Slashdot Mirror
Doctorow on the War on General Purpose Computing
Cory Doctorow has posted the content of his talk delivered at Google this month on what he calls the coming civil war over general purpose computing. He neatly crystallizes the problem with certain types of (widely called-for) regulation of devices and the software they run — and they all run software. The ability to stop a general purpose computer from doing nearly anything (running code without permission from the mothership, or requiring an authorities-only engine kill switch, or preventing a car from speeding away), he says boils down to a demand: "Make me a general-purpose computer that runs all programs except for one program that freaks me out."
"But there's a problem. We don't know how to make a computer that can run all the programs we can compile except for whichever one pisses off a regulator, or disrupts a business model, or abets a criminal. The closest approximation we have for such a device is a computer with spyware on it— a computer that, if you do the wrong thing, can intercede and say, 'I can't let you do that, Dave.'"
I find it ironic that this guy writes an article about the kitchen sink and 'human rights' and inside it he makes this statement:
I've been hit by a car. I've cracked up a car. I'm willing to stipulate that humans have no business driving at all.
- so do I understand him correctly, he wants to prevent people from driving?
He is suffering from the same exact problem he is accusing everybody else of - wanting to control other people's lives.
You can't handle the truth.
... writes fiction, sadly has a blog.
Do you see what I did there?
Please, no bullcrap stuff on Cory Doctorow, Public Fraud #1. That clown practises extreme censorship on his site, only allowing the most vanilla comments, completely worthless in content. That stooge also has a hardon for the uber corporate TED talks, psychometrically staged events, much like those psychometrically timed studies form the oil company people, Pew Research Center, which faux crats and rightwingers who claim to be self-described "liberals" claims is "respectable" --- until you mention they were also responsible for that so-called study claiming the Corporate-controlled media propaganda machine is "liberal."
"I'm a woman who uses a PC and a Christian."
Wow, somebody who follows the ethos of a band of sheep herders who, a couple of thousand years ago, created rules to keep the peace in the tent.
And she's proud of it too, the bitch.