Big Mistakes

Big Mistakes 

Imagine getting preached at an already difficult time in your life. Now what if you didn’t get hacked, but your bank or hospital, and you need them now! These are the deadly repercussions of unsecure networks from a customer’s perspective.

Company was hacked and audits stops everything for weeks, payment dates are missed,  and patients die. Sounds brutal, but this is the machine we live in. Responsible users suffered an insult on their life's endeavor, if they miss some important due dates. If a bank stops for weeks in an audit, people could lose other equity. It is not just bad customer service, but unsympathetic not to use judgement calls. People sold their time for money to do as they wished with it, the bank takes advantage of our time and money for the sake of a glitch or a hacker. Customer’s loved ones will also suffer unnecessary delays. Their children earned good grades by being punctual with assignments, but they are punished when others were less mature as them. So those customer’s children can’t pay for college in time, even though the customer has the money. Patient went through an avoidable human suffering in the form of a glitch. The glitch may seem simply inconvenient, but so is shouting “bomb!” in public. If the bank up-held its end with other people’s money, then that could save them years of heartache. Hospitals should break protocols, but that is probably the main mistake the software engineer made; protocol. Assuming consequences are not so long lasting.

The problem with customers trusting companies with user info, health, and money can crumble in the result of a failure to perform an action by the software engineers. Because an engineer saves some of their time in their project. Many people are held back a lot of their own time. Imagining that protocol is implemented for the engineer to conduct a quality assurance (QA) on software. This practice would be much like how the food industries all these safety procedures prevent food harm. Perhaps if engineers contracted a third-party bug hunter, or pen-testing. Making a point and finding constructive feedback to learn from mistakes. This reminds of modern problems like the branches of the US government running on old cobol computers that use magnetic film for memory. Programmers need to consider the possibility of error, and if they are using the best language and methods for the task. These are important matters and dramatic outcomes.

There is no silver bullet. Taking into account how best to live in terms of software engineer discipline, the alternatives scenarios are more time consuming and expensive. The scenarios of using a QA protocol can involve an ethical failure of the engineer(s) responsible. These safety practices do protect us in the food industry, but all ceremonies lose their importance overtime. The scenarios of using a 3rd party bug hunter can also involve an ethical failure. This idea has its downfalls because the engineers are usually paying someone whom  they have to pay additionally for each mistake the 3rd party finds. This turns ethical engineering into difficult or crafty engineering, finding ways to cover up problems. The end of the day, designers’ have products like automated cars, which can’t just accomplish fairly safe driving.

Let’s talk Karen

 Data is harvested and sold. We are all aware of it, but the roots of selling has been buried under technology, psychology, and undefined legal law. Imagine your life being ruined by an app other than just a social network, this will be elaborate. The people know now how much more toxic smart phones are over TV. Let’s talk Karen. Think people! the solution is simply a more comprehensive user agreement.

Two ways users could potentially be harmed by apps profiling; manipulated, and misled. The ad full apps will mislead a man and redirect his merchandising. People download software to make life more easy and have more time, but at the cost of their data and ads. Often sellers will push a more expensive substitute to a product, I know people with disposable income could be led to a product not on his original list and brought places they at first needed not to go in the first place. This event is the app not fulfilling customer’s goals, but the developer’s alternative purpose. Thus, users is back to a stressful life, but with more consumerism than before. Presuming that a user’s data is not compromised, their data could still be sold to any buyer. Reminding me of Cambridge Analytica, this info can be used to manipulate Karen’s opinion in anything. Strategic nudging in social media can result in Karen’s being galvanized and even hating other people. That would be the action of a third party, Karen could never have agreed to it. The data mining can also dilute the outliers. Per-say Britta is a unique Lawyer, but some software mistakenly categorized her with creepy porn male lawyers. Now, she is bombarded with distasteful advertisements until it changes her, as opposed to Karen changing her demographics for the better.

The developer must always understand how expensive and valued user information is. Designers being flippant with user privacy could lead to a breach, or simply an object of abuse. Developers are not held accountable for things outside of customer service. When in fact people can enjoy the software but it’s duplicity feeds the beast. Designers shouldn’t just have a generic “do you agree to these terms and standards?”, which no one reads, and use heavy legal or networking jorgen anyways. This has buried the root traditional marketing, which wasn’t that transparent to begin with, and uses almost propaganda level persuasion.

