Various Bits of Prose
I have written a number of things which I'm not actively seeking
to publish through more traditional means, but for which I'm still
eager to find a larger audience. This directory will ultimately
contain what I hope will be a fairly representative sample of my
written work (so far).
This link leads to
a discussion of the technical aspects of writing.
In addition to the files presented here, I am working on three
novels, the completed Sunfall rules system and companion books, a few
short stories, and I'm also hoping to develop (perhaps as a PhD
topic) a Philosophy of Roleplaying.
Non-fiction
- Anselm's Ontological Argument --
This is a short paper I wrote for an undergraduate Philosophy of
Religion class, with which I am still rather pleased. It was also
the sample of written work on whose merits I got into graduate
school, despite the rather unremarkable grades on my transcripts.
- Corporate
Feudalism and "Time Theft" -- Here is a rather unpolished rant
on the idea that our employment paradigm of selling time to our
employers is identical with slavery. I argue that we should not
speak this way of employment, for it is labour that is bought and
sold, not time.
- The Role of Detection in Rule
Enforcement -- This is my M.A. thesis, which concerns a
principle of effective legislation that I stumbled upon while
designing the
Sunfall
live roleplaying game system. I discuss several examples of the
principle in action, both in the game and the "real" world,
including such areas as prostitution, the war on drugs, and the
exploitation of illegal immigrants. It's close to a hundred pages
if you print it double-spaced, but I'm particularly eager to see
this reach a wider audience, because I think we have a lot of laws
that overlook this simple but important principle, and which
suffer because of it.
- The Epistle
of Thomas to the Creationists -- A critique of biblical
literalists on moral/theological grounds, rather than the usual
appeal to scientific evidence. I first posted this article on
Usenet in talk.origins a few years ago, where it got all of two
response, both of whom completely misunderstood what I had to say.
I'm not sure if that's my fault or not; please read it and let me
know what you think. It's not very long.
- The Sunfall
Manifesto -- This is a very brief outline of the philosophical
principles that I adhered to in designing
Sunfall. It
is intended primarily to help game organisers understand how best
to write modifications to the rules for their own events.
- The Twins
Paradox -- A short explanation of the famous Twins Paradox
from Einstein's Special Theory of Relativity. I argue that the
reason one twin ages and the other does not has less to do with
acceleration than with the biased choice of reference frame by
which the one twin's trip is defined.
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