alavi.me - engineering

We Need Apocalypse-Proof Software

2026-01-10T00:00:00+00:00

Ethics & Engineering 2025-06-03T00:00:00+00:00 Why Does It Matter?</a> </h2> Since thousands of years ago we have had doctors and we have had engineers. (Proof from ancient Iran, at least ~7500BC)1</a> 2</a> Medical practitioners and doctors have had codes of conduct for ethics, like the Hippocratic oath by Hippocrates (400 BC) and Ethics of Doctors by Ishaq Bin-Ali Al-Rahawi (600 CE). They at least have to take one course about ethics and take the Hippocratic oath, which doesn't mean they will necessarily obey it, but at least they have heard it once. This is important because doctors and medical practitioners work with lives, and them not following ethics can cause disasters and loss of lives. I want to talk about why is there no mandatory course about ethics and philosophy for engineering students? Or even if there is, it is not a topic very much talked about in the world of engineers. We are much more fascinated by technicalities than matters like ethics. Although in the world of software engineers the matters of ethics are very bold, with movements like Free software</a> and FOSS</a>, the percentage of engineers who truly care and support these concepts is very small. Of course, what doctors do is very delicate and deals with human lives and safety a lot, but doesn't an engineer's work deal with lives? Can't we safely say that in the current age, The work of an engineer is more critical than the work of a doctor? The footprint of engineering is more prevalent in our lives than any other time in history. Everything, even medicine heavily depends on engineering now. You can't make pharmaceuticals without engineering, you can't conduct a surgery without engineering, and hell, you can't even obtain knowledge from your computer without engineering. Engineering is the pillar of our society's advancements. Sadly, most engineers (that I know of, at least) have never even considered that there is a concept such as ethics in engineering. It is critical for an engineer to follow ethics, have an ethical framework and think about the consequences of their actions. Just as important as it is to doctors, for example. This issue is felt more in a field that is very abstract, like software engineering. A civil engineer can see and know that if they have built a road wrong or a building wrong. It will visibly cause disaster and people will be hurt. They will directly see the consequences of their mistakes. But software engineers, for example, deal with much more philosophical and abstract concepts like consent, privacy, freedom, fairness, neutrality, etc. A software engineer designing embedded software for a pacemaker must be very aware of the consequences of a bug in their software, and the consequences can be very tangible. But if they implement the capability for the pacemaker to connect to your smartphone and then send all your cardiac and maybe other biological data to their servers without your consent, or in a way that you cannot really refuse it, which they will eventually sell the data to the best buyer (for insurance manipulation and marketing for example), the consequences of this action are not very tangible. The engineer might convince themself that this is not a big deal and no harm can be done through this. Because things like privacy and freedom are abstract matters and are not widely accepted as a basic human right. I have had countless debates with educated people about why privacy and freedom are important. And sometimes I can't convince them at all! If I punch somebody in the face, they will immediately realize how bad punching someone in the face for no reason is, and how much it hurts, and that it bleeds. But it is very hard to make people see and feel the consequences of lack of something like privacy and freedom; Although, it's a much bigger punch to the face and has much greater consequences. It's very hard to make somebody numb to getting punched in the face, but it's very easy for them to become numb to the lack of freedom. “In a world where privacy is seen as a luxury, remember that it is a basic human right.” – Edward Snowden </blockquote> If you need help understanding why privacy is important, visit this short article</a>. Also visit whyprivacymatters.org</a> Current State</a> </h2> So I hope we see how a lack of ethics can ruin our world, especially the lack of it within the disciplines of engineering. Here are some significant elements of the state of our world today: Constant surveillance and control (No privacy)</li> Humans have the illusion of freedom but they have less freedom than ever before. You have to pay for water, good air, food, soil, things that nature just gave us but are monopolized and restricted now.</li> </ul> </li> You are a product to big companies. They are making money off of you and then selling it back to you. Think about how YouTube, Facebook, Instagram, X, TikTok, etc. are making money.</li> </ul> </li> The majority of people are following mindlessly whatever is forced onto them.</li> Unethical company owners and managers give unethical orders, and unethical engineers follow through with the orders. This is no different from the military leader ordering genocide and the soldiers that execute the order. Both are guilty and immoral.</li> Think about the harm that is caused by the engineers who are implementing forced telemetry and surveillance into software like Google Search or your phone's OS (or every other closed source software). There's no good outcome to that so they know what they are doing.</li> Think about the engineers who hid and redacted known faults of the reactor in Chernobyl, which caused the death and suffering of millions of people.</li> </ul> </li> People are getting more and more powerless against the things that are happening to them and eventually become numb. So they will follow through with more unethical acts. And close their eyes more upon injustice.</li> The planet that we are living on is probably at its worst state from the beginning of human kind. The planet and its nature will never be destroyed, but our lives that depend on it will be. Humans are a small fraction of nature and the world's ecosystem. We are currently moving against nature, which is THE "unstoppable force". The only outcome will be our eradication and suffering.