Software firms are increasingly transparent and getting customers' consent with their information as a way to earn the customer’s trust for more transactions. Thankfully, clients have the ability to request user information. Designers need to allow requests of customer’s own information, and even track down where it was sold. Engineering with as little needed information as possible.

    Commentary Frederick Brook's projects time management  

    Frederick Brooks was the father of IBM, It seems like every computer nerd knows IBM dominance in computer science history, but it does make sense that he would be behind the genius of programming projects. That he was as much of a business leader as well as a computer wizard. The idea that he saw that as important as communication is, it is quite time consuming and that he would be calculating learning curves, re-explaining, and getting multiple people up to speed.

    Frederick's article reminded me of Hemingway's style, it was clear and well written. Brisket will take 16 hours to cook no matter how many grills you are using. And you can't cut the time in half by doubling the temperature. This "too many cooks in the kitchen can ruin the dish" is the same concept the founding fathers found themselves in creating the American government system.

 

     As a perfectionist to me means getting it right, no matter how long it takes. Forcing myself to make it perfect in a timely manner, means taking your time with mistakes and reviewing your work. I was taught at school I MUST have it done right on time, the first time. At my job, they demanded it done right faster. Of course things were distracting me and there was always something that was in the way, but I either got it done on time wrong or perfect and late. The structure of system engineering was about reviewing and perfecting, being an adult about obstacle, constructive with schedule issues, and having the right priorities. As my father always told me "there is no such thing as good writing, but only good rewriting." 

     

    So writing out your routine (in order), the solution revealed itself. There are just to many unnecessary task. By cutting task out, grouping other responsibilities, and doing the small things last, resulted in more time to for finding ways to save more time.

 

 Kings, Soldiers, Judges 

Virtue Ethics 

    A conscious habit of thinking about how to be a better human being contributes to a person’s character, especially over time, is by self analysis. First you have to admit there is a problem in your character. A pause and reflecting on your action, which I like to do at the end of the day over a cold drink, brings out your regret and your victories. Knowing what your high and low points will help you understand why you think that and where you can improve becomes more clear. 

    The specific aspects of my character I would need to work on/improve in order to become a better person is prioritizing the important things in life. If I keep in mind that I am held accountable for ALL of my actions, aventurelly now or later, then I would be serious about my priorities. I find that I am constantly rediscovering all the little task in my life that if I put certain things before others, then I would actually accomplish all of the obligations and more. Setting an important goal for me is useless, unless I restructure my time, money, and thought energy around it. This is more than serving in a busy food industry, it is securing my son’s future, pleasing my wife, and other important responsibilities in life.

     I think most people do not make enough of a regular effort to work on their character and amend their shortcomings. It is our conscience that makes our actions just acceptable. People generally don’t want to be viewed as monsters, so will endure the minimum pleasure without crossing some line set by some public. The end result is people are neither truly pleased or truly good characters. We are morally obligated to make the effort to become better people. In the unjust chous the world inflicts on us, a good character is what we demand on who we depend on. We want someone else to be our hero and so we must in turn be a hero. A good character is what we are truly after. In achieving this, we have true happiness that gives back when we reflect on the fruits of good character every time. It is pride in ourselves, that we have a little of what makes our hero’s our heroes. 

    I consider a model of moral excellence that is Joan de Arc, I see in her an example of how to live, and whose qualities of character I would like to cultivate. She is a woman who rose in a purely wild, dog-eat-dog, and godless world. With un-henched tenacity charged armies directly into the heart of the enemy, yet had the gentle qualities that made France fertile for peace. Supposedly, without education, was a strategist, diplomat, and debater with x-ray vision. I Women who lead with a god, and still gave every victory to her undeserved king. I would want my son’s to see examples of such human (and especially moral) excellence in the Maid of Orleans. The idea that a woman imitated Christ in a specific way that perfectly benefited everyone but herself shows that there are many untraditional ways to be a christian. 

Consequentialist ethic 

    The hardest part of living by the utilitarian principle of the ‘greatest good’ would be the fact that I could change my pleasure. I think pleasure is kind of subjective, especially if I'm working for a specific kind of early retirement in Florida with passive income, and then, all of a sudden, I decide that I won’t retire and just move to another country working in an art gallery. I would also have a very hard time calculating those subjective things in my everyday decision. The most rewarding part would be the fact that I would restrict my responsibilities to my pleasure, it is actually my only responsibility. If I “must” do something and that fact stresses me out, maybe I don't really have to do it. There is an ambiguous pleasure meter weighing on all the suffering I'm paying out. 

