Given Enough Laws, All Immigrants Are Shallow
July 12th, 2006 by 
Kevin
NOTE : You non-techies will have to bear with me for two paragraphs.
In the software industry, especially regarding open-source software, there is a theory that goes by the name Linus\’s Law. It\’s named after Linus Torvald, the creator of Linux, and it was originally proposed by Eric S. Raymond, author of The Cathedral and the Bazaar.
Generally, Linus\’s Law states \”Given enough eyeballs, all bugs are shallow\”. The idea being that when debugging a system, a programmer has the option of following many different paths to find a bug in the system. Each path can lead to other paths and those paths can get deep. And since you probably won\’t find it right away, you will follow many paths. However, if you have a very large base of programmers looking at the bug (such as there is for open-source software), simple chance dictates that each path will get followed immediatly by at least one person, which lessens the time and effort that any single person needs to expand on a single bug.
It occurs to me that this same theory applies to our illegal immigration problem. For years now, the federal government has proven either unable, or more likely unwilling, to solve the illegal immigration issue our entire nation faces. As a result, individuals cities and states have taken to passing their own immigration laws. From what I have learned about these laws, while most of them share the intent of removing or reducing the impact of illegal immigrants, they use different methods. In much the same way, that with enough people looking at the software, for at least one person the bug (and the solution) will be obvious, can the same be said for immigration laws?
With enough cities and states passing varying laws regarding illegal immigration, will one eventually find the \”silver bullet\” law? And will it be recognized for what it is and propagated nationwide? What is the critical mass needed for this concept to work? And how long will it take people to recognize they have found that \”silver bullet\”?? Months? Years? Decades?
I don\’t know the answer to these questions, nor, I suspect, does anyone else. Regardless, it is an interesting concept to ponder. And because he had such a hand in creating it, I hereby name it \”La Bush\’s Law\”
On the other hand, could this same approach create potentially dangerous conditions for many parts of the country? Invariably with varying laws throughout the country, some areas will be unfriendly to illegals, and some areas will be more friendly to illegals.
Now illegal immigrants are by definition criminals (not Americans Rove!) but they aren\’t stupid. In areas that are illegal \”friendly\”, the tendency of illegal immigrants to concentrate themselves would be magnified. Given that situation, assimilation would likely cease to happen. Large numbers of illegals would drive down wages in low-skill industries, creating a poverty problem. As a result, you end up with a ethnic ghetto.
We\’ve seen this problem before, and recently it proved tragic in France, when the isolated poverty-ridden pockets of Muslim immigrants all over France bought themselves a lighter and rose up to burn the house down.
Could this fragmented network of immigration laws create a similiar situation? It appears there is at least the possibility.
So if \”La Bush\’s Law\” is going to work, it had better work quickly. I\’m fairly certain 12 million illegal immigrants can burn cars alot faster than Detroit can build them.
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9 Comments »
July 13th, 2006 at 11:04 am
Linus’s Law? I’m home!
July 13th, 2006 at 11:05 am
Oh, and The Cathedral and the Bazaar is a good read, too.
July 13th, 2006 at 4:34 pm
Hey, another IT geek reads your site (Jeff, not me)!
July 14th, 2006 at 4:05 pm
Wouldn’t Linus’s Law favor the fed approach, with all residents of all states looking at the problem and pooling their time and efforts, as opposed to the waste and duplication of the individual states looking at this separately?
(I suppose that, if you look at a state’s efforts as “the efforts of one state”, it’s different than if you look at it as “the efforts of the residents of one state.” But, given the difficulty we all seem to have arriving at a state consensus, it seems obvious that the latter is more accurate, which means Linus’s Law favors the 200 million discordant voices over the 52 discordant voices.
July 14th, 2006 at 4:06 pm
Wouldn’t Linus’s Law favor the fed approach, with all residents of all states looking at the problem and pooling their time and efforts, as opposed to the waste and duplication of the individual states looking at this separately?
(I suppose that, if you look at a state’s efforts as “the efforts of one state”, it’s different than if you look at it as “the efforts of the residents of one state.” But, given the difficulty we all seem to have arriving at a state consensus, it seems obvious that the latter is more accurate, which means Linus’s Law favors the 200 million discordant voices over the 52 discordant voices.
July 14th, 2006 at 4:08 pm
Ya know, I think of myself as qualified to post about techie stuff. I have the experience, the background, the CRED, you know? to do it.
And then I double-post.
(Sigh.)
(It’s so hard to maintain self-confidence in an expanding universe. Sometimes I wonder why I even try.)
July 15th, 2006 at 1:57 am
I guess I’m not sure what you mean bobby_b. Are at least I’m not understanding the distinction you’re trying to make.
Basically what I meant by applying Linus’s Law to the problem, is to basically equate each state or city to a developer. And each law to a path they took.
So with each city or state passing a different law (read: each developer following a different path), according to Linus’s Law one of them should hit upon a solution rather quickly.
However, the critical mass necessary for this to work, if it’s even applicable, I have no idea.
Either way I think the side effects are troubling enough that I would prefer not to find out.
July 15th, 2006 at 1:59 am
And I see that spurringirl still insists on calling anyone that knows anything about computers/software/hardware/anything electronic/etc an IT geek.
July 16th, 2006 at 9:28 pm
Yes, yes I do. However, I’ve never argued when I’ve been called a nerd based on my profession so I think that I have the creds to speak out.