Whatsoever things are pure ...

So, I was addressing the issue of which of the various projects that are blocked or on hold or otherwise not coming to fruition that I should be patiently working on while waiting for something to happen, and she said (essentially, although not in so many words), Philippians 4:8.

Which was a bit of a stopper.

Now, I've known for a long time that God does not care about the field in which most of my professional effort lies.  God does not have a computer.  While God cares about the people who use computers, and while I can hope that my efforts may help people, God doesn't care about technology, as such.  So that's one thing.

But I work, specifically, in information security.  And "whatsoever things are pure" just doesn't play a big role in the field.  Where I started, in malware research, social engineering, in terms of getting people to run or install malware on their systems, makes extensive use of sex and pornography.  (Well, to be specific, for the most part attackers just use promises of sex or pornography, but sometimes they grab various images to seed their traps.)  The discord attacks, mostly aimed at the alt-right, seem to have weird ties to pornography, as well.  And, of course, in other areas of information security, I'm dealing with scammers and fraudsters and liars and people (and attacks) that just aren't very nice.  If not downright evil.

Researching differential privacy, or homomorphic encryption, or security frameworks isn't too dangerous.  But that's pure research, and it doesn't play a huge role in my work.  I don't get a lot of opportunity to do that kind of research or teaching.  Most of the real (and therefore more useful) stuff is a lot messier.

Now, I've dealt with this over the years.  I've come to terms with the fact that most of what I do for work is in a lower rank of importance in the grand scheme of things.  But that was then, and, right now, I'm in a bit of a vulnerable state.  Probably also spiritually vulnerable.  Much more than normal.

I'm a grieving widower.  I've lost my wife, my best friend, my sounding board, my major job grounding me in reality (as much as I ever was in reality), and my main earthly support.  I am still somewhat sleep deprived (although better than I was), so my judgment is still pretty suspect.  I'm damaged, and hurt, and in danger of attaching to inappropriate ideas and groups.  (All of this is bog standard grief stuff.)

Therefore, maybe this is not the best time to concentrate on many of the areas where my professional life would normally lead.  So maybe the work on information warfare, and discord attacks, and other aspects of the societal misbehaviour and pandemic grief stuff is not where I should be concentrating right now.

Which isn't helpful, because that's where the possibilities seem to be.  The grief guys stuff seems like it would be safest, but is pretty much dead in the water because I need some involvement from others, and nobody else seems to be willing to help.  A lot of other areas are the same.

I suppose that the psychological factors of the metaverse might not be *too* dangerous to work on.  Much of it would just be cataloging.  Although I'm pretty sure that pornography will be a huge issue there, and, of course, as soon as anybody starts building something along those lines, the scammers will be rushing in with new attacks ...