Branch Log #1: What is 'Branches'?
What is Branches? I’m applying to graduate school right now, and depending on where I choose to go, it’s going to completely alter my life. Different cities, faculty, research, people, and maybe even countries. I consider all possibilities, ponder over all of my choices, and then stumble onto a ‘decision’ at the end. Usually, this happens because I’m out of time and NEED to make a decision. Living with decision paralysis is exhausting. This is where Branches comes in, it’s an app that aims to help people who suffer the same fate as me, while providing valuable (although machine-generated) insights into the decision-making process.
The name ‘Branches’ takes inspiration from a video game I played over the summer, it was called ‘Alters’. The premise of the game was pretty simple; you’re stranded in a hostile, unknown planet. Your entire crew is dead, and you find a chemical compound that could change the way humanity functions. How do you survive? Well, that’s pretty simple - just make copies of yourself by ‘alter’-ing your past decisions, leading to these copies of you having a different skillset than you. One copy of you might have chosen med school over staying with your dying mother, another might have stayed ‘too long’ with your mother, and become a mechanic. All of that doesn’t matter, all that matters is that you survive, while also considering how different your life could’ve become, by choosing a different ‘Branch’ on your way here.
Currently, Branches is in a semi-functional state. This is the first ‘Branch Log’ I’m writing, and as I continue to develop this and eventually present it later this year, I aim to continue to write about what I add to Branches, and why.
Try it here: Clickable Link
Aahad Vakani
Writer. Researcher. Developer.
Aahad Vakani works between languages, code, and identity. He builds tools for multilingual speech, writes autofiction about diaspora and family, and reads professional wrestling as a serious art form. He recently graduated from DePauw University with a double major in Computer Science and English Writing, where he received the Roy and Anna Kennedy Prize in Creative Writing. He is now pursuing a PhD in Information Science at Indiana University Bloomington, where his research focuses on multilingualism, code-switching, and the speakers language technology tends to leave behind.