    The different kinds of pleasure/happiness are probably the tiers of happiness, like aristotle’s pleasure, honor, and reflection. Reflection is the highest pleasure and more valuable and higher quality than the others. I don’t just say this as a pragmatic aristotelian, I know that me and my wife have pleasant afternoons talking about our adventures or reflections on a book we are reading together. We can reminisce anytime and everytime it brings a little rediscovery and joy. This has a paradoxical effect, because when we remember our times talking, often the case that that moment becomes one of those times of pleasant memories that provide more revelations. 

    Utilitarians think that pleasure and the absence of pain are the highest goods that we can seek in life, and that we should always be seeking to produce these goods for others (and for ourselves). They claim that every other good thing in life is valued simply because it produces pleasure or reduces pain. I disagree with that sentiment, for pain and pleasure are not truely measureble. I find pleasure in pain not for anticipation of pleasure, but for pain sake. I can find pleasure in anything for my end in to a good goal. That is not the same as pleasure as the goal itself, but simply a delightful calladual. To say I am happy to suffer for a good cause doesn't mean I am doing it for the pleasure. That would really make my st. Joan a selfish person.

     A utilitarian might say that to measure a ‘good life,’ you should ask:‘how much overall happiness did this life bring into the world?’ I disagree that this is the correct measure of a good life, I think happyness is subjective. Snow is great for a farmers, but the homeless death sentence. If you were forced to measure it in points, I guarantee people will calculate the in their behalf. Most people will see that they can be happier lowering their aspirations, standards, and ambitions. The world would be robbed of the greats, for the greats will settle slightly mediocre goals. 

Deontological ethics 

Very often, when making decisions, I consider whether I would willingly permit everyone else to act in the same way that I am choosing to act. I learned this best in Star Trek Next Generations, that in all the different times, dimensions, planets, universes, and more, the crew work together to find a peaceful diplomatic solution, their attempts are respected because it all depended on delivery and communication. So, especially in business, I work on being calm in stressful, emotional, and serious moments. I understand that angry, presumptive, and impulsive people create problems. They are the Micheal Scotts of history, and drive me nuts. So I try not to turn into the thing I hate most. 

    Two other examples I can think of, beyond those given in the text above, in which someone is treated as a ‘mere means to an end is when people slavery, and sexual harassment. Slavery seems to obvious, that a human’s only purpuses to give their everything to the ends of another. Sexual harassment, such like quid pro quo, results in the destruction of the work enviroment and is mudding the meritacracy. 

    Very often, when making decisions, I consider whether I would willingly permit everyone else to act in the same way that I am choosing to act. I learned this best in Star Trek Next Generations, that in all the different times, dimensions, planets, universes, and more, the crew work together to find a peaceful diplomatic solution, their attempts are respected because it all depended on delivery and communication. So, especially in business, I work on being calm in stressful, emotional, and serious moments. I understand that angry, presumptive, and impulsive people create problems. They are the Micheal Scotts of history, and drive me nuts. So I try not to turn into the thing I hate most. 

    Two other examples I can think of, beyond those given in the text above, in which someone is treated as a ‘mere means to an end is when people slavery, and sexual harassment. Slavery seems to obvious, that a human’s only purpuses to give their everything to the ends of another. Sexual harassment, such like quid pro quo, results in the destruction of the work enviroment and is mudding the meritacracy. 

    I agree that human lives are of the highest possible value and beyond any fixed ‘price’. In my opinion, a society reflects this view on morality and justice as well as it does to its weakest members. Knowing that society has almost always been completely wrong on something, but the today’s society is beginning to prey on children and elderly more than recently. These are not the weakest members in our society, but are disturbingly victim to human trafficking, sexual consumerism, and neglect. The mental ill used to have mental institutions, which once abused their positions, but now the ill minded are neglected to the streets. The Functional adult who can support a family, often finds little else time, money, or resources to help the unwanted in our society. This is important, because the famous (and one I despised), theoretical test of which one would you sacrifice, person x or person y, people often find the less valued one. 

Conclusion 

    Of the 3 distinct types of ethical frameworks/theories reviewed in this section; virtue, utilitarian, and deontological, the aspects of the good life/ethics do I think each one captures best is in leadership, feng shui, and judging in their respectives. Virtue ethics make heroes, people I could get behind. Utilitarians are people about balance and fitting complicated choices in a life, maybe strategizing. Deontological people could be hard and objective judges, people deciding on other people.

