Developing Useful Talents

I played a lot of video games when I was little boy. I spent many hours on classics such as Road Rash II, NFL Blitz, Super Mario World, and Mario 64. But then I grew up and realized how much video games waste time and money. Any benefit which video games may provide can be obtained through cheaper and more fulfilling means. Yes, video games can be avenue for socializing in person, but they aren't the best avenue. At least games like Boggle and Scrabble enhance a skill worth having. Instead of idling away our time and money we should be developing useful talents.

Privacy on the Internet is a Fallacy

Privacy on the internet is a fallacy which we need to stop pursuing. Somehow we have allowed consumers to believe that their personal information is safe, secure, and private on the internet. Consumers have no problem knowing that friends of friends can freely stalk them, but riots ensue when personal information is mined by Google to enhance their user experience. This is akin to announcing an engagement in Relief Society and expecting the news to stay there. Ignorance is the sole cause of this illogical behavior. We must stop allowing ourselves to be deceived by the fallacy of a private internet.

The CS Gender Gap is Natural

It is well known that computer science is a male-dominated field. After much research, the most reasonable cause for this phenomena is that women just don't enjoy tinkering with gadgets. The proposed solution to the gender gap is to change computer science so that tinkering is not required. This would be accomlished by teaching computer science more like mathematics. That could tear down some barriers for women, but what about the effect it would have on the men? Lets take another step back and ask, why is the gender gap a problem? A lot of research was done in order to prove whether social injustice was the cause. But now we know the culprit is more natural and we can rest at ease.

A Respectful Forum

We often hear general authorities suggesting that we use social media as a means for sharing the gospel. I have two options for reaching out to my friends (based on what services they use): Facebook or a blog. I had a blog that I updated regularly before my mission. Many of my friends, and a few random people, were faithful readers. But the internet has changed in the 5 years since I stopped blogging; I don't think I could get the same audience I had before. I am left with Facebook, but that is treacherous ground. When people want to participate in a respectful and meaningful exchange of ideas, they don't turn to Facebook. Most of the people who discuss politics and religion on Facebook are passionate and obnoxious fiends. I, like many others, quickly unsubscribe from most updates of those radicals. The last thing I want to do is force all of my friends to ignore anything I say.

Make Your Money and Move On

Copyright law has been a source of much contention on the internet. While trying to protect their intellectual property, the entertainment industry has alienated customers by making it more difficult to access and share content. Some say that the solution is to end the practice of copyrighting. But that is ridiculous. How would anybody be able to make money without copyright? The best solution is to shorten the length of copyright down to no more than 20 years. That is more than enough time for the original creator to reap the rewards of their creation without further hindering the "progress of science and useful arts."

Open-Source Genealogy

Genealogy has a small open-source community. But its not good enough. Genealogy is a big-data problem. And the data is not freely available. The closest thing to freely available records is FamilySearch.org, but they have no APIs for searching their records. Most open-source genealogy software is tackling problems that have already been solved by PAF and RootsMagic. Genealogy data needs to be opened. FamilySearch began to share this vision during Jay Verkler's keynote at the 2012 RootsTech conference. When the open-source community gets access to data, without screen-scraping, we will see a surge of innovation.

Privacy Has No Value

The Patriot Act has stirred controversy since it was introduced to Congress in October 2001. Critics of the the bill claim that it infringes on our right to privacy. Those critics forget that privacy comes at a cost. In The Cuckoo's Egg, Cliff Stoll tells a true story about tracing a hacker. He attempts to enlist the help of law enforcement and military officials but they constantly resist. Cliff then realizes that "[our] rights actually limit what police can do."

One of the responsibilities of our government is to protect our lives and property. That requires the government to take preemptive action. The government can't protect us if they can't prevent attacks against us. Taking preemptive action requires the ability to gather intelligence on reasonable threats. But intelligence gathering can't be limited only to previously determined threats. The government also needs the ability to identify new threats. This level of gathering intelligence requires an invasion of privacy.

There is nothing wrong with the government invading our privacy. We lose nothing if we have nothing to hide. Instead, we enable the government to fulfill its responsibility to protect our life and property.