• Sapir-Whorf and Worldbuilding

    During my early years, I thought that the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis was overblown. Then I wrote Saga of the Swordbreaker. The Sapir-Whorf hypothesis, also known as linguistic relativity, states that the structure of a language influences its speakers’ cognition. A natural corollary is that by switching to a different language, you change the way you think.…

  • Why Writers Shouldn’t Fear AI

    Chat GPT and related AI writing tools are poised to take the writing world by storm. Today, GPT-3 can generate the plot for a novel, complete with character arcs and plot twists. Future iterations may create the plot for a novel based on a user’s input, then use the plot it generated to create an…

  • Singapore Continues to Slide Down the Slippery Slope

    Flat owners in Singapore will be presumed guilty of high-rise littering until they prove themselves innocent under a proposed law. As described by the Straits Times: The presumption of guilt applies only when it is proven, such as through investigations and in court, that the littering occurred from that residential flat. During investigations, NEA will ask the…

  • Looking Back, Planning Ahead: 2023 Edition

    As 2022 draws to a close, I can confidently say that few people would want to live through it again. Certainly I wouldn’t. Though there’s been a let up in the madness since Covid mania gripped the world, we’re a long way off from what we used to call ‘normal’. It may well be that…

  • A Dream of Maths

    Yesterday, I awoke from a dream. A dream so vivid, so pure, so true, it demanded to be shared with the world. Here it is. I was in a classroom. A college, perhaps, or a tuition centre. Though the students wore light blue uniforms, the tables were long benches, with a half-dozen seats each. On…

  • To Write In the World, But Not Of It

    When seeking entertainment, people have two contradictory drives: they want novelty, and they also want familiarity. Today, the scale is tipped heavily towards familiarity. Hollywood churns out endless sequels, reboots, remakes, and IPs set in the same universe. Japanese publishers pump out manga and light novels with endless volumes, and release everything from anime adaptations…


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