</li> </ul> </li> </ul> This, This is the result of a lack of ethics in engineering. We are living the consequences of lack of ethics. Not only in engineering but in all the fields. But I think that currently, the lack of engineering ethics is having a very notable effect on us. Following ethics needs a backbone. The courage to stand up, the courage to say no, The courage to turn down a big paycheck for a more modest paycheck with a better cause. To go a different route than the others. And it also needs integrity and dignity. I understand it is very idealistic to never break. We are human after all and make mistakes. And sometimes, there is no other choice. So first ask yourself, "Is there really no other choice?", If there isn't, choose the bad option not the worse option. But if there is another viable choice which keeps you and your family alive, there are no excuses. A human without morals and ethics is no human, but a talking animal. What differs humans from animals is our morals and ethics, our codes of conduct, boundaries and philosophies. It doesn't matter to me how much technical skills on has, If he can write an operating system in 10 minutes, Or if has figured out quantum computers. If they do not have morals and ethics, to me, they are just an impressive beast. The same way a puzzle solving chimpanzee might be amusing. This is why I do not admire people like Elon Musk, Bill Gates, Mark Zuckerberg, Sam Altman, and the rest. I am in love with engineering and technology, but it doesn't matter to me what technical achievements they have made. From what I see, the net outcome of their actions is that they have made our world a worse place, and they are rotten, unethical people. In the name of progression, we are losing the true meanings and values of life. The train of life is getting more steam power and moving faster and faster, and we are not riding it anymore, we are not looking out the window and enjoying the view, we are not eating at the buffet. We are only trying to catch up because we are not even on-board anymore. The ouroboros or uroboros is an ancient symbol depicting a snake or dragon eating its own tail. It was adopted as a symbol in Gnosticism and Hermeticism and, most notably, in alchemy. Some snakes, such as rat snakes, have been known to consume themselves. source</a> </figcaption> </figure> </aside> We are having a hard time breathing, our drinking water is mostly polluted, The food we eat is mostly polluted, We are constantly being spied on, and you will shamelessly get punished for trying to fight or escape them. This is not progression. We have gone the wrong route because we have forgotten our base values. The world has become greedy, and nothing can satisfy it. Mindset Going Forward</a> </h2> Do you know why my country is called Iran and our people have called themselves Iranian for thousands of years? "Iranian" means free. Free from greed, free from temptation, free from envy. Free from this mortal world.^[3] This is what my people chose to call themselves because this was the highest value for them. Being free. In the old times in Iran, We had Hakims. Hakims were known and praised for their wisdom (hekmat). We also had kings, generals and scientists but they were not nearly as celebrated and respected as our wise men and women (Hakims). People would go to these people and ask for guidance and wisdom. These were people like Hakim Abolqasem Ferdowsi (who wrote the Shaahnameh</a>), Saadi</a>, Mowlavi</a>(known as Rumi in some countries) and so on. The words of these people are still alive and inspiring millions of people all around the world. Their wisdom is still relevant and words to live by. We have regressed from wisdom, to an obsession for pure science and technological improvement. Technology for the sake of technology, without philosophy and thought behind it. Science as a weapon, as a tool for showmanship. These must be solving problems and improving life quality, not creating more problems to sell more solutions. Note: Technology and science must be solving problems and improving life quality, not creating more problems to sell more solutions. </blockquote> When you mention that technology is making our lives worse, a very common argument is along the lines of: "Have you seen how people lived a hundred years ago? Working in fields with all kinds of diseases and all the problems?". I agree. Life was indeed hard, and I don't suggest we should get rid of technology and improvements, But I emphasize on the improvements part. And people being dirty and sick doesn't necessarily mean that they were not happy either. I might be wrong, but when my grandparents tell me their stories and stories about their parents (Even though none of them were dirty, or doing hard labor) and show me their photo albums or diaries, the prior generations seem much happier to me, and they agree with this. If you read stories from the books of Saadi from around 850 years ago, people were pretty much as happy as we are today, if not happier. They lived almost the same, only in a different form. Because happiness isn't an absolute value, it is relative. Call to action</a> </h2> I don't have solutions for the biggest problems of humanity, of course. But here are my thoughts. We should start from ourselves. Each and every one of us are a part of this world's puzzle. A missing or bad piece matters even in a million piece puzzle. We cannot change the whole world but we can change ourselves, and the sphere of life that we carry around us. Ever since I was a kid, long before I knew what quantum mechanics were or what quantum entanglement is -And I still don't know what they are-, I always thought about a concept that suggests how we humans and our universe are fully entangled. I strongly believe in this and have felt it. Even a thought forming in your mind can change the thoughts that form in the minds of others, Your intents have direct reflections on other people and the outside world. And when those intents and thoughts get materialized by strong belief, they have far greater and more noticeable results. So form and cultivate your intents, And materialize them by your belief. This is my plan for changing the world, maybe a tiny step. But billions and billions of tiny steps create a whole marathon. Even though there are inherently bad and evil people and groups, trying to actively make the world worse, they will always exist and we can't change them. So while we do fight them, don't blame everything on them and then do nothing. Forgive me if I have ranted too much, but I think we engineers are too busy (or have been purposely made busy) with "Check out this new framework", "Check out this new Rust rewrite" "Check out this cool new tool" "Check out this brand-new research" that we are constantly playing catch-up and working mindlessly, and we have strayed from our true purpose. Dear colleagues and engineers around the world, please put down your tutorials and shiny tools for a while, And think about Why you are doing this?</li> What is your purpose?</li> How will this impact human lives?