28c3: The coming war on general computation
252,898
Published 2011-12-28
Description: events.ccc.de/congress/2011/Fahrplan/events/4848.e…
Cory Doctorow: The coming war on general computation
The copyright war was just the beginning
The last 20 years of Internet policy have been dominated by the copyright war, but the war turns out only to have been a skirmish. The coming century will be dominated by war against the general purpose computer, and the stakes are the freedom, fortune and privacy of the entire human race.
The problem is twofold: first, there is no known general-purpose computer that can execute all the programs we can think of except the naughty ones; second, general-purpose computers have replaced every other device in our world. There are no airplanes, only computers that fly. There are no cars, only computers we sit in. There are no hearing aids, only computers we put in our ears. There are no 3D printers, only computers that drive peripherals. There are no radios, only computers with fast ADCs and DACs and phased-array antennas. Consequently anything you do to "secure" anything with a computer in it ends up undermining the capabilities and security of every other corner of modern human society.
And general purpose computers can cause harm -- whether it's printing out AR15 components, causing mid-air collisions, or snarling traffic. So the number of parties with legitimate grievances against computers are going to continue to multiply, as will the cries to regulate PCs.
The primary regulatory impulse is to use combinations of code-signing and other "trust" mechanisms to create computers that run programs that users can't inspect or terminate, that run without users' consent or knowledge, and that run even when users don't want them to.
The upshot: a world of ubiquitous malware, where everything we do to make things better only makes it worse, where the tools of liberation become tools of oppression.
Our duty and challenge is to devise systems for mitigating the harm of general purpose computing without recourse to spyware, first to keep ourselves safe, and second to keep computers safe from the regulatory impulse.
Transcript: github.com/jwise/28c3-doctorow/blob/master/transcr… (CC-BY by Joshua Wise)
SRT file with detailed timings (created automatically by YouTube) gist.github.com/3193854
All Comments (21)
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In Lollipop 2.0, you'll get to turn the alarm off, and the red bar is also cool
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Wow good taste Sam
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i'm paying 60 dollars a month FOR SPAM
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Chuck Berry died today
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I remember seeing this 10 years ago and thinking "well, that's something to keep in mind". It didn't seem too relevant yet, or that inevitable. Now it's already too late.
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It sends a chill down my spine on how prophetic this was. Here we are, in 2020, with Apple releasing new Macs that don't allow you to run any other operating system besides MacOS. And if you try and run any of your own binaries inside MacOS, they must be Signed and Approved by Apple, otherwise it's going to be hell to run them. Stallman was right.
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R E D
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t h a n k y o u s a m
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I had a piece of software in the 1980s that required authentication by using a wierd lens plus key word from the manual, then key it into the computer before the game would load. Used it only once, and never bought their software again. Until computer hardware is (eventually) open-source, we won't truly own our tech stuff.
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What he talks about starting at 45:40 is what the "Ghost In The Shell" tv series meant when they used the phrase "standalone complex".
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This will become reality as soon as THE CLOUD is in full effect. No device will run its own software, and the companies will have total control.
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I listen to this whenever I do the dishes so I can memorize it
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It's sad that 6 years later we still have the same problems.
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Watching this in 2019. Many questions raised in this video really provide the answers we need today. Like companies such as Apple having monopoly over iOS and not letting people install software or remove software as they wish. There is no way to change default apps such as Safari, maps and mail etc. Recently uBlock origin has been removed from Google chrome and Microsoft app stores.
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Suddenly, my obsession with vintage/obsolete computer systems isn't seeming quite so bad ;-) Not too sure I like the way things are going - having grown up in a certain age of computing, I do very much like to own the hardware I buy, and run precisely what I choose on the bastard!
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"my computer runs funny and--* thunderous applause
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Is there going to be a written version of this talk in the nearer future? Frankly, I think this is one of the most important talks given so far in the 21 century, right at a turning point in time. So publish largely, please!
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Sam please get that cough checked out.
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Sam hyde sent me
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"My wife used to play Quake for England" I think this is the first time in my life I have felt status envy.
