Not a one-man job.

As my time at BYU winds down, and I begin to think more specifically about life after graduation, I have spent quite a bit of time talking with programmers at various companies in different fields and areas of the country. One of the most important questions I ask is about their interaction with other people. I like to know what percentage of the day they spend programming, how many people are on their team, how their desks are situated, who they ask for help, what their project manager is like, and more. The conclusion I have drawn from all of these interactions is that programming is not a one-man job. One man does not design systems by himself. One woman does not code, test, and push to production a product with no input from anyone else. And certainly no one ever writes code that has no bugs, conforms to all the documentation, and passes all the tests the first time. Programmers are not perfect. That's why software companies usually provide environments where conversing is comfortable, where you can bounce ideas off each other, where you can update your team on your progress. In doing research on the Gimli Flight Situation, I felt that the summarized documentation given on the website was a bit misleading. In one article I read, I found out that the faulty plane passed through many reliability tests specified by the company and others. Perhaps the software was faulty, but that in no-wise means that one programmer is to blame. Where are the engineers that tested it? Where are the people that wrote the specifications that the program DID pass? Where is the pilot who agreed to fly despite the malfunction? Where are the fuel pumpers who did the conversions wrong? Just as one person did not write the entire code for the system, neither should one person be held responsible for a mistake that passed through many levels of hierarchy before it failed.

Robot Maker

Eleven years ago Dolly, the first cloned mammal, came into the world. When her "birth" was announced, the public responded with strongly-opinionated, often controversial comments. Researchers, theologists and even mundane community members became outspoken and hysterical over the issue of genetic research and manipulation. People posed serious, big-impact questions about what this research development would bring to the future.

Since that time, the drama surrounding cloning has died down. Occasionally an article will be presented or TV news will report an update, but the excitement has gone. People are focused on other issues; cloning is no longer a threat to most. After reading CNN's article, "Robot Maker with a Penchant for Realism Builds Artificial Boy" (http://www.cnn.com/2007/TECH/biztech/09/13/robotboy.ap/index.html) I wonder if soon we will have similar debates and social divisions based on the role of robots in our society. The article introduced the boy robot, Xenos, (which interestingly enough is also the name of the robot engineer's real son) as an interactive learning system for children. The difference between this and other interactive learning systems is that Xenos looks like a real person; he even has skin-like material covering his body. The article juxtaposed the reality of this robot in the engineer's life by describing and commenting on both Xenos the Robot and Xenos the real boy. As research developments like this continue, we wonder what the role of robots in our human society will become.

The issue of robotics, although at times controversial, is much different than cloning. Research in the field of artificial intelligence is emerging because it can heighten the quality of life. It takes us further than we have gone before in providing information to the world. However, with these great advancements in technology we must also keep in mind the perspective of this life. Robots can enhance life and learning, but they cannot take the place of people. We must focus on the most important things, the ones that last: our values, our relationships, our families--the real Xenoses in our lives rather than just the metallic ones.

Mormon.org

"Hello, we're missionaries from The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints--"
"No English"
"Korean?" (no response) "Filipino?" (no response) "Chinese?"
"Yes yes yes"

This was a common occurrence for me as a missionary for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints serving in the New Zealand Auckland mission. Unfortunately, I do not know Korean, Chinese, Filipino, or anything else for that matter. This was often frustrating because I lived in a cultural hub for many Pacific countries. As a representative of Jesus Christ, one of the worst things in the world is letting someone walk by you without being able to explain to and share with them the message of the Restoration of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. As part of our efforts to share the gospel, each missionary was given stacks of pass-along cards explaining the Church's website. The wonderful phenomenon about the Church's website is that it is translated into over 20 languages. As a result, each time we ran into people who did not speak our language, we would hand them a card and point to the website and say their language. I saw many people brighten up as they understood that they could learn in their own language what we were talking about. Mormon.org is an excellent resource to bring about the worldwide growth of the Church. In the Pacific Islands, people often feel a bit disconnected from America and the Headquarters of the Church. There are many programs and supplies in the USA that are not available in other countries. Not only does Mormon.org provide a variety of languages, the information is global. It is instantaneous and it is informative. As a result of this website, people all over the world have access to the same information as people in America. Mormon.org helps us stay connected and unified. I am grateful for this website because with it, my conversations usually ended with:

"Website in Chinese" (pointing at the card)
"Ok Ok Thank you"

instead of

"Ok, goodbye."

I am not sure what percentage of the people I talked to actually visited the site, but I do know that we felt better for having at least given them a chance to learn. I believe that this is part of God's plan for us to share the blessings of His Gospel with all of His children.

Technology

I am a perfectionist. A recovering perfectionist, that is. As a result of my desire to excel in my endeavors, I have had marvelous opportunities, expanded my intellect, and done good in others' lives. However, perfectionism has also created undue stress and unbalance in my life. My greatest attribute has been, at times, my most undesirable quality. Technology affects the world in a likewise manner. It has allowed for some of the greatest advances of mankind: global communication, cutting-edge research at our fingertips, and expanded social networks. It has also created some tragic lifestyles. The key to technology use, and life in general, is self-control. The wealth of information available on the internet is a goldmine as well as a quicksand trap, depending on how we use it. We may encounter limited privacy or access to malignant information, but we are individually free to choose what we will do in negative situations. Like learning to overcome bad habits, each of us must be responsible for our own use or misuse of the opportunities available.

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Blogging

Ok, I'm going to be honest here. I don't know how I feel about this mandatory blogging thing. I think blogging is like posting your journal online. This blog is actually the result of an assignment in my CS 404 class so I'll be responding to some interesting ideas in the near future. Stay tuned...