Ashmaan Aslam

Writer

Member since June 2025

11th-grade student from Pakistan passionate about computational linguistics, particularly making machines understand low-resource languages like Urdu. When I'm not busy working on projects, you'll find me watching movies, playing badminton, planespotting, or just listening to music.

@ashmaan_aslam Email

Articles written

“In November 1893, a British diplomat named Mortimer Durand sat down in Kabul with Afghan Emir Abdur Rahman Khan and drew a line through a map. The line ran 2,640 kilometres straight through the Pashtu...”

— A War Decades in the Making

Articles by Ashmaan Aslam

7 total

Global Affairs

A War Decades in the Making

In November 1893, a British diplomat named Mortimer Durand sat down in Kabul with Afghan Emir Abdur Rahman Khan and drew a line through a map. The line ran 2,640 kilometres straight through the Pashtu...

Mar 29, 20266 min read

Global Affairs

The Problem With Sanctions

When the U.S. Secretary of State under Bill Clinton, Madeleine Albright, was asked in 1996 whether the death of half a million Iraqi children was worth it, she didn’t hesitate to answer. “I think this...

8 min read

Media Analysis

Cinema is Losing Its Color

Watch any movie released in the past five years. Now try to remember what you saw. You might remember if the movie had a distinct visual identity or a story that surprised you. But probably, you won’t....

6 min read

Philosophy

Can Machines Ever Be Conscious?

You can’t prove you’re conscious. I mean, I know you are. You’re reading this, agreeing or disagreeing at this very moment. But if I asked you to prove that you’re actually experiencing things, and tha...

6 min read

Media Analysis

Why Netflix Keeps Making Shows They Cancel After One Season

Netflix just cancelled another show you probably loved. Perhaps it was “Kaos”, “That ’90s Show,” or one of the other 20 series they cancelled this year despite these shows’ popularity. If you’re f...

4 min read

Philosophy

Why We Procrastinate (and What it Says About Being Human)

I started writing this on the day of the deadline. This document sat here with just a title, an article about procrastination that I’ve been putting off for days. Ironic, right? But maybe starting late...

3 min read

Global Affairs

Two Rivers, Three Nuclear Powers: Tensions Over the Brahmaputra and Indus Rivers

Imagine waking up one day to find your tap running dry—not due to a plumbing issue, but because a foreign government upstream has decided to restrict the river feeding your region. This isn’t science...

6 min read