No more information is to be gained, and this 12-year journey of counter-surveillance has been spiritually poisonous. No more.

With confidence I can tell you:

• They are never right about anything. Not a single fucking thing.
• They have no values save what they can signal to increase their influence.
• Every accusation they make is a confession. Every time. Every single one. No exceptions.
• They are sadistic and cruel. They get off on what they’re doing. They feel justified.
• They would destroy you and everyone and everything you ever cared about if they thought they gained the smallest thing from it. And they wouldn’t ever have a moment of regret or doubt.
• My spiritual tradition allows that all are redeemable and worthy of a cleared slate and a second chance, contingent on sincere repentance and an effort to serve those whom they have previously wronged. Well. These people are LOST. They will never change. Abandon them, and let God call them back in the afterlife if there is such a thing.

So, after this perilous intellectual journey, I have one ask of you, my friends:

STOP DEFENDING THEIR RIGHT TO SPEW THEIR POISONS.

And if you get to a place where that becomes second nature, I have a far more difficult ask:

DO WHAT IT TAKES TO NEUTRALIZE THEIR POWER AND INFLUENCE. Whatever it takes. No exceptions. No reservations. Do you fucking hear me? Whatever it takes.

This is the moment. This is an emergency. If we fail, things will get…hard. Harder than you ever imagined possible. Please act, while it remains relatively easy.

If you help me out here, we will get through this. Together.

But software engineers walk in the realm of human possibility. There are no limits — we can do what we can imagine. But what is common among all humans? We dream. And to make those dreams real, we tell stories. And that is the essence of software engineering: we are storytellers.

When telling stories, software engineers have four audiences:

• Computer systems, which have the semiotic skills of especially precocious four year olds — and the same ability to grasp ambiguity and nuance…which is to say…none at all.
• Other software engineers, who, on average, are somewhat better at understanding ambiguity and nuance…but…there is work to do here.
• Customers and other stakeholders, who take our stories and use them to build dreams of their own.
• Investors and their representatives, because we all have to get that bread.

At their best, software engineers tell uplifting stories of love, joy, hope, connectedness, and the full realization of human dignity. At their worst, they tell horror stories of ruin, exploitation, destruction, dehumanization, despair, and hell-on-earth.

I am an ecstatic dreamer, a bon-vivant, a passionate advocate for the dignity of every human being, a loyal life partner to a wonderful woman who is also a storyteller, and a father.

But most of all, I tell stories. And I prefer to tell the uplifting kind.

I am a software engineer. It’s a pleasure to meet you. How can I serve you?

How can I encourage your dreams?