Writing

I’ve been writing for a while. Historically it was mostly fiction, and when I was younger I went through a long phase of writing fan fiction in the Halo universe; later I branched out more, and in more recent years have mainly focused on discursive, personal, and educational non-fiction. Much of this last is available elsewhere, such as my educational blog.

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 Some older pieces that no longer represent my ideas or style are periodically removed.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.

EMS

• When Thinking is Hard: Managing Decision Fatigue: EMS World cover feature from May 2012 discussing the psychological phenomenon of decision fatigue, how it applies to EMS, and how to best mitigate its effects.
• Survive and Thrive: How EMS Can Overcome SCA Obstacles: JEMS feature from September 2012 discussing recent trends in resuscitation and systems of sudden cardiac arrest care, practical challenges, and ideas for overcoming them and improving survival.

Non-fiction

• Diablo II Macroeconomy: A macroecon term paper I wrote on the economics of Diablo II Battle.net.
• UseofForce.us: A breakdown of self defense law in the US. All content on this site is written by me.
• 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. 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. This isn’t comprehensive, and the general topic is something I mean to write more about in the future, but this should serve as an okay beginning.
• 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 find satisfactory.
• 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 find 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’ve started to like for understanding 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.