Are We the Centre of the Universe?

I was setting up a profile on an employer’s talent management site and one of the profile security questions was - “Who is your favorite historical person?” I have not previously encountered this security challenge question and didn’t have a standard response. Who IS my favorite historical person? Well it’s Copernicus. I admit to not knowing a lot about his math and science other than he challenged the church to rethink the universe. His challenging of our sensibilities was enough to spark all of the science that has ensued. That’s pretty awesome and today we know so much more as a result.

Capturing everyone’s favourite historical person is interesting. I’d like to look at that data. Who in history leads this list?  What are the demographic patterns by age, geography, sex or bank balance? It would be way more interesting to look at than the data result from “What elementary school did you attend?” That data is already publically known anyway. As I researched this, I came across a Time magazine article on the hack of Sarah Palin’s Yahoo account. Her challenge questions were all publically known answers. Too bad, because I do want to know who she thinks impacted our lives.

So here I am telling you that I may (again I said may) have used the "favourite figure" question and I may have responded Copernicus. But if you decide to hack my profile on some undisclosed employer talent management site, I expect you to improve my resume and increase my salary expectations. Hacking my job applications aside, I’d like you to help me hack Copernicus. Maybe he was wrong after all.

This week, I also found myself sitting at Intelligentsia staring out the window watching a Greenpeace activist canvas the sidewalk. I thought to myself, she is doing "Gods work." She would like my earth is at the centre of it all theory. This was confirmed when I left and she explained that she was fighting for the protection of the arctic ice. The Arctic is, of course, near and dear to us Canadians. I went home and drew my little diagram up above and decided to Google Copernicus. A few clicks later and I came across this.

Yikes! Now I understand what Copernicus was up against. So I am inspired by Copernicus’ courage, but determined to reclaim the argument that we sit at the center of this universe. Hopefully he's not angry with me and gets the spirit of my metaphor. We are the only life we know, we are the only custodians of this planet and the only custodians of each other. Dirty animals included. Anything else that impacts our lives other than the laws of physics are all our creation not the reverse. People have the power to rethink corporations, governments and gods. Let’s stop revolving around them and let’s get them orbiting us. Sorry Copernicus, we are the centre of the universe. And, can someone get that dude a passport and put him on a plane somewhere.

Back to password security, apparently the FCC banned the use of security challenge questions that capture biographical information in 2007! You wouldn't know it based on the number of sites that capture and store this information. If you want to check out the regulation, try Googling "Telecommunications Carriers’ Use of Customer Proprietary Network Information and Other Customer Information”. Check out the Sara Palin Time Article here.

And while we are waiting for site security to improve, for the sun to start orbiting the earth, can we make this earth and people matter. I leave you with some Floyd. Well Gilmore. Your comments are welcome.