From the Editor |
A few years ago, I was on a business trip. My host invited me to dinner at
his home. We finally sat down to eat at 6:30 and I looked at my watch and
noted that I had a plane to catch at 7:30.
I mentioned this to him. “Oh, don’t worry, you will make your plane,”
he replied. As the clock moved towards seven, I was beginning to wonder. Finally
at 7:05 we jumped in his car and proceeded to the airport. He drove to a back
entrance to the airport, down a service road and right up to my plane waiting
on the tarmac. Made the plane at 7:25 and I was soon on my way. I think about
that from time to time.
Today, we live in a different and sometimes scary world. Part of the reason
it may seem scary is that in the main for the past 150 years there has been
little to bring the reality of war to our own back yard. We haven’t seen a
major war on our soil since the middle of the 19th Century. Naturally
there has been civil unrest and people killed on the street, but when things
hit on a large scale, it is unnerving. We sense it in editorials in the major
news magazines. A realization that things will never be quite the same again.
I am sure that I will never catch a commercial plane again the way I once did.
Yet, perhaps, what is more scary than just a building getting bombed is that
we all realize it can happen. Our society does have some weak points that we
are all starting to realize exist.
I am a Computer Engineer by trade. Unfortunately much out of date. I would
need to go back to school for at least a year if I wanted to practice at this
point. Yet I know how to destroy Cylinder (Track) 0 on your hard drive. I
also know how to make nitroglycerin. Pretty simple. We, the highly intelligent,
are privileged to know how to make a society great or how to bring a society
down .
I have come to realize that we, the highly intelligent, do have a responsibility.
Whether you wish to call this “God given” or “Human Reason,” this is our given.
We, the highly intelligent, can see through the baloney that is often presented
to the masses. We can input our voice of rationality into the society in
which we live. We hold within our hands the ability to make this world a better
place in which to live. I believe it to be a serious responsibility. On the
one hand I can write three dozen or so assembly instructions that will destroy
your hard drive. Then send it around as an attached file. On the other I can
write code to better see some solution to a problem. I can help a kid in high
school. Or just be a better person all the way around. I have choices.
Yet, some things are how we want to look at them. It is still much safer
to fly than to drive. I can be rational about what I am afraid of. Yes, in
principle, an airliner loaded with fuel could crash into a nuclear power plant.
We, of course, have one right outside Phoenix. Could it happen? What would
happen if it did? I don’t know, but outside of making sure my elected leaders
are aware of my concern there is not a whole lot more I can do. I cannot be
everywhere at once. I also realize that any piece of email that comes into
my computer could have a virus attached. What do I do? Well, make sure the
machine has good anti-virus software on board and if I don’t know who has sent
me something or it looks at all unusual, to contact the person who sent it before
I open it. And I can remember to lock the house before I go out. A lot of
burglaries are quick in and out jobs and a simple locked door is all that it
takes to prevent them from happening.
Pretend that the problems do not exist? Hardly. Be aware of them, yes. And to realize that it is my responsibility to do what I can do to make our society as good as we can make it.