Tech Petting Zoo

So I’ve gotten a lot of questions regarding the tech petting zoo. I’m not sure how much of this is proprietary info, so I’ll try to avoid going into too much detail…

Basically, there’s a center at my firm’s HQ which is solely dedicated to state-of-the art as an art form. They update it quarterly so that the absolute latest gadgets and new technologies are there for employees to try out. For instance, they have one of the new iPods. They have one of those tables Microsoft showed off last year with a fully-touch interface. They also have other, less notorious technologies like adaptive multidirectional/monodirectional sensors.

Basically, it’s a whole room of awesome.

Incidentally, I got my first assignment today. I can’t really talk about orientation, etc… But I’m liking this firm. A lot. Here’s hoping I still like it when I actually get work to do.

Quick thought… Babylon 5 poses a powerful quandry to its audience. On the one hand, there are the Vorlons - bastions of order, embodied by the question, “Who are you?”; and the Shadows - sowers of chaos, who wish only to know, “What do you want?”

To the Vorlons, who one is cannot be answered by titles and affiliations, but only by truly understanding one’s place in the universe. That’s right, the only acceptable answer is, “I am a cog in the machine, a p

Boy - they wouldn’t be happy with the Japanese. Last I checked, it’s standard practice in Japanese culture to define oneself by organizations and affiliations rather than personal characteristics… Some champions of order the Vorlons turn out to be…

The cultural case for moral relativism, a.k.a Sci-Fi geek-fest time

Earlier I posted my argument in defense of moral relativism. At the time, I was lacking in a strong example to illustrate my point. Tonight, I found one.

For those of you who don’t watch Babylon 5, I suggest you go check out this website and this website for background on the episode “Believers”.

The episode is essentially presenting a Cold Equations scenario. Cold Equations was an episode of the Twilight Zone which was described by J. Michael Straczynski in one of the links above as follows:

There is a wonderful short story, which we adapted for Twilight Zone, called “The Cold Equations,” where a small shuttle is going from point A to point B. There is enough fuel for the shuttle, and one pilot, and no more. The ship is bringing medicine to save 500 colonists. A young girl has stowed away on the ship to see her brother. She’s discovered. If the pilot does nothing, the ship won’t arrive, and he and the girl will die, and the colonists will die. If he sacrifices himself, she won’t be able/won’t know how to guide the ship to its destination. The only way out is to ask her to enter the airlock so he can space her and continue the mission. And that’s what happens. You can’t argue with math.

The episode, similarly, handles the theme of impossible choices. In the episode, a young alien boy is brought to MedLab with a serious condition curable by a relatively simple operation. He belongs, however, to a religion that believes that any puncture of the chest cavity will result in the loss of the soul. Dr. Steven Franklin, a moral objectivist in the grand tradition of many fictional doctors, is firm in his belief that life is a higher concern than any other, and petitions Commander Sinclair to issue an order to operate against the parents’ wishes. After some pretty serious soul-searching, Sinclair decides that he cannot allow Franklin to violate the parents’ wishes. “Who are we,” he asks, “to decide whose beliefs are right?”

Franklin disobeys Sinclair’s order and saves the boy’s life, only to arrive moments to late to stop the boy’s parents from killing the boy, who they now see as a soulless abomination. Ironically, the Wikipedia article has its analysis all wrong - Straczynski discusses the episode’s meaning in the second link above, and has very different things to say. According to him, the point of the episode is much the same as “Cold Equations” - sometimes there is no right or wrong. Sometimes right or wrong is defined by your point of view, and the only “correct” decision is to allow others to govern their own fate as they see fit, whether or not it conflicts with your beliefs.

Franklin shines in this episode as a character that the viewers cannot help but sympathize with: after all, we all want desperately to believe that saving the boy’s life is the right decision. The sheer horror Franklin experiences when he learns of the boy’s ultimate fate is gut-wrenching to watch and mirrors the reaction any of us would have in a similar circumstance. Even worse, however, is his realization that his actions have forced the boy’s parents to commit an act far more abhorrent to his belief system than if he had allowing the boy to die.

For all our differing cultures, languages, and backgrounds, all humans do share some things in common; what will it be like when we’re faced with beings whose code of beliefs is so alien to us that we can no longer see the echo of our own values in their decisions? Will we have the courage to let them decide their own fate, or will we, like Franklin, be forced to learn the hard way that the indiscriminate application of our values has consequences we cannot possibly foresee?

Decisions, decisions…

I’ve got a date tomorrow, two midterms and two interviews to study for - oh, and I have job apps due tomorrow at midnight.

Overloaded much?

Sang tonight in Gaston to a pretty forgiving crowd. One assumes most of them were parents; I don’t know who else would be crazy enough to pay the money necessary to get a ticket… And now, off a high like that, I’m expected to do job apps?

I’ve cleaned my room, watched several episodes of Babylon 5 (I’m on Season 5!), and now I’m faced with the ultimatum: I’m out of other things to do. Better get down to it.

For the rest of you, enjoy the link of the night. It’s a wonderful showing of humanity’s strengths… Or just a funny read.

That is all.