Hello 2015

[Michael Watson]

Hi, this is my first post to this list. I am a technologist whose focus has
recently shifted . I am looking for a place to discuss issues related to my
new focus. I have spent the last 20 years writing 68K asm/C/C++ code; I was
one of the original authors of Microsoft Works for the Mac. Having
established my street cred, as the hip-hop people would say, I would like to
ask if this list is appropriate for what I want to talk about. First let me
describe what shifted my focus, 

listed in chronological order:

a) 9/11
b) a near death experience, being dead for a period of time
c) a series of amazing sychronicity events as defined by Carl Jung
d) shaving off all my brown hair and having it grow back gray
e) my daughter turning 18
f) a recognition of the profound spiritual sickness at most hi tech companies
g) a sequence of powerful and magical dreams

Here are some questions that now seem a lot more interesting:

1) Can good code be art? Am I a software artist? How to display this art?
2) Are Ray Kurzweil and Bill Joy irresponsible for scaring people, for
playing to Mary Shelley's most powerful Frankenstein meme to sell books.
3) Is Ray Kurzweil even right, can man create consciousness?
4) Can we find meaning in writing code or should we look elsewhere?
5) Can a lunatic like Ted Kazinski still have something important to say?
6) Why does Bill Gates have such a profound lack of imagination? Why doesn't
he buy a space shuttle and take all of us who made him rich up for a ride?
7) What happened to the kid that loved writing code for his first computer
(4k ram)?

If you get my drift then maybe you can point in the right direction and send
me on my way. Back in the 80's, I met the lead genius on the Excel
spreadsheet, a small quiet man. I went into his office and it was dark and
bare like a chapel. Above his computer was a large, beautiful oil painting
of Jesus. Even though I am not a christian, that man is still my hero.

Michael Watson

PS I will leave you with the lyrics to a song that captures some of the
feeling I used to have writing code. My recent discovery of this band, cd
purchased for $1.99 in the bargain bin, was one of my schronicity events,
combined with another event I won't go into. For me it captures the
technology/spiritualy combination that I am looking for. 

Supercollider by Tribe

got the call just yesterday
and now it seems as if
it's always been this way
hasn't told his wife
hasn't told his kids
if there was anything left
he's forgotten it

under the texas soil
under the texas sky
it sits and waits and grows
it runs for fifty-four miles
goodbye princeton
goodbye CERN
he's gone to texas
to watch the holy fire burn
he's gone to build
he's gone to build the supercollider

and in his ears
the heartfelt thanks of a grateful nation
admiring handshake from the king of sweden
a brighter future for all God's children

late at night
with no one else around
he sits there staring at
the atoms bouncing 'round
live your life
another time
let's go to texas
and watch the holy light shine
let's go to see
let's go to see the supercollider