The Rundown May 2, 2024

Image: From the Office for the Preservation of Normalcy.

• Model Extraction Attack on Neural Networks

• The Map of Mathematics

• Analytical Democratic Theory:

“Realism is a demand dressed up as an observation. Realists like Margaret Thatcher insisted “there is no alternative” to neoliberalism, but what she meant was “stop trying to think of an alternative.” ”

• Workshop on reimagining democracy:

“Modern democracy was invented in the mid-eighteenth century, using mid-eighteenth-century technology. Were democracy to be invented from scratch today, with today’s technologies, it would look very different. Representation would look different. Adjudication would look different. Resource allocation and reallocation would look different. Everything would look different, because we would have much more powerful technology to build on and no legacy systems to worry about.”

• Use of Large Language Models to analyze case files for possible wrongful convictions.

Walking Out on Winter

February-March - Went back to the Philippines during the Spring Break:

1. I had a commitment to the IBP to deliver a talk on legal research and AI

2. Annual renewals: real estate tax, professional practice tax, car maintenance

3. Catching up with friends and family

4. Getting a massage and dental cleaning (cheaper and more hassle-free in the Philippines)

Now back in Fukuoka, missed much of the Sakura season because we had to move out of the dorm and into a private apartment. Updates coming again soon. At least it looks like Winter finally broke, and all the broken promises of Spring are done.

STATUS: January 18, 2024

INBOX: 100 unread emails. Still too many system notifications and newsletters. I am still too enmeshed. Need to free myself so I can do free-range reading.

DISSERTATION: 541 notes, not all of them in the manuscript. The write-up itself is now 30 pages long, a “release candidate” I intend to submit by Monday for a research seminar. I will need to refactor, maybe rewrite, the entire third section. For now, I need to step away from the thing so that I don’t get sick of it.

SHIPPING FORECAST: Will be out tomorrow in order to handle contractual stuff. Going back to notes and outlining.

WATCHING: Getting back to Season 2 of The White Lotus

STATUS: January 14, 2023

• INBOX - 9 unread messages (whittled down from the high of 156 last Friday)

• SHIPPING FORECAST: Will be very busy and unavailable pretty much the whole week: Sending out a parcel to my home university, arranging stuff for a move, more writing and editing.

• DISSERTATION: 23 pages, 528 notes. Got myself a minimum viable paper for submission on the 22nd, but I intend to clean it up further, add more citations, add new sections.

• WATCHING: The White Lotus. Just finished Season 1, now on to Season 2. Catching up on a lot of shows that came out during the pandemic but was too busy to watch.

STATUS: January 9, 2024

INBOX: 82 unread messages. Keeping on top of email from school but everything else would have to wait for the weekend.

DISSERTATION: 512 notes, current draft is at 20 pages (including bibliography). Implementing the Zettelkasten Method of organizing my research notes in Obsidian, outlining and linking things to death. Then when I think the notes have enough structure in them I put them in a LaTex file. Everything is text-based and change management is done through Git.

WATCHING: Shuttling between Mr. Robot and Californication. Maybe I’m also shuttling between the headspaces of a programmer and a struggling writer.

STATUS: January 4, 2024

INBOX: 4. Just faced the email client that has not been opened since Christmas morning - 178 messages. Missed on some updates, including a draft submission deadline that I should have been aware of - would have certainly gotten me out of my post-holiday slow down. But I’m awake now and I’m ready to scream and panic once again.

WATCHING: I am now two seasons into the original British TV version of House of Cards. I could not possibly comment.

LISTENING: TOM TOM, by Holy Fuck. Will need to put more randomness into my playlist - I think I’m in a rut. OK Google - Play me music for “shit I need to focus and keep writing.”

Christmas is for The Lovers

The University is closed for the winter holidays, and I am pausing all new academic work for the only real break I will have this year. The wife convinced me to crawl out of the dorm. So despite the cold, we ventured to the seaside (for some sightseeing), and later into the city (to hear mass and to get some good chow). 

Christmas is different here in Japan. It’s not reunions with friends and family. It’s date for sweethearts. It’s cake and KFC. The one party I attended was a two-hour affair with light dinner and polite conversation. Back home it would have been a whole battery of parties - with plenty of food, drinks, singing and dancing, and raffles. It made me miss home. 

STATUS: December 16, 2023

INBOX: 77. Will process email from over the weekend. And then I will be incommunicado - for a short holiday before getting back to research and writing. 

ON DECK: Slight revisions to my dissertation proposal. Signing a contract for a research project.

It is properly winter here in Fukuoka. Marcus Aurelius would have me seize the day, and ask myself if we were born to huddle beneath blankets. Some mornings, my answer would have to be yes. 

STATUS: December 14, 2023

INBOX - 34. And a document for signature. 

ON DECK - Preparing for a presentation of my dissertation proposal tomorrow. After that it’s back to writing the damned thing. Will try to cleanse the palette by editing a chapter of my Administrative Law manuscript, and writing a chapter on the history of the UP College of Law. 

WATCHING - Frieren. 

Oh Boy Here I Go Studying Again

So here we are again - I am currently in Japan taking a 3-year doctorate in law (LL.D). My proposed program of study is in computational law. I've been here a month now, but I still catch myself wondering why I had to bother with all this. I have established an equilibrium in the UP College of Law's regular faculty (tenure, a directorship, and a professional chair in the bag). I suppose it all boils down to: 1) I really like researching and writing, especially in the intersection of law and technology; 2) After years of being stuck in the world's longest COVID-19 lockdown, I really missed Japan. 3) There's an advanced degree at the end of this process - which could be handy for the academic rat race. 

Still, I often find myself pining for some of the things back home. I miss my stuff - the car I can take to Tagaytay on a whim, and the gaming console I can use to let off stream. I miss my colleagues in the College. I miss being in charge as an administrator (and all the respect and influence that comes with it). I even miss my students. It doesn't help that a doctorate student's path is a lonely one. When I was taking my master's I would have day-to-day coursework, with regular exposure to classmates and teachers. My life now revolves around the all-important doctoral dissertation. Whatever little required coursework I have exists to support the research and writing process. But that can be done from anywhere these days. So I will have to construct for myself something that will justify the time and treasure spent on bringing me to this point.