Foundations of Society

The personal ethics and morals of each individual collectively form the foundation of society. Our society is beginning to fall apart in some ways due to a growing sentiment that such things are irrelevant, and individuals are “free.” Furthermore, it has also become popular to view society as some kind of machine or system that produces citizens, while the reverse is actually true. Though circumstances do influence individuals to a certain extent, society does not make people; rather, people make society. A society is only as good as its members choose to be. People who choose to lead lives devoid of responsibility, morals, hard work, and self-discipline, will create a society devoid of these elements as well. Where is the answer to societal improvement? It’s in ourselves.

Virtual Reality Yields Virtual Happiness

DISCLAIMER: This is a personal post, and as such it will be fraught with first-person pronouns, incoherent musings, and plenty of other writing faux-pas.

I started playing Ingress last week. For those of you who don’t feel like looking it up, suffice it to say that it’s an augmented reality MMO. (If you don’t know what that means, you’ll have to look it up.) Before you start stereotyping me, understand this: I rarely play videogames. I don’t play online games. I’ve never played World of Warcraft, League of Legends, or anything else in that genre. Getting into Ingress was an atypical move for me. I started off playing pretty casually, hacking portals and deploying resonators throughout my day as I went about my normal routine.

Fast-forward three days. Just three.

I’m leaving work early and skipping class. I’m not doing homework.
I’m annoyed when I run into my friends.
I’m thinking almost exclusively about the game. If my fiance hadn’t been gone for the week, I would have been in trouble.
Reality was dull, it held no interest for me

I was shocked at how quickly it happened.

I couldn’t play at all over the weekend, and you know what? It felt good to rejoin the human race. As enjoyable as the game seemed to be, it was shallow, and couldn’t be part of the real world. I’ve decided I’m here to stay. Virtual reality can only bear virtual fruit.

I’m a Mormon

My name is Ben Draut. I’m an undergraduate computer science student, I love playing racquetball, and I’m a Mormon. Heard something like that before? Almost three years ago, the LDS church launched a new media campaign in connection with mormon.org in which hundreds of individuals were interviewed and recorded, giving short snippets like the one above. Thanks to the ever increasing ubiquity of technology and social media in our lives, the LDS church has been able to further expand its already impressive missionary efforts, as have other groups. Technology is changing the lives of individuals in unprecedented ways, not the least of which is by strengthening their faith in a God that so many have chosen to distrust.

Using Technology to Serve

I used to struggle when considering career paths. I both enjoyed and excelled in technical subjects, but also had a strong desire to contribute somehow to the improvement of mankind, to do something significant. The overlap seemed slight. As a Latter-Day Saint, I believe that we, here in mortality, may perform vital ordinances, such as baptism, for our deceased ancestors; thus enabling them to receive blessings they were denied while living. The LDS FamilySearch system provides the scaffolding for this vicarious work, which allows members of the church to collaboratively discover and organize their ancestry prior to performing ordinances on their behalf. As my awareness of the these services grew, so did my interest in putting my skills to use toward them. I believe that providence inspired the development of many technologies in part to provide the opportunity to receive these ordinances to all of his children. I am thrilled at the thought of utilizing the skills I have developed to further what I believe to be of eternal significance.

Patents: Protection vs. Prevention

The increase of patent-related lawsuits in recent years has led to debate over whether or not patents are actually stifling creativity and preventing innovation, rather than serving their original purpose of protecting it. They ought to be done away with. Patents allow people to claim ownership of an idea, and prevent others from infringing on the profits they make using that idea. In principle, this sounds appealing; however, it quickly deteriorates into a childish argument over who thought this or thought that first so as to enable one party to be secure enough to be lazy. Inventions or other artistic creations can be owned (copyright), but ideas cannot be. If patents were abolished, individuals or businesses would have to improve the quality of their products as well as their service in order to garner customers, rather than customers having to default to the only low-quality option who will sue anyone that tries to compete.

Federal Funding for the Foolish?

Title IX. That should stir in your mind thoughts about a policy relating to collegiate athletics and something about funding. Title IX was passed in 1972, requiring equity for men and women in any educational program receiving federal financial assistance. Though not limited to, it is commonly associated with athletics, as collegiate athletic programs have often disbanded certain men’s sports in order to fund additional women’s programs. Equal opportunities for men and women in collegiate athletics is a wonderful thing, but does it really need to be financed and legislated be the federal government? If students want a program for a sport, let them work for it. Let them fund-raise, let them petition the university for money, let them volunteer to do some of the paid jobs themselves, but don’t let them put themselves at the mercy of the government and risk being shut down because the feds can’t (and shouldn’t) finance and legislate another aspect of our lives.

What if?

What is the value of technology? Isolated, any given piece of technology may be worth some monetary value; but is that why we embrace it? Not really. We don’t enjoy throwing away hundreds of dollars to have the latest gadget. However, we do freely exchange money for convenience and saved time. Constant access to the internet via various devices has enabled us in many ways to be more efficient, but to what end? Technology does bring improvements, but that isn’t all. What do we do all that time we save? Often we turn to that same technology then to entertain us, to help us fill the empty time with endless web browsing or a few rounds of Angry Birds. We find ourselves with more time, and being unsure of how to fill it, we look to technology as a crutch. How different would the world be if people spent endless hours reading or learning new skills rather than worshipping the internet god that Facebook has become? How different would our country be if we hadn’t lost sight of personal accountability by expecting technology to solve our problems? How different would your life be if you utilized technology to realize your dreams rather than dreaming in cyberspace?