Sliced Thin

Computer Games: A virtual world without ethics or morals

admin — Thu, 07 Apr 2011 14:25:07 +0000

The world wherein computer games operate is definitely a strange one; it’s a world like unto our own but with the distinct lack of morals. The game world is designed to be as life-like as possible in order to draw the gamer in. The more viable and realistic the world, the more addicting the game. Gamers enter it in for the experience. This is all fine and dandy because the world is purely virtual; nothing is transfered over as the gamers changes between the real and the virtual world. The problem, however, lies in what the gamer does in the virtual world. For some reason or another, the normal laws of the land, ethics, and morals do not apply in this virtual world. There are many games which are based on killing, violence, and maiming. The gamer makes the decision to kill, whether it be monsters, humanoids (such as zombies), or actual humans. “This is fine,” the gamers may say to themselves because it’s not real. Well, when the gamers finally decide to stop their zombie mow-down or their grand theft auto for the evening and return to the real world, those immoral and unethical decisions that were made in the game world come into the real world and become part of the gamer. The solution: gamers need to be taught that when they enter a virtual world, their conscience enters in with them and that it is ever present. Parents should be conscious of what kind of games their kids are playing and should limit the amount of time spent in a virtual world.

Biological Internet Filters

admin — Thu, 31 Mar 2011 06:01:44 +0000

In high school, all internet access was heavily filtered to remove anything potentially dangerous. I found an odd sense of satisfaction in getting around the system. I never sought out unmoral material, but I sought out to undermine the system. It was simple. A simple SSH session which forwarded port 80 allowed me to see any web page, completely bypassing the school’s content filter. There is always a way around a filter. As internet sleaze continues to expand at alarming rates, it is required to reconsider content filtering. Adults need filtering just as much as youth do; they are just as vulnerable. The main problem is that no filter is perfect. Dangerous content still makes it way through; doors can be opened through which this content can creep. The problem lies in using technology to stop a moral problem. Despite the steady advance of technology, the force of moral (or immoral) desires is infinitely stronger. The solution to content filtering lies in strengthening our own personal and moral filter. Similar to any physical filter, our biological internet filter sometimes needs maintenance and upgrading. This is the only sure way to keep the bad out and the good in.

Emotions, not money, make the world go round

admin — Tue, 29 Mar 2011 04:10:48 +0000

Money doesn’t ‘make the world go round’. That’s ridiculous. The sentiments linked to the possession and acquisition of money are the driving forces in society. Charity, gratitude, and desires for enlightenment and enrichment cause us to spend and donate our precious green. Greed, jealousy, and pride incite us to take money from others. Scandles à gogo have arisen because somebody was looking out for number one and saw an opportunity to make money by taking advantage of another.

People are driven by their emotions. Money is the lubricant which oils the gears of society, but human emotions turn the gears. Facebook serves no real purpose other than to satiate the human hunger to socialize. If the social elements were to be factored out of today’s social tools, the remaining skeletons couldn’t even be considered ‘tools’; they’d be utterly valueless. These tools, however, are powerful because they harness user emotions and can concentrate them down to a puissant force. This can be seen in the results of Twitter and the changes in the Middle East.

Social tools are not a “cure all” solution. It takes a perfect situation, the right initiative, and somebody gutsy enough to take a chance to change the world. Given the right tool and, more importantly, the right incentive, revolution occurs. It is very much as Archemedes said: “Give me a lever long enough and a fulcrum on which to place it, and I shall move the world.”

Correctional Reality TV

admin — Thu, 24 Mar 2011 17:02:28 +0000

Robin Hood of the Digital Age

admin — Tue, 22 Mar 2011 14:02:21 +0000

“Steal from the rich and give to the poor.” The motto of the famous Robin Hood appears again, but this time among a group determined to fight anti-piracy groups. In October 2010, this group started launching denial of service attacks against groups such as the Motion Picture Association of America, the Recording Industry Association of America, and the British Phonographic Institute. In doing this, the protesters, who dubbed themselves “Anonymous”, feel like saints in a holy war; they are fighting corrupted leaders. A better image is this: the protesters, claiming that they are not pirates, steer their little ship next to the giant vessel of these industry groups, shoot them with cannon balls, and announce that the industry groups must surrender. They make their point very clear. They want piracy to change. They want it to be solely a moral battle—one without any restrictions or prosecutions—and not a legal battle against an armada.