</li> What are the ethics and morals of it?</li> Are you currently doing anything unethical or immoral? If yes, how can you stop it? How can you actually make the world a better place?</li> </ul> </li> </ul> May we create a better society and find harmony with each other and our world, Starting with ourselves. Further reading</a> </h2> National Society of Professional Engineers (NPSE)</a></li> https://raeng.org.uk/media/batgo4ye/engineering_ethics_in_practice_shorter.pdf</a></li> https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Engineering_ethics</a></li> https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ethics_of_technology</a></li> Arizona State University (ASU)</a></li> </ul> Footnotes</a> </h2> https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_Iran</a> ↩</a> </li> https://www.worldhistory.org/Persia/</a> ↩</a> </li> </ol> </section> Understanding Sample Rate, Bit Rate And Bit Depth 2024-10-01T00:00:00+00:00 These are my notes as a software engineer on understanding Sample rate, bit rate and bit depth. The explanations might seem incoherent at first, but I think if you read the whole post it becomes more clear. Also read the relevant and good posts</a> for some other explanations from other perspectives. The notes are written in an outline style. Our World Is Continuous (Analog)</a> </h2> Sounds in our world are analog. The sounds that you hear or the sounds that you make are all analog signals </li> Analog signals happen in continuous time. Meaning, if we want to draw a diagram of the signal representing it's intensity on one axis and time on another (A signal is a series of changes in time), the diagram would look like this: </li> In order for these signals to be understood, used and processed in our digital devices (phones, PC, TV, etc.) they should be converted into digital signals, used within the device and then either be sent to another digital medium, or be converted to an analog signal again and then sent to an analog medium (Digital signals are explained later). </li> Example from sound: Your voice(analog) -> travels through air to reach microphone(analog) -> microphone vibrates (analog) -> gets converted to digital -> sent as digital signal to a speaker via a digital medium (digital signals on a wire)-> the speaker vibrates the air in a way that recreates your voice (analog) -> travels through air (analog) -> The listener's ear picks up the vibrations(analog) -> Signals in nervous system (?) </li> </ul> Time, As we define it, is continuous(or as continuous as it gets) so anything happening in our world is continuous, since it happens in time. Also note that all of the things that I said might not be true, since we really don't have a concrete definition of what time is, and the line between continuity and being discrete is blurry(like most other things in our world). </blockquote> What Are Digital Signals?</a> </h2> A digital signal is a type of discrete signal(as opposed to continuous ).</li> Discrete signal: we will ignore the continuity of time, and assume that time happens in discrete amounts. So there will be nothing there between time 1 and time 2.</li> Now digital means: our time is discrete, and our intensities are also discrete</li> In digital signal processing</a>, a digital signal is a representation of a physical(analog) signal that is sampled and quantized. A digital signal is an abstraction that is discrete in time and amplitude. [1] </blockquote> </li> </ul> See how in the above diagram, no values can exist between the defined values. How To Convert Analog Signal To Digital Signal</a> </h2> Now, With that explanation of digital signals, we can understand the basics of how we convert analog signal to digital: In discrete time intervals (for example every second), we will sample our signal. Meaning, we will measure it at that moment. This is called our sample rate (here our sample rate is 1 sample per second)</li> Now that we took the sample, since our original signal is continuous, our measured intensity value is a Real number($\mathbb{R}$) and can be something like 0.333333.... or $\pi$ (3.14...), we cannot use that number in our digital system! So we have to round it to a defined value.</li> Imagine our digital signal graph as a checkered graph. The vertical lines are your time intervals (sample rate as we defined earlier) and the vertical lines are your defined values, to which you will round your intensities. The more dense the vertical lines are, the higher your sample rate. And the more dense your horizontal lines, the higher accuracy for rounding your intensities you have (Bit depth)</li> Analog signal: </li> Digital signal with lower bit depth and sample rate ( we consider the thicker lines as our bit depth and sample rate values in this example ): </li> Digital signal with higher bit depth and sample rate ( all lines are considered as our bit depth and sample rate values): </li> Notice how as we raise the sample rate and bit depth, we get closer to our actual analog signal </li> </ul> </li> </ul> Why Is It Called "bit depth"?</a> </h2> A "bit" is the smallest value in a digital system. It's either 0 or 1 </li> One bit can represent 2 values, and 2 bits can represent 4 values. The general rule is with $n$ bits we can represent $2^n$ values. </li> Bit depth refers to "how many bits do we have for the number we want to represent our intensity with?" so the more bits we have, more values we can express. So our estimations of our analog signal's intensity becomes more accurate </li> A 24-bit audio is more accurate in terms of the intensity of each sample than a 16-bit </li> Example with color: An image with 8-bit depth is more accurate in displaying different intensities (shades) of colors </li> </ul> We can say that: if (sample_rate $\rightarrow \infty$ and bit_depth $\rightarrow \infty$) then Our signal is analog </blockquote> What Is "bit rate"?</a> </h2> bit rate (bitrate or as a variable R) is the number of bits</a> that are conveyed or processed per unit of time.[2] </blockquote> </li> The bit rate is expressed in the unit bit per second (symbol: bit/s), often in conjunction with an SI prefix</a> such as kilo</a> (1 kbit/s = 1,000 bit/s), mega</a> (1 Mbit/s = 1,000 kbit/s), giga</a> (1 Gbit/s = 1,000 Mbit/s) or tera</a> (1 Tbit/s = 1,000 Gbit/s).[2] </blockquote> </li> </ul> Relevant And Good Posts</a> </h2> Let's learn about waveforms - The pudding </a> </li> Bit rate vs. Sample rate vs. Bit depth - waveroom </a> </li> Continuous vs discrete signals. What is the difference? - engineeryoursound </a> </li> Digital audio basics: sample rate and bit depth - izotope </a> </li> </ul> Sources</a> </h2> 1: Digital signal - wikipedia </a> </li> 2: Bit rate - wikipedia </a> </li> </ul>