Ethical Engineering Habits

Exercising our Moral Imaginations
    I often daydream moral possibilities. I often imagine how I could pay back the people in my life with somehow unrealistic and over-the-top clean good work. I imagine how I can get through the most difficult situation in my life with a superman invincibility.  I could cry thinking about over gifting some random school. Or finding a tiny corner of the world and imagining all the sacrifice I could do to make it full in life. I think of a million ways to get through clutch moments that are impossible to come out victorious. I imagine this all with the strange notion that my behavior is flawless the entire time.  
Self- Reflection/Examination. 

    I need to examine myself more. I Rarely do this, thinking about what I have done honestly. When I do it successfully, I feel weeks wiser. The truth is that I don't want to think about my regrets, or moments that might feed my ego. I’m afraid my regrets will discourage my aspirations, and i’m always guarding my ego from itself. The quiet moments, usually accompanied with a drink, is when I consider who I am and find that I am actually a lot like my father, and how I see this distance from all the good he is. I find pleasure in basking in the progress I made. All in all, I think it is fruitful, and I know I don't do it enough.

 Adopting Habits and their Consequences
    The specific ways, small and large, I think adopting some or all of these habits could change a person’s personal and professional life for the better. The endeavor is exhausting to your willpower, no matter how moral you are. The small daily reminder will push you further, and push you all the more, and you will lose sight of the less important things in life. My father told me that you rent success, and that the rent is due everyday. Only in the long term you begin to see a return in your investment. The reality is that a good name is a profitable one. The race for a strong heart, even when that stumbles, makes you a strong person, as opposed to the weak one that gives in. Simply picking up trash off the floor, when you see it, is like the work of replacing a bad deed with a good one, when it reveals its ugly head. That leads to replacing bad habits with good habits, and soon your future is a good future as oppose to a bad future.

The Software Engineer’s Part in Ethics
    The end goal of an ethical life as a software engineer is to deliver transparent, functional, and simple. The transparent interims of the programmers intentions that, that their be no malicious intent. The functions is that the programmer engineer a car airbag system that doesn’t leaves passengers with a broken neck. Simplicity may be complexity, but it is simply clear to see it’s beautiful logic. The design, either mathematically, or/and visually appealing to user. Software engineers have caused a lot of stress and stain that could of been avoided by user friendly tools.

    The professional goals or other valuable ends a software engineer achieves by living well in the ethical sense is the decisive thinking, planning for problems, and making the best of any situation. Batman does not take Joker’s dilemma’s, he makes his own solution, because he is in control. The decisive commitment ethical people do is what agility is about. The time comes and being decisive will help engineer’s keep their word, as opposed to flaking out irresponsibly. Planning for problems calls for confronting them and changing what ever necessary to restore structure. Bugs in life will always ruin the outcome, the flaws in a program will have consequences. Making the best of any situation morally is like dealing with the surprises in software development.  Having limited resources will resort to creative thinking. In programming, there are surprises such as computer failure, ransomware, your mistakes, other’s negligence, or the self absorbed bosses, but you are thinking your way out of ever situation. Ethical people know that when catastrophe strikes, they simply just don’t do their best, but by not faltering in character, they accomplish their responsibilities and then some. 

    The personal values could it help such a person achieve creative solutions to the leanest of times. The Software engineer is a job that most people can accomplish from anywhere around the world. The idea that even AI threatens your job security demands an interesting take on the word agile. The ethical software engineer will always produce transparent, simple, and functional software in a  decisive, problems ready, resourceful way. This means it must be authored without malware, monotony, or dysfunctional. No cheating, plagiarizing, clunky design, deserting deadlines, or procrastinating. The ethical engineer will rise in the world's stage.

 Passionate for Joan of Arc

    There was a 19 year old French heroine in 1430 who lead French armies to victory against the English in the service of God and her King, Charles VII. She was captured, interrogated, and martyred by the Churchmen whose God she was obeying. The subject has been treated before from many different perspectives, as remarked by Tony Pipolo, “She was treated, not always sympathetically, through the Centuries by no lesser figures than Shakespeare, Schiller, Voltaire, Verdi, and Twain; and in the Twentieth century by Shaw, Brecht, Anouilh, Bernanos, Peguy, and Honegger.” In 1920, the Catholic Church canonized her a saint. In 1927, Carl Theodore Dreyer, a Danish poet, directed a silent film simply called “The Passion Joan of Arc”. The Passion of Joan of Arc, directed by Carl Theodore Dreyer, is a movie full of contrasting themes with huge internal struggles where truth struggles to be heard and triumphs despite the films unreal feeling and its harsh ending. These characteristics are best explained in retrospect to the plot, characters, techniques, and theme. 