Innate Differences

admin — Thu, 17 Mar 2011 14:08:42 +0000

The New York Times tries to explain the low number of women in computer science, describing the situation as “puzzling”. Books such as Gender and Information Technology and Athena Unbound theorize how gender plays a role in computing. Others go further and predict methods to balance out the level of the sexes in computer science. This will not work. Girls like Barbies and boys like G.I. Joes. We accept, and even encourage, gender-based differences with children. Parents dress them differently, name them differently, and even play with them differently. Why, then, are we so flabbergasted when boys and girls choose different career paths? Simply put, boys are born and raised in a society that treats them differently than girls. Thank goodness too! I’m not sure how I would react if I walked into the men’s restroom and saw a female using a urinal.

The database – A necessary foundation for modern genealogy

admin — Thu, 10 Mar 2011 15:34:36 +0000

In 1894 President Wilford Woodruff announced that the will of the Lord was that the saints should be sealed to their ancestors. For seventy years the process of doing genealogy developed and grew. The Lord then expanded the possibilities of genealogy by inspiring brilliant minds in pursuing years. In 1964 the first “data base” was created by military information system workers. In 1966 IBM began to design its IMS hierarchal database to be used in the Apollo space program. Many IBM clients consequently used hierarchal databases. This was changed in a small 1977 startup company called Software Development Laboratories. This company, later known as Oracle, was known for its relational databases. Database development exploded; consequently, so did genealogy. Through the constant development of databases, the work of the Lord for the dead is able to progress with greater speed.

This post makes reference to this source.

I, Robot vs. God

admin — Tue, 08 Mar 2011 15:24:44 +0000

Computers, in and of themselves, have absolutely no value. Their worth lies in the methods with which they empower human productivity, creativity, and spirituality. What if computing technology advanced to the point that humanoid robots were a common occurrence, such as in the movie I, Robot? In the movie, the robots were designed to help and serve mankind. A rogue master robot causes an uprising among the automated humanoids. The protagonist’s gut instinct eventually saves the day. No number of servos or amount of AI can ever replace one’s natural instinct and feelings. I, Robot, albeit science fiction, applies to our society quite appropriately. Technology serves to improve upon human productivity, such as household cleaning robots created by a company ironically named iRobot, and upon human creativity, such as the latest Creative Suite software by Adobe. There is, however, no technology which facilitates the acquisition of spiritual knowledge and testimony. Plenty of broadcasting, publishing, tracking, and accounting advances have been made which have helped the distribution of the spiritual word and the management of the church. Nonetheless, the price for spirituality remains the same: sacrifice, commitment, and time. Robots may aid in productivity and creativity, yet humans are still solely responsible for their spiritual awareness.

Hobo Soup for the Junkyard Soul

admin — Tue, 01 Mar 2011 15:16:45 +0000

Hobo soup, also known as mulligan, is a sort of community stew created by homeless vagabonds who combine what food they can find into a meal. Although hobo soup is not an everyday occurance in the workplace, there does exist a melange of techniques, habits, and practices which go into software development. Software is created by humans who are naturally and innately error-prone. This leads to the creation of bug-filled software. Every programmer has his or her own blind spots; there are bugs that are impossible for him or her to see. By increasing the number of programmers and the number of eyes which inspect the software this communal blind spot shrinks. Very few pieces of software are culinary masterpieces created by a single chef extraordinaire. Rather, software is a combination of scraps—a hobo soup—pieced together by people from different backgrounds.

MGM Presents…

admin — Thu, 17 Feb 2011 02:49:58 +0000

In the 1956 film Forbidden Planet, a machine named “Robby the Robot” assists the genius Dr. Morbius. True to science fiction, the robot was capable of nearly anything: unrivaled processing capacities, inhuman strength, and even the synthetic generation of clothes and alcoholic drinks. In 1956, Robby became a fantasy icon of artificial intelligence due to his human-like personality. Human and organic technology, however, is far from make-believe. The growth of computer networking is one example of technology with a personality.

As a child, networking was trusting. It lacked significant strength to stand on its own because it was small and the technology was new. It operated on a system of trust. Users were able to use others’ networks with out much hassle. This mutual sentiment of faith was based on a common dream; everybody wanted to use the system and better the technology.

The teenage years were an awkward phase, full of growth. Puberty began to set in as client/server LAN architectures grew. Networking began to be skeptical of its faith-filled upbringing; cryptography schemes were developed. Maturity set in as networking aged in the 1980′s. The internet was established and began its rapid growth, which soon filled the globe.

Computer networking is far from done growing. Recent developments include IPv6, improved wireless transmission, and the vision of HTML 5. It’s nearly impossible to predict how tall a young boy will grow or what a baby girl will do professionally. One thing is certain. This is no sci-fi movie. As long as humans continue to use them, networks will expand and develop like organic creatures.