The Unknown Commandments

"Thou shalt not kill." "Thou shalt not steal." These commandments are pretty well known, but what about “Thou shalt not shut down Web sites” or “Thou shalt not covet thy neighbor’s MP3s”? Children may soon start learning these “commandments” due to a partnership formed between the Justice Department and the Information Technology Association of America. These two organizations teach parents how to teach their children the “right and wrong” of cyber ethics. While these efforts may be well intended, are they enough? I feel that the resources used in this effort would have a greater impact put to use enforcing these “rules”. A crack-down on one or two law-breakers and the media coverage would reach more people than these “educational” resources currently do. Millions (even billions) of dollars have been spent teaching the “old-fashioned” laws and how close are we as a society to obeying these laws? Read the news- people steal from each other, even kill each other, every day. The efforts of the partnership may be a step in the right direction, but I fear it is too small and too passive a step to have a worthwhile impact. How many people will use these resources? How many people even know about these resources? Did you?

Read the article that inspired this post here.

Journal Entry 1

Tuesday 8 September 2015

• Aristotle is considered the father of modern ethics – good to know if you’re ever discussing ethics with someone. Knowing this will give you credibility.
• The disposition to act excellently is developed partly by a person’s upbringing and partially as a result of his/her own choices. So I not only need to raise my kids well, I’ve got to teach them how to make good choices.
• An ethical man follows while a moral man acts. I need to be the man that acts.
• An ethical man knows it’s wrong to cheat on his wife; however, a moral man wouldn’t cheat on his wife.
• Post Hoc Fallacy: because one thing occurred after another, it must have occurred as a result of it (Priests kill people by reading the “last rites”). …It’s always good to know logical fallacies so that you can see them in your own (and others’) arguments.

Thursday 10 September 2015

• One’s situation can/does define how he/she sees the same thing yet defines it differently (“define love”). This is good to keep in mind when developing software- the different situations people are in will make them see/use the software you’re building differently.
• Situational Ethics (what’s right or wrong in a given situation) is really no ethics at all. Good to know if I ever meet some hippies… (or anyone justifying bad actions under the umbrella of “Situational Ethics”).
• One rule taking precedence over the other is not situational ethics, that’s order of precedence. It’s important to know this distinction.
• Conveniently ignoring a law and obeying others is not situational ethics, that’s immorality. Again, another good distinction to know. You can’t conveniently ignore the speed limit in the name of Situational Ethics.

Tuesday 15 September 2015

• When you think you’re “done” there’s still probably something you haven’t seen (for example, taking a fish and looking at it). Ethics is the “fish” we are looking at in this class, there’s probably some stuff that I don’t know even if I think I know quite a bit about the subject already.
• According to Aristotle ethics and morals were essentially the same thing; however, according to modern philosophy they are not the same thing. Where are some of the differences I see? Marriage is the first that comes to mind…
• There are 5 Orders of Ignorance: (I should be striving for the 0’th in all things.)
• Lack of Ignorance (you know the thing and can demonstrate it)
• Lack of Knowledge (you know that you don’t know the thing)
• Lack of Awareness (you don’t know what you don’t know)
• Lack of Process (you don’t know how to find out things which you don’t know)
• Meta Ignorance (you don’t know about the Orders of Ignorance)
• The Orders of Ignorance aren’t necessarily exclusive – you can be in more than one at once. I’m in the 1st OOI concerning sailing; however, I’m in the 0th when it comes to PHP. I’m in the 2nd OOI in … something I don’t know.

Thursday 17 September 2015

• Grammar is important – one needs to be able to distinguish between a man-eating bison and a man, eating bison. Similarly, one needs to know the proper placement of commas in lists (review Strunk and White).
• Is it unethical to litter in a National Park? Is it unethical to drive faster than the posted speed limit? Laws and Ethics aren’t necessarily the same thing – there can be laws that are unethical. It’s my responsibility as a citizen to ensure that such laws aren’t passed.
• Oftentimes the Lord will give us things to aid us when we don’t currently have the capacity to do whatever it is that we’re trying to do (like the Urim and Thummim); however, generally when we have the capacity to do something (we have the computers necessary to translate things) he’ll let us work out the problem on our own. So, pray like everything depends on the Lord and work like everything depends on you.
• If you’re doing what is right it brings peace, so do what’s right. …and teach others to do what’s right.

What's Up? (Perhaps a little more than you thought...)

“I need a real-time satellite feed of that building, now!” Such a phrase may be common in action movies, but what if this real-time satellite feed wasn’t just a thing of the movies and was available to anyone with a connection to the Internet? This may soon be possible as companies like Google continue to launch satellites into orbit in an effort to provide real-time satellite surveillance to everyone. With this technology available, outdoor privacy will be a thing of the past. (Remember that six-foot privacy fence you installed so that you can sunbathe without everyone seeing? With this technology, it'll be useless.) Who will police this eye-in-the-sky and determine if the situation merits the live-feed being “aired” over the Internet? Who will ensure that your crazy ex-boyfriend isn’t monitoring your every move while you’re outside? The company that makes this technology available? The government? No. I contend that, even though such technologies may be “cool” they unlock the vault of our private lives and place the hand of anyone with Internet access on the vault’s handle. Because of this, these technologies should not be made available to anyone. If it is, I tremble at the thought of the absence of privacy that will surely follow.

Read the article that inspired this post here.