We must make more software that are meant to help in situations like these

Our software must contain offline documentation

Some software for apocalypse

Documentation and knowledge

Software package repositories

Collaboration

Communication

Navigation

Honorable mentions

Why Does It Matter?

Current State

Mindset Going Forward

Call to action

Further reading

Footnotes

Our World Is Continuous (Analog)

What Are Digital Signals?

How To Convert Analog Signal To Digital Signal

Why Is It Called "bit depth"?

What Is "bit rate"?

Relevant And Good Posts

Sources

alavi.me - engineering

We Need Apocalypse-Proof Software

Preface

How do we address this as software engineers?

We must take an offline-first and local-first approach to our critical, not inherently online software

We must make robust software that can work for years without needing to update

Ethics & Engineering

Understanding Sample Rate, Bit Rate And Bit Depth

alavi.me - engineering

We Need Apocalypse-Proof Software

Documentation and knowledge</i></a> </h3> Zeal</a> Some other solutions for downloading documents not available in zeal.</li> </ul> </li> Just downloading the HTML sources.(HTMX, babashka, kit-clj, reitit, Vue.js) how?</li>

File sharing</i></a> </h3> Torrenting Transmission</a> (Linux, Windows, Mac)</li> LibreTorrent</a> (Android)</li> </ul> </li> Localsend</a> Has andriod, ios, linux, windows, mac and web clients. Also keep the installation files to share them.</li> </ul> </li>

Ethics & Engineering

Current State</i></a> </h2> So I hope we see how a lack of ethics can ruin our world, especially the lack of it within the disciplines of engineering.</p> Here are some significant elements of the state of our world today:</p> Constant surveillance and control (No privacy)</li>

Understanding Sample Rate, Bit Rate And Bit Depth

Documentation and knowledge

File sharing

Current State