Copyright, 1998-2001, Max K. Goff, all rights reserved

If there's hope for humanity, it's in software.   I've been preaching that message for five years now as a Technology Evangelist for Sun Microsystems. During that time I've traveled the equivalent of 20 times around the globe, spoken to scores of audiences, thousands of software developers and industry professionals.  And I've come to believe.

Java was the wake-up call for me, after years of quiet cynicism.  As I've matured in my technical career and once again revisited my youthful theatrical ambitions, I've come to realize that there is a purpose in what we do -- and hence, what I do.  And I've come to believe that there is hope for our species.  The very technologies that imprison us in bleak cells of unintended consequences also promise hope for the future, for the very survival of our species during these most interesting times.  If there's hope for humanity, it is in  software.  Let us therefore hope for humanity in the software we create.