First Blog

Twelve Don’ts for Living 1.        Don’t waste time on revenge. It takes energy, but don’t forget it either. The possibility may come along. 2.        Don’t waste time on hate. It takes too much energy. 3.        Don’t cheat your employer. You are paid for the work. Do it well. 4.        Don’t fake it. Only those less intelligent than you will be fooled. At most half of them will believe. 5.        Don’t co-mingle your beliefs with your understandings. They are different. 6.        Don’t gossip. You’ll get a reputation. 7.        Don’t palaver your politics. About half will disagree, but you’ll never know who. 8.        Don’t proselytize. It makes you look bad. 9.         Don’t believe it even though you want to. Check it out. 10.    Don’t shirk responsibility to your family. You made them. You owe them. 11.    Don’t lie to your kids. They sense it and learn to lie back to you.  12.    Don’t lie to your spouse. They hear you far beyond mere words.  

Should researchers ethically responsible for the misinterpretation or misuse of their research by others? Absolutely not.   If you charge ethical responsibility for the misinterpretation or misuse of their research by others, then you face the possible regression backward in time of similar charges. For example, consider the computer chip.   It has been misused by Huawei for spying, by the military for ordnance guidance systems, for AI, and other nefarious purposes. This in turn forces charges against inventors of Internet type transmissions ( Vinton Cerf  and  Bob Kahn), the integrated circuit (Jack Kilby), the transistor (John Bardeen), the electron tube (John Ambrose Flemming), to the discovery of electrons (J.J. Thompson), and ultimately to the discoverer of electricity (Benjamin Franklin).   You could even go back to the notion of the atom (Democritus in 400 BC).   Where should we stop? Who should decide? The only possible case possible is research that may only be u

Freedom vs. Security It is said that by the second century of our era that ancient Romans during the reign of Trajan (Roman emperor from 98 to 117 CE) that at least one provision of current social justice was popular even then, that it is better that the guilty remain unpunished than the innocent to be condemned.  This is a thorny issue plaguing us all today. However, and of more subtle distinction was at this time Romans loved security too much to be capable of freedom.  The distinction should not be lost on modern times.  At least one party in most western countries promotes security above everything else.  In their version of politics, they work to attract groups that venerate security, having persuaded them they never had it and that it is the primal goal to achieve.  Security, however, comes at the price of surrender of power, of thought, and of freedom in all forms. It surrenders to the provider (usually government) virtually unlimited power over their well-being. Freedo