    
    However, the Second World War with all its destruction swept both the memory of the movie and most copies of it into oblivion. It seemed to be that the last copy of the Directors final cut was destroyed accidentally by being burned up in a nitrate fire. Fortunately, it was not the end of the film. As James Giles put it, a complete reel of the picture was “miraculously” discovered in a janitor’s closet in a mental institution in 1981. This reel was announced years later to be the only original version of what has now been acknowledged by the British Film Institute as one of the greatest films ever made.
 

    The plot is an adelphiaso plot, which a heroine is made a victim by fate or victimized by her nemeses. The story is like a Greek drama in that it is a third-person view of one particular person who struggled with authorities, yet it lacks a diverse collection of key characters. A Young women is nearly tortured by devious and determined men of the cloth. They were determined to have her admit that her whole campaign under the guidance of God was a lie or she would face a horrible death. They were terrifying and tricky. She makes the case for her innocence with a grace filled state of mind and with great power. The film is 81 minutes long. The story itself represents a serious classical challenge but Dreyer seemed to not have been intimidated. Potter Nichole accurately describes this in the Passion of Joan of Arc, Voice of Light “Discarding much of the material supplied by writer Joseph Delteil, Dreyer created his Screenplay from transcripts of Joan’s 1431 trail. The film takes Joan’s last seven months from her imprisonment to her immolation at the hands of the Inquisition—and compresses the events into 24 hours.” This caused several historical inaccuracies, but the piece is primarily an artistic message. We have a “debate” between inquisitors and a single saint. Tragedies are potent. However unpopular, the fact that a tragedy was used in this piece doesn’t do justice to this story, not because it is sad, but because it leaves one so unsatisfied that I cannot tell for sure if the movie was nihilistic.  

 
    The characters are depicted fairy tale like. The main villains are in charge of the court, they are obviously repulsive as they persecute the pure victim Joan of Arc. The leader of the inquisition had several large warts on his face. It is common tradition in fairy tales to depict physical imperfection as a sign of inner evil. The English clergyman had his hair done in a way that looked like devil horns. A third French bishop served as a Judas, one who once worked for King Charles VII, had the most weathered face which was used in contrast later. The oldest clergymen who were opposed to the trial had a strangely mute look. The younger clergy were villains with complicated motives because they advocated her recanting her story for the sake of her own survival. The troops are large Englishmen in uniforms who wore the helmets that the English used in World War I. The soldiers were somehow reminiscent of the Roman soldiers who crucified Christ. Joan of Arc was not just a young heroine. She was a Christ figure who suffered horrible agony, was slandered, humiliated, endured bravely and finally, gave up her life in obedience to God, like the Christ crucified. Though through it all you can see her able to return to her secret, internal ability to immerse herself in faith, love, and hope.
 

    The technique and the writing in the film were alien to me. Watching a silent film was captivating from a readers’ point of view. Modern viewers will find themselves studying the slightest facial adjustment and using social skills to interpret what happens. It is stimulating to follow along with silent acting where the dialogue has no volume, tone, accent, or emphasis. When re-watching it, the experience was similar to deep meditation, for I was basking in silence, yet still incredibly captivated. Disgust for the villain grows deeper in several places but especially when these clergymen cut her artery to remove “bad blood” and then the clergy are talking and then back to the fountain of blood and the blade; the alternating between these two scene makes you associate the discomfort of bleeding and blood with the clergy men inflicting this on Joan. Though Dreyer didn’t call them clergy men, but rather “judges” (3:29), and another description was “a cohort of blind theologian and corrupt lawyers” (3:53).
 

