More on Technology and the Church

Sometimes I feel like the church always lags behind a fews years in technology. I visualize it almost as a large, ancient, lumbering organization trying to adapt to a fast-paced society. For instance, my calling, home teaching supervisor, should be mostly automated by requiring ward members to go on-line once a month and fill out a form communicating their home-teaching results. Instead, I have to manually call everyone in my group, record their results, and then pass them off to my quorum leader who has to tally the results and compile the final report. Perhaps because of my computer science background, I occasionally spot what I see as inefficiencies in the church bureaucratic process that could be easily smoothed over by some type of computer-based solution.

Whenever I read about how the church is technology, however, I am almost always awed, not by what they are doing, but by the attitude they have toward technologoy as they attempt to best utilize it. The church continues to see technology as a gift from God to help further the work and this belief pervades all of their decisions on technology useage in the church, from mormon.org to the church's internal record-keep systems to the new Family Search API. They are cautious because the very nature of the work requires them to be. So far, the results have been very positive and beneficial to the church as well as the world.

Finding Style

For a long time I bitterly puzzled over the large variation in grades assigned to me by different English teachers and professors I had over the years. Given the same effort on my part I could earn anywhere from a low B to a high A. One day I asked my wife and talented writer how she managed to consistently earn the highest grades in all her writing classes. She responded that early each semester she figured out the style of writing her professor preferred and modified her own style accordingly. This confirmed my belief that much of writing style is simply a matter of preference, and at the same time brought me to the sad realization that were I to seek the same grades as she, I would have to learn to do the same.

I have since decided to worry less about my writing grades, focusing instead on reacting to some criticisms to improve my writing, and ignoring others I feel are stylistic preferences of reader. While I run the risk of improperly categorizing important nuggets of truth about my writing flaws as mere opinions, overall my anxiety about writing has decreased and I believe my writing continues to improve. My advice then, to struggling college students everywhere, is to find the style of writing that best suites yourself and master it, even if not every reader appreciates it. If done with a humble attitude, such a course will not only improve your writing, but also make the task of writing much more enjoyable.

Sun's MySQL acquisition consolidates Open Source Power

Sun's recent purchase of MySQL met with a variety of reactions. Some wondered what Sun has to gain besides PR. Others, aware of Sun's long alliance with Oracle, accusingly predicted that the company would let MySQL crumble from lack of support and be overcome by competition. Many people, however, see the acquisition as a sign of the growing influence of open source as a business model. Both companies have a strong history of open source support, and both Java and MySQL are available under the GPL license. The future of both of these companies now merged together will be a strong indicator to the corporate world of the viability of the open source model. If successful, these companies will have the power to continue enrich the pool of freely available software, and more importantly, to invite other companies to do the same by their example.

Differing Perspectives on Technology and Society

After reading and comparing two articles discussing the impact of technology in our lives, one by Neil Postman, a professor and media theorist, and the other by Elder Dallin H. Oakes, an apostle of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, I gained a greater appreciation for the LDS church’s position on the impact of technology on society. The former article, paranoid and pessimistic, hid behind a thin veil of impartiality as it painted a picture of technology as a dangerous, uncontrollable beast. Postman left me with the message that every innovation has the power to wreck society and therefore should be carefully tucked away from the world until its global impact is ascertainable. In contrast, Oaks spoke of technology as an opportunity when employed wisely, only a curse when used irresponsibly. For instance, Oaks cautions that “With greatly increased free time and vastly more alternatives for its use, it is prudent to review the fundamental principles that should guide us.” Here Oaks mentions a potentially negative effect new technology has had on our society, and then proceeds to talk about what we can do to both cope and take advantage of the situation. He also provide a powerful quote from President Young, “Every discovery in science and art, that is really true and useful to mankind, has been given by direct revelation from God. … We should take advantage of all these great discoveries.” Whereas too often both religion and science arbitrarily decide to wage war on one another, the doctrines of the LDS church harmonize them perfectly.

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