So Crowdstrike happened.

I have said before that the software industry must professionalize, and I even created a plan, along with a code of ethics and a standard of care.

I have also warned that if we do not do this ourselves, society might do this for us. Since that would be done by governments, who want nothing more than to surveil and oppress their subjects citizens, we just might lose everything we have, and so would our loved ones.

Never mind all of the progress humanity has made since its earliest times, past the Renaissance, through the scientific advancements and the industrial era, we’ll lose it all.

Never mind the steps taken to win our liberty, the blood spilled and trauma endured, the lost loves and the frayed families, we won’t have it anymore.

Governments will impose laws upon us, as software developers, to develop as they demand. They will not merely require quality; they will demand downright dominance, and they will force us to give it to them.

And if you think governments are so powerful that you need F-16s to fight back, imagine how much more powerful governments would be if they controlled all of the software on Earth.

Is Crowdstrike the final straw? Or will governments and industry both do nothing?

If governments do anything, and I fear they will, we have already lost.

But if governments do nothing, then let us, as an industry, take the chance to do something to avoid another disaster that would give governments the political will to enslave our software, and our minds, to their wills.

I don’t care who you are, what “side” of the political aisle you are on, or even if you like my politics; you should agree with me on this. Because if you don’t like my politics, you shouldn’t want someone like me to have that power. Or anyone else.

So is Crowdstrike the final straw? It should be. Let’s make it so.