Using one’s imagination for good vs evil

After I arrived home last night from moving my son out of his dorm room, I was listening to a later broadcast of PBS NewsHour before going to bed. There was a disquieting feature story last night about boutique bioterror that I just had to write a post about.

In the story, it was indicated that as more and more items become wireless, the chance of them being hacked or affected by a virus at some point increases. The scary example cited was pacemakers. Apparently, newer versions receive wireless input and updates on nearly a daily basis. If a hacker was to break into one of these links and begin adjusting the signals, one can only imagine the potential for a tragedy, whether it was intended or not.

Think this is a silly notion? Well, think again my friends. Recently, someone actually had the audacity to hack into the Epilepsy Foundation’s website and create a strobing effect on the webpage. The result could have been catastrophic for those suffering from epilepsy as strobing lights can cause seizures. Even sadder was the reason suspected for doing such a dastardly thing -for the jollies. That’s right, simply for laughs. I don’t know about you, but I find that to be immature, sick, and rather twisted.

Torture people from afar by impacting their health??? Is that what this world is coming to? Why is it that some people with such obvious and marketable talent, choose to use it in such unproductive ways? I wish I knew the answer to that question. To think what great things might be accomplished – cure cancer, solve the energy crisis, bring vision to the blind, save an endangered species. The whole thing only makes me want to shake my head in dismay at the sheer waste of it all.