The Cathedral and the Bazaar

In The Cathedral and the Bazaar Raymond said that the Linux community was organized in such a way that "a coherent and stable system could seemingly emerge only by a succession of miracles." It is my belief that this succession of miracles, which caused Open Source to emerge, came from God. One of the most obvious reasons I feel that the Lord has assisted the Open Source movement is to help The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints with family history. Open Source led to the creation of the Family Search API, which allows anyone to build custom applications that can access and submit genealogical data. I believe the Lord will continue to inspire men to create and use technology until His work to "bring to pass the immortality and eternal life of man" is complete.

Internet Safety

Having people around produces a power that helps us make correct decisions when we encounter harmful material (such as pornography) on the Internet. Satan knows we are much more vulnerable when we are alone, so that is when he strikes. I find it very interesting that when Adam and Eve were in the Garden of Eden Satan never tempted them when they were together. I believe that if we heed the advice given in Tangled in the Web to keep the computer in an open, public part of the home, we will be able to limit the flood of filthy material that is trying to get into our homes. Don't underestimate the power to resist temptation that comes from having good friends and family members around.

Thoughts After Reading Articles on Copyright

In the article MP3s Are Not the Devil by Orson Scott, he talked about how there were very few people who refused to sign work for hire contracts given to them by companies. Companies use these contracts to short change the people that come up with the creative ideas and take most of the profit for themselves. As I read this, I couldn't help but wonder why the majority of people so freely hand over the rights to their creative work. Perhaps the majority of people fear that if they don't sign every contract that a company puts in front of them, they will not be able to find work. Maybe some people are just too lazy or busy to invest the time to carefully read the contracts. Whatever the case may be, I feel that more people need to be stubborn about maintaining the rights to their creative work. Creative people should to be rewarded for their ideas instead of the people that took their ideas through a contract.

Thoughts after reading The World is Flat by Thomas L. Friedman

"When the world is flat, whatever can be done will be done. The only question is whether it will be done by you or to you" (p.442). Friedman was speaking specifically of how companies can survive in the flat world we now live in when he said this, but this statement caused me to ponder not just what companies need to do, but what we as individuals must do to survive in this flat world. Advances in technology have brought us many new opportunities, and with these new opportunities comes new responsibility.

Remember that life is still about people
As life becomes more virtual and wireless we must remember that it is still about people. Technology allows us to communicate in so many new ways: text messaging, instant messenger, email, and even what I'm doing right now--blogging. These ways of communicating can be very convenient, but we should not allow them to take precedence over meeting with people face to face. Let your mouth do the talking instead of your fingers.

Increased access to good also brings increased access to evil
Satan would use any good thing for his own evil purposes. Technology gives us access to so many good and uplifting things, but the adversary would pollute our world with filth. We need to be on guard. If we are cautious of the things we allow past our filters (digital and moral), then we can harness the good from technology and avoid the evil.

Not all knowledge is necessary knowledge
The amount of information available to us in this flat world can be overwhelming. Even though the information we access may not be blatantly evil, it may not be necessary. Elder Oaks in his October 2007 Conference talk said, "just because something is good is not a sufficient reason for doing it." He later continues, "Make sure that the essential needs are met, but do not go overboard in creating so many good things to do that the essential ones are not accomplished." Spending time with family and friends, selfless service, and striving to become more Christlike are among the most important things we can do with our time.

"The world is being flattened. I didn't start it and you can't stop it...but we can tilt it, and shape it, for better or for worse" (p.635).

Implanted medical devices

Implanted medical devices are becoming so sophisticated that if measures are not taken to increase their security they could easily be used to hurt rather than help. In John Timmer's article entitled Hacking Implanted Defibrillators: shockingly easy he explains how defibrillators work. "These devices monitor the heart's electrical activity and, when an arrhythmic event is detected, can induce a shock that resets the heart. They also contain small radio transmitters that let doctors read their monitoring of the heart and even reprogram the device to customize it to the patient." At first glance this device sounds very cool and helpful, but after a closer look it has been found that it is "incredibly easy" to hack these devices. Not only could a hacker obtain medical information about you, but they could change the customizations on the device to make it harmful, even deadly. I believe that more laws need to be made concerning the security that is required to be built in to any medical electronic device. Action needs to be taken before some curious, teenage hacker accidentally shocks somebody to death with an implanted defibrillator.

Women in computing

As technology continues to advance it will become more important to have women in computing. I believe that because men and women have such different views of the world that the answers to many of the unsolved questions in computing could be tackled by a woman. Even those women who plan on staying home to raise children should become familiar with computing. The mothers who have an understanding of computers will be able to effectively help their children as the need to use computers to do homework continues to rise. They also benefit by being able to manage finances, organize important documents, and keep in touch with relatives and friends through email and blogs. Whether a woman plans on a career or to stay home and raise children, learning anything she can about computing would be a wise choice.

BitTorrent doesn't violate copyright laws, people do

In the November 1984 Ensign David B. Haight said, "New technologies that can bless our lives in so many positive ways are also being used to spread pornographic corruption." Leaders of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints have taught that Satan tries to use things that can have a positive influence in our lives in order to do evil. Even though there is the potential that technology can be misused I do not believe that should be a reason to keep people from using it. In a recent article on Ars Technica, Tennessee legislation would turn schools into copyright cops, it talks about how schools have had to put restrictions on network traffic to keep students from violating copyright law. In order to fulfill these network restrictions some schools have implemented filters that block all BitTorrent traffic. I believe that this is not a wise move because the people that are violating copyright law will find a way around the filters and the people who are using BitTorrent to make legitimate downloads will suffer. Don't punish those who are using technology the right way for the actions of the few that would use it for evil.