That energy of wanting to known the unknowable has driven us forward to the heights of technological advancement and that very nature has produced much good within our societies.

Since the dawn of civilization human kind has understandably looked beyond itself for its collective Raison d’être. The answer to life’s WHY? has been a supposed intellectualized response offered up by the Abrahamic religions since time in memorial. Organised religion has been capturing our thoughts and in the process narrowing our minds under the guise of providing some pseudo definition for our very existence.

Organised religion simplistically suggests that “god created the heavens and the earth with the attendant finely tuned laws of the cosmos so that we human beings could exist and thrive”. How ego-centric is that and how grotesquely unedifying. This is the ‘which came first the chicken or the egg’ fallacy of organised religion. Were cosmic laws created for us noble beings or did the cosmic laws allow us to evolve to a point of animalistic supremacy. I like to think that we thrived as a species as a function of the cosmic laws.

Enter the Botnet which by definition is a collection of computers that can be mobilized, more generally, into a malicious network of nefarious drones. This zombie army of Bots lays dormant with its malicious code concealed until activated by the puppeteer at a time of choosing. Users can be lured in by downloading the malicious code simply by opening up an email attachment. Once a computer is infected by a Bot the command and control server can exercise the power of execution for good or evil.

There are similarities in the methods of some organised religions. They infect a host at a time of particular personal vulnerability and exaggerate fear most notably in infancy. In that first age of man they attempt to fill our minds with the notion of a single god and those all-important demi-gods in the form of the saints. With accompanying transcendental myths being delivered to the young we have the payload code which when activated by the command and control centre (Pope, Rabbi, Inman) can be deployed in support of good or evil. The all too often dehumanizing nature of the religious payload is no more exemplified by the actions of that zombie religious army that unleashed its evil terror on the people of Paris yesterday evening.

These soldiers “Full of strange oaths, and bearded like the pard, Jealous in honour, sudden, and quick in quarrel, Seeking the bubble reputation even in the cannon’s mouth – As Shakespeare would have it” came to life as a zombie Botnet army to deliver its unholy payload. The puppeteer pulled the strings of the Botnet jihadist’s and evil ripped through society. Ripped lives asunder and for what! To rid the world of evil or to gestate it’s very existence.

Any cyber security researcher knows that to eradicate a Bot from a host you need to security harden a computer. In placing hardening software in place the computer ultimately fails to live up to its full performance potential. In keeping the nefarious payload out you unwittingly encumber the host with a performance deficit. In other words by blocking the code, be it software or in the form of religious zealotry, there is a price to pay. We as a society are paying that heavy price in the form of de-socialising and immobilizing laws.

In enacting hardening laws and sensitizing new responding social norms we are treating the symptoms and not seeking a cure. The cure in the case of a Botnet is to strangle the energy of the command and control centre. But we don’t do that because of the geo-political nature of the command and control centres. So we sit behind our security walls building them higher and higher until such time that they collapse under their own weight of complexity. So is the same with society as we build up our laws and harden our societies until it becomes the very thing that we are attempting to defend ourselves against. Remember that freedom does not naturally build walls but aims to break them down.

I’ve said this before, that if you feel that the cost of education is high then please consider the cost of not educating people. In particular open the minds of our young and stop filling their welcoming minds with thoughts that can be used for evil intent.

At this time of heightened evil by a group of narrow minded religious zealots our response should not be one of hate but one of love and compassion. Nurture our young with the humanising gift of open mindedness and battle the fear of existence with scientific understanding.

Don’t condemn our children to the rule of the puppeteer. Seed the minds of the young with the notion of human universality and commonality. All said and done we are all human and all play out our lives to similar fears, loves and ambitions.

I see with heart rendering despair the desperate families leaving their war torn countries of origin and I can see the puppeteer at work. It’s high time we stopped the puppeteer creating the puppets.

The freedom to think is my right and one I will not give up under any act or threat of tyranny.