shahid

The Purpose of Computing

I’ve been thinking about how genuinely useful computing devices are to us, now that they have become so utterly pervasive and so unremarkably ubiquitous. There is the inevitable lack of focus that tends to arise as a result of so much stimulation of so many varieties. There is the connection to our mammalian impulses that seemingly compel us to consume what we can, while we can, and with so many apps-as-sweeties, that amounts to rather a lot.

These then, are some of the negatives, and there are many more.

I am still hugely excited about computing, I’d say that computing is more exciting now than it has ever been. So what is the purpose of computing in the era of the smartphone and iPad? I’d call computing, and specifically connected computers human amplification devices. HADs let us be more than we ever were, more often, with greater reach and with zero delay.

You are more than you ever could have been at any time in the past. Your potential reach is greater, more powerful, more wide and more deep than at any point in history. The delay between you wanting to manifest something routine in your life, like your weekly shopping, or the sending of a thought, a picture, a movie, to every person you “know” has disappeared. The volume of information that we can and do share is now truly colossal and whilst connected computers have made this possible, connected smartphones have caused an order of magnitude increase in shared information volume and removed the inherent delay that used to be predicated on the availability of an originally scarce resource, the digital node, or a static, connected computer.

If I want more than a thousand people to know about how my neighbours are affecting me, I can ensure they know the second I feel upset. My network knows when I do. If I want the community police team to know, I can email them without worrying that it’s the weekend. Today, I had police appear in my home to reassure my family of the real help they were willing to offer because a few short hours earlier, I had asked the very same officer now in my house for help. My ability to effect real change in my life has been massively amplified and the frequency shortened thanks to ubiquitous Human Amplification Devices. The corresponding increase in energy utilised is truly enormous. There is no telling where this power will get us, because like any power, it can be used for good, or for evil.

I prefer to focus on the positive. So far, the benefits far outweigh the drawbacks. On the bus today, I checked into my BA flight and now have my boarding pass, on my phone. When I need the answer to a question, where before an answer was not always available no matter what the investment in energy, now I can employ a number of resources instantaneously and the chances are high that I will already be better informed within moments. I will be able to notify thousands of people around the world about this post having published it from my bed, having written it on an iPad that is always connected to just about everyone I have ever come into contact with. If I need to sort out a car booking crisis whilst helping a driver navigate an alternative route and also keep a rendezvous party informed and available, I can and I do make that happen thanks to my array of HADs. That makes a real difference in the lives of people. Long may it continue.

The Media

I’ve learned this much over the last few years: you cannot trust the mainstream media. Whereas before my recent involvement with these liars, I could have arrived at this conclusion through deduction — and on suspectpaki I frequently did — more recently I found this to be the case through direct experience.

The reason there seems to be little point in making noise about the media’s clear role in peddling lies and official conspiracy theory is because it is so obviously a given.

There might well be some journalists who actually think they’re doing a good job, that they’re on the right path, that they are principled, but they are the most dangerously deluded.

A good friend of mine laughed at me recently because I touted the Guardian as being “alright”, reflexively. It only took me an instant to realise that he was of course totally justified in his avuncular chortles. I was forced to laugh at myself within moments once realisation dawned. The Guardian isn’t alright of course. It just fools you into thinking that it’s a legitimate choice. They’re all false choices. There is no choice. There is the official narrative, there is the official narrative-lite, then there is the other official narrative.

Why rant and rave at a bunch of lying prostitutes whose job is to peddle the official line? Why do you think you only hear about a Hamas bee fart in Israel causing an alleged allergic reaction in an Israeli pensioner’s dog, whilst the deliberate bombing of Palestinian mosques, schools and children is passed over as if it were an inconvenience to even mention the terrorist scum? Is it because the media doesn’t understand that it isn’t balanced? No. It’s because the media knows what it has to do. It has to lie. It has to distort. It has to pervert. That’s how the media works. As long as you know that the mainstream media will never give you a balanced picture when it comes to power politics, you will not feel so wronged. You’ll accept that this is the kind of crappy world we live in.

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The above is the front page of the BBC website as of 23:53 on the 8th of April 2011. 17 people have been killed in Gaza by the Zionist scum, but the only thing you have on Muslim deaths there is a tiny mention on Nato regretting killing the people it was supposed to be bolstering in Libya. It’s always “regrets”, isn’t it? You know one day, the filthy empires that repress and enslave the majority of humanity, that cause suffering Afghans whose nation is being bombed and whose children murdered and paraded in pictures by smiling soldiers showing off the lopped-off-finger-trophies to come to the West seeking refuge only to turn back will be in ruins and who will be left to have “regrets” then?

Unfortunately, I can’t go into detail on my personal experiences with the media, because the case (and the cause) is ongoing, but I can say this. I have proof that the media, even so-called respectable organisations like Channel 4, lies, with full knowledge that they are lying and that complaints to bodies like OfCom fall on deaf ears.

If you want truth, if you want perspective, you will have to go elsewhere, and I don’t mean Wikileaks or Al-Jazeera either.

Stop reading the newspapers, stop watching the news. You are being lied to and brainwashed. Your mind is the only asset you have of any value and your mind needs to be fed. Just remember, garbage in, garbage out.

Personal News

Many of you who used to enjoy some of my personal posts from suspectpaki might be curious about what happened to me on a personal level, given the turmoil I was experiencing 7 years ago. I won’t often be writing about personal stuff on this blog and this will be one of the very rare exceptions. Suffice to say that alhamdulillah, my life has never been better. My diabetes is better controlled than it has been in decades, with my last hbA1c at around 7.4%. Not perfect, but much better than the high 9s I used to run. All of the unresolved family issues from those days are resolved in the best way possible and I am free to focus on my family and the future.

Sadly, the future of the world isn’t looking too great at the moment, is it?

What Have I Been Reading?

In the absence of Suspect Paki, one blog has covered some of the issues close to my heart with passion, honesty and clarity. And that’s Hotter Than A Pile Of Curry. If you want that singular, blazing focus on issues that concern Muslims, especially in the West, than The Akh lends a flavour to the discourse that many young British Muslims should find satisfying. Go check it out if you’re not subscribing already.

Follow The Akh on Twitter too. Here’s why.

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Of course, Nawaz, who is currently going around with a begging bowl looking for funds for Quilliam now that the government has stopped funding the Islamophobic “former-extremist”, sharp-suit donning sell-outs isn’t the only one who cites the Islamophobic Harry’s Place. I remember Hazel Blears doing the same thing over Gaza. As for what Nawaz is putting in his cigars, probably the same stuff he has always put in his cigars.