    The theme of her being the Christ figure and how the virtues of true innocence and loyalty to her conscience run strongly through the film. In contrast, the main villain repeatedly has fits of theatrical rage. Always present is the sense that here are many attacking one. We have a women ridiculed for wearing men’s clothing by undeserving men of the cloth. A Young nobody who becomes a true hero. Joan of Arc, her stature and nobility already monumental, is attacked by old men, lesser known but powerful, an evil group. The illiterate and innocent girl endured questions from these crafty and learned cowards. One who is united to God and a witness for Him is prohibited from the sacrifice of the mass. It is held out as a bargaining chip by a group defined by their self-interest. Joan of Arc was loyal to the churches teaching and fervently asked for the mass, the true church is never her enemy. The film was, in many ways, black and white. The audience needed not to waste their time picking sides. Instead, showing how the frailty of Joan of arc was impenetrable to the most educated elitist and their slyest tricks. She was in a state of grace and acted with mental clarity from the strength that came from her simple but clean conscience. One way of proving this is by examining the torture scene where she exclaims that anything she says would be forced from her and then fainting. This is the same warrior who fearlessly stormed through stronghold after stronghold with daring feats of courage. However, in the beginning of the film, the shackled 19 year old girl gives terrifying threats to the armed English officers.
 

    Carl Theodore Dreyer had a huge impact on the audience in personal ways. The cruelest reptile can feel compassion for the saint as the viewer stares into a close up of pure little girls’ face who feels authentic pain from being prohibited something that she must do for their own sake. The movie almost seems as if it is purely built around this feeling for deep compassion. A holy Helen-of-Troy who is actually worth fighting for is innocently attacked in body, mind, and soul. Though having her be the victim extenuates her Christ figure architype and draws attention to her among the scholars, much like a white figure in a dark medium, the story has no redemption. Modern plots often have redemption without suffering, such as the recent animation classic WAL E. Though Joan, at the end of the film, burns and crumbles like a flower burns, and the people rise up in rebellion, they are quickly slaughtered for doing so and in reality these Parisians don’t rebel against the English for another 25 years. Even those who wrote the story of Joan of Ark with little sympathy write it as a Christ story of redemption. In this film, no characters improved despite her self-sacrifice that put so many people on their feet again with hope and reason. Joan is so ineffable a Saint that many authors have failed in the impossible attempt to describe her. This movie has a character that is difficult to imagine on the battle field regardless of what history tells us.
 

    Though with many inaccuracies, all previous authors paled in comparison to what Dreyer has captured in Joan of Arcs small but intensely powerful way. Joan is truly humble and delicate in such a way that crafty old men, her greatest foes even while she was working for the King, could not defeat her. This women is larger than life in her tiny way, and yet no Director has successfully depicted her on the big screen. Though viewers will be deeply moved at the beginning, they will leave dissatisfied at the martyrdom. Joan of Arc, if you believe the church, is enthroned in glory in Heaven as a great saint. On the screen, the Maid of Orleans will never have justice served. Just beware of the end.

Work Cited
Pipolo, Tony. "Joan of Arc The Cinema's Immortal Maid." North Lake College Library.    Cineaste, Web.
Nichole, potter. “Passion of Joan of Arc/Voice of Light.” North Lake College Library, Motion    Picture and Video Production. Web.
Giles, Jane. The Passion of Joan of Arc, the (Film). Thesis. Northlake, 2012. North Lake College    Library. Web. 15 Sept. 2016.
Iconaus. “Carl Theodor Dreyer: The Passion of Joan of Arc (1928).” YouTube, YouTube, 26    June 2013, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d3q6fvhqly0.
Pfeiffer, lee. “La Passion De Jeanne d'Arc.” Encyclopedia Britannica Online, Encyclopedia    Britannica, 30 Mar. 2016, https://www.britannica.com/topic/la-passion-de-jeanne-darc.
Malcolm, Yvonne Lanhers. “Saint Joan of Arc.” Encyclopedia Britannica Online, Encyclopedia    Britannica, 1 Feb. 2016, https://www.britannica.com/biography/saint-joan-of-arc.
Christie, Ian. “The 50 Greatest Films of All Time | Sight &Amp; Sound.” British Film Institute,    British    Film Institute, Sept. 2012, http://www.bfi.org.uk/news/50-greatest-films-all-time.
Polti, Georg. “Adelphiasoplot.” Falling Prey to Cruelty or Misfortune: Georg Polti Plots or    Storylines, http://www.askwhy.co.uk/adelphiasoplot/062.php.

 Contributions 

    The sorts of things excellent software engineers contribute to the good life are new perspectives. As office tools, edutainment, and visual arts bring people to a new life. Office tools, like internet engineering and microsoft office, are good for making modern life connected, convenient, and organized. Allowing people to achieve their own goals effectively. Software tools have empowered organizations and individuals with opportunity, communication, and freedom. True Edutainment, including this class, often task people to think creatively, experiment, or in new perspectives. Games have been teaching, enlightening, and growing people for only half a century, but imagine all the learning the games demand for success. If the Game is beautiful I would call that visual art. Visual arts like photoshop, movies, and VR, create for people infinite worlds that are truly limitless. The software can be beautiful and moving that creates marvel, goodness, and that mysterious meaning in us all. 

