of life that interests me. An unusual style for me.
• The “UCSC” Story: A fantasy story set in the labyrinths below UC Santa Cruz, with background based on true events.