In Which My Weekend is Longer Than Expected
December 24, 2023
After an overly hasty read of my ticket out, I discovered I had two full days left in Singapore before a flight to the Baltics. This gave me a chance to explore a little further with Liam, though now I was out of my flashy hotel and into m usual dorm rooms in backpacker hostels. The one in Singapore was cramped, with not great bathroom and shower access, but at least it was a) affordable and b) air-conditioned. Plus, the goal was not to spend much time there anyhow.
Top on my list to visit with Liam were Little India and China Town, and Liam suggested visiting the Mustafa Centre, a grand, multi-block, “everything” department store. From high-end watches, to groceries, to shower heads, to tech–all in one place.
Next up we stopped by Mosque street–a heavily touristed area with tourist trap restaurants (in one of which we were caught).
I also explored a little of Chinatown on my own, and caught up with Judy Hong, a former resident of mine from when I lived in Penn’s freshman dorms. Given my tour of law schools, I found one unusual offering on my street: “Foot Health Law”. Perhaps a reader can clarify for me what was meant.
The remainder of my time in Singapore I spent meandering, doing a little photography, and enjoying the vibe. I also encountered the first of many Christmas markets, that would be a significant feature of this trip.
I offloaded all my summer clothes to Liam and then intentionally arrived at the airport early. Singapore Changi Airport has been developed into a shopping, food, and entertainment mecca–known as “Jewel”
As I always travel with just a carry-on, I hadn’t room for the heavy winter clothes that would be necessary for the next part of my trip (the fact I didn’t own any such clothes notwithstanding). I therefore made a pitstop at Uniqlo to buy “Ultra Warm” undershirts, wool socks, and winter pants. And, thank heavens I did.
In Which I Sing(apore) for my Supper
December 22, 2023
The last day in Vietnam was an early rise. We had to be at Hanoi Law University for an 8 AM talk!
On the way over, our “Grab” driver (the local uber equivalent), committed a traffic violation, and it took some words about the official nature of our delegation for the police officer to let us pass.
Hanoi Law University
Accompanying us to the university was a kind and very effective translator. Unlike our previous sessions at the hotel, this time the translation would be asynchronous, limiting how much we could say in one block. We would speak for a few moments, pause, and then the translator would repeat the sense of our words in Vietnamese to the audience. The talk Jeannie and I presented there was on the state of global AI regulation–which overnight had changed again.
We also had an opportunity to meet with dignitaries and local law professors. The architecture and design of the rooms quite noticeably reflected Vietnam’s political allegiances and philosophy—no further comment, but you can see for yourselves in the photo below.
Off Again
Immediately after our talk, Jeannie and I hightailed it to the airport to catch our flight to Singapore….and as happens when one rushes, we arrived to find our flight had been delayed.
After a disappointing hunt for ice cream (the disappointing part was the price-to-volume ratio), we finally boarded our flight and arrived in Singapore.
That evening I met up with Gail and Alon, two old friends from Melbourne who had relocated to Singapore. We had a lovely dinner, followed by dessert at Hvala–a pricey Japanese dessert bar with exceptional tea, which I would return to with my students Elisa and Liam.
Singapore Management University
The following day was the joint SMU/Unimelb Workshop on Future Directions in Commercial Law and Data at which Elisa, Liam, and myself, were all presenting works in progress.
Elisa spoke on the gap that is created when we switch from using law to regulate people’s behaviour, to using code. Liam spoke on regulation of decentralized social media platforms, and I spoke on flaws in implementing blockchain-based organizations. I was particularly proud of my students for their first presentations to senior scholars.
Notably, I was the only computer scientist at the workshop, which was primarily for law professors. However, I thoroughly enjoyed it and it was a great chance to expand my academic network further in my secondary field. Long term I hope to be able to pursue a productive career that is recognized both by CS and by law!
A highlight for me was Niva Elkin-Koren’s presentation on using generative AI models to assess the contributions of a new work for the purposes of copyright. While I’m not sure we’ll yet see courts using such evidence, it was certainly a nifty and clever use of models that is outside their original scope.
A Dinner Delayed
Dinner that evening was a multi-course extravaganza. Singapore is notable in that many of the fancy restaurants are located within large shopping malls–likely due to the weather. So the academics gathered in two private rooms in the back of a restaurant in a food court!
Unfortunately, I was left out in the cold: I had a zoom class to teach, and so I sat outside in the food court for my regular office hours (before joining dinner 40 minutes late).
The Sights of Singapore
The next day I worked a little in the morning before taking Elisa and Liam out for a walk, first to the marina.
On the way we also spotted an incredibly cute family of Otters that kept our attention for a good ten minutes!
Our main destination was the Singapore Botanical Gardens, where we shelled out for the view from the supertree, a central pylon from which one can see much of Singapore, the bay, and out to Malaysia. After paying the hefty fee, we took the opportunity for a few photos in the glare.
We next walked over to Marina Bay Sands, a casino, hotel, and shopping plaza, for some lunch, before returning to the hotel to get ready for Jeannie’s book launch that afternoon.
Tuesday – Day 14
August 3, 2012
Today had a real adventure. One worth writing about and worth reading.
The day started slowly with a late wake-up. At ten to eleven I woke up, breaking the shower head in an attempt to wash off the sweat. Oops. Five to eleven I was out of the house, meeting a girl, Shachar, from ISSI 2012 who I had met at the dinner a few nights previously.
Following that was a decent falafel with Naomi Elstein, an older friend from my gap year in Israel. She took me to an artisan chocolatier on Ibn Gvirol and I sampled a few of the many delicious truffles.
Truffles
However, the real adventure began later that afternoon when I noticed a ‘Garage Geeks’ event on Facebook, which was slated to start in Holon at eight thirty that evening. I had heard of Garage Geeks from my uncle previously as a community run group that runs start-up, tech and entrepreneurial events. This one was a talk given by Kara Swisher (founder of All Things Digital blog) and Megan Smith (VP of Google BizDev) who were married to each other. Searching up for bus routes on Facebook I came up blank, and looking up the address on a map revealed only a large industrial zone with few roads and many warehouses.
Kara Swisher
Thus, I posted on the event page, asking for directions. About one minute later a guy by the name of Haggai posted a reply with his phone number, letting me know that though public transport to the area was almost nonexistent, he might be able to help given he was travelling through Tel Aviv on the way down. I gave him a call and a few hours later I was in his car on my way to the event! Haggai was a lovely guy with experience in networking and entrepreneurship, having recently secured a good deal of support for a venture in data security.
Haggai and I
After being briefed by Haggai on how the night was going to function and having picked up a few networking tips, I entered the venue which was packed with hundreds of eager entrepreneurs, tech enthusiasts and even a tech writer or two. The talk and subsequent Q&A was most interesting however the highlight of the evening came in the form of networking opportunities. I engaged momentarily with Megan from Google, who proved a most pleasant person and she referred me to a guy named Eyal, who provided some helpful support in my ongoing quest to find an internship placement. Following that I met a few young individuals involved in the scene from all around the world, from Singapore to NYC.
Haggai, the other youths and I stayed around to help pack up and by the time we were ready to get back on the road it was already eleven thirty. Haggai was most thirsty so we stopped off at a petrol station someway along the road where we both grabbed a drink (by his courtesy) and he dropped me off right at Adi’s place. A most successful evening.