    The kinds of character traits, qualities, behaviors and habits I think mark the kinds of people who tend to contribute most in these ways are the not serious ones, not experts, or well paid, but those who share. In all the different fields that need software engineers, in all the infinite things you can do with code, all come at a sharing price. Freeware has always been with the computer science community and Bill Gates himself defended it in the beginning. Thus the government programs don’t run as effective as some free market programs, but no program is like a free one. The coders-on-the-sides are the true pioneers of software engineering, for leisure creates real novelty. The linux engineers, small game designers, the guy who automated a routine in his life; will turn around and share with the public. The mind who is self motivated to either practically, and/or playfully, engineer code and willing to share it to the world, is the mind that will change the world. 

     The various stakeholders in this scenario, the company, those who are going to be monitored, and both mine and the opposing government. The various stakeholders they have each at stake in my programming is their reputation, privacy, safety, and their conscience. The company that is being contracted out must uphold more than customer service, but also take into account what kind of reputation they have. The contractor that sells out to oligarchs ambitions becomes a paid war dog. Not just bad PR, but a tool for the cruel everywhere is bad for their morale and for their conscience. The citizens, the biggest stakeholders, lose their privacy, safety, and freedom. Those citizens do not get a private dibate, or even question, as my software will determine what is allowed. I become the author of the watchdog that will decide who goes without due process to a slave camp. These citizens are now at the mercy of my software, and it their government. The oppressive government has already lost what other stakeholder are at stake for losing, my software has robbed them of the organic cycle of decedent societies. The very diction in my software will escalate the current tensions, and that climax is built by that much larger. If I comply, the military leaders of this nation will be in for the exact crimes they are inflicting. My government is being undermined by the company. Atrocity of one nation, is supported by the apathetic citizens of many good nations and will weigh on all of our conscience. My nation's authority in their criticism is made weak.

     The ethical obligation in this situation is not just to comply, but to notify the stakeholders. Excellent software engineer would do in this situation is because of the consequences affect the stakeholders. It is good customer service to keep good communication with the customer during the development process. That is also ethical because the customer is paying for it and will be using the software for their own ends. This ethical logic is important because there are other stakeholders who will be directly affected by my software, and therefore, also deserve the knowledge. Being a whistle blower to the media maybe the easiest way to do so, but I would much rather talk to each stakeholder so the story doesn't run away in public opinion. I know that my company will be self-interested in the idea of backing out of this sale, I should speak up about those specific consequences. I would devote some time to this before I would go leaking to specifics organizations, for the same logic. The same logic for what I have at stake for this. I know my government is invested in this project because of what they have to lose, so I would let them know about it. Those who will be monitored even more so, need the warning from somebody other than the government what is coming down the pipeline. a citizen could be chatting online and end-up in a labor camp the same day my software gets out. Surprisingly, the client is the last one who would care to hear these consequences. If they did, they would have taken advice from the rest of planet earth about their oppressive nature, why would they lesson to me? If none of these actions lead to change, then I must not participate. This could most certainly mean the end of my job, and maybe my career as an employee in that specific field. These consequences are small in comparison to further down the road. 

    Of the three contributions software engineer make to vital public good was new perspectives. Specifically; office tools, edutainment, and visual arts bring people to a new life. Much like the good, the true, and the beautiful. Although the case study exercise help me see what is at stake. The vital public goods that software engineers help to secure are freedom in privacy. Office tools, edutainment, and visual arts, don’t simply give perspective, I see now that the software is more about freedom. The software engineer has the ability to empower specific people, in the case study, it was empowering the military regime over the people. The engineer needs to ensure that the public freedom is not infringed upon. Software is useful, but not always transparent and restricts the well-being of the innocent. This reminds me of how Instagram now is flagging down specific content with a good motive. Instagram is restricting someone for other’s empowerment or simply protecting them. Safety and protection is a job for every engineer, in software it looks like in the form of privacy. Securing privacy is securing trust; and trust is vital for the public good. No trust, no civil society. Losing freedom and privacy is a consequence of apathetic engineering and quite avoidable.