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Ask HN: Software with biggest potential for positive impact in 5 years?

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Re: Ask HN: Software with biggest potential for positive impact in 5 years?

#121

Post by chakkepolja »

mikewarot wrote: post #108

I think that computer security causes a lot of other issues, like the Walled gardens, and the constant thread of cyber-attacks. A solid OS that is microkernel based, and ends up with a track record of stability is one of the most important things we need right now. With out it, people have to use the walled gardens to stay safe. Software innovation is stifled, and it's always there as an possible trigger for overbear…

Walled gardens are popular due to comfort & financial viability, It has nothing to do with security.

People will still use Android or iOS even if you build a state of art mobile OS based on SeL4 completely written in Rust & ATS, with more features and customizability than Android or iOS. Because it doesn't come preinstalled on their devices, and does not have popular apps.

I am afraid walled gardens are logical conclusion of the field, for the things industry tends to optimize.

Re: Ask HN: Software with biggest potential for positive impact in 5 years?

#122

Post by newbamboo »

perlgeek wrote: post #109

One thing we see over and over again leading to social injustice is the externalization of costs. Examples: * burning fossil fuels externalizes the cost of dealing with climate change * during the housing market crash of 2007, lots of risks were ultimately externalized to the state * plastic waste ending up in the ocean means somebody[tm] externalized the cost of not properly disposing of / recycling their waste ...…

Or hire an economist. That doesn’t scale the same as software, but if you get your econ students from poorer countries that might be one solution.

Re: Ask HN: Software with biggest potential for positive impact in 5 years?

#123

Post by junon »

nus07 wrote: post #98
mg wrote: post #12

I think that aggregating medical research studies could lead to a significant improvement of the worlds health situation. There are tens of millions of medical studies available online. But no system to look at the data in an aggregated way. I have been doing data analysis and aggregation in several fields. Every once in a while, I dabble with the concept and implementation of a tool to do it for medical studies. It…

I agree and for a start since most medical data come from hospital and outpatient systems -there is a very desperate need for something more modern and useable than a painful 'Epic' or 'Cerner' systems. Honestly how has silicon valley and newer tech not replaced those companies and their way of doing things?

I went down this road a few times. Tax laws, contract bidding, and money are the main reasons. Plus, writing such systems requires a large overlap of technology and medicine, which means a lot of high salaries on your payroll. Then you need to find places to buy it. That means getting hospitals and the like to break their usually multi-year contracts with Epic (they are largely subject to Sunken Cost problems as Epic costs a LOT of money).

And so on.

Re: Ask HN: Software with biggest potential for positive impact in 5 years?

#124

Post by chakkepolja »

martin_a wrote: post #53

Something like YouTube for learning videos, only. Spreading _solid_ knowledge about everything all over the world and people will be able to improve their societies, no matter where they are. That will probably have a huge impact.

I am thinking more like a self-hostable coursera, which institutions and companies can use to provide open education resources in form of courses.

Re: Ask HN: Software with biggest potential for positive impact in 5 years?

#125

Post by junon »

codethief wrote: post #115

Personally, I'm actually quite excited about Fuchsia (related HN thread -> https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=30827210 ). Not at all because of its Flutter-based UI but because of its security features. Security on Linux is really lacking and Qubes OS requires too many resources (in particular: battery power), so I'd love to have an OS that has security guarantees at least as strong as Android.

There are a number of projects in that space btw. I'm working on one of them. OS development has picked up considerable interest in the last few years for similar reasoning.

Re: Ask HN: Software with biggest potential for positive impact in 5 years?

#127

Post by yojo »

perlgeek wrote: post #109

One thing we see over and over again leading to social injustice is the externalization of costs. Examples: * burning fossil fuels externalizes the cost of dealing with climate change * during the housing market crash of 2007, lots of risks were ultimately externalized to the state * plastic waste ending up in the ocean means somebody[tm] externalized the cost of not properly disposing of / recycling their waste ...…

I’d love to see that software too, but most of the issues you describe (plastics, greenhouse gasses) had impacts that were non-obvious at the outset. Then they were controversial, then no longer controversial but heavily lobbied.

At the start of the industrial revolution no one knew about global warming. Then the science came out but was lobbied against. Now the science is (mostly) accepted, but we still don’t know concretely how expensive global warming is per ton of CO2.

I think these are scientific, social, and legislative problems. There may be a role for software around the edges, but the core is going to require research, public acceptance of research, and ultimately legislation.

Re: Ask HN: Software with biggest potential for positive impact in 5 years?

#129

Post by nanomonkey »

Conflict-free Replication Data Types (CRDTs) and private cryptographically signed ledgers (not proof of work public blockchains, but similar) are what excites me these days, as they allow for users to own their own data, securely create transactions and collaborate without the overhead of their data being held hostage on one companies servers. IPV6 rides along with this as something I look forward to, only because so much of the hassle of doing P2P networking is NAT traversal.

Gossip protocols like Secure Scuttlebutt allow for each application login to have it's own feed that others can verify through public key encryption, therefore marketplaces and collaborative tools can be built without relying on the servers of one corporation. Ideally something more compact like RSON can be incorporated.

CRDTs allow for consensus building applications were each individual collaborates on designs, documentation, contracts, voting, feedback, etc. Your data is usable without a network connection, backed up on your peer's computers and historically accurate.

Re: Ask HN: Software with biggest potential for positive impact in 5 years?

#130

Post by tgv »

lumannnn wrote: post #62

https://bitcoin.org/bitcoin.pdf - "Bitcoin & Renewable Energy Transition - Bitcoin Incentivizes Green Energy" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-SX1eCqwd3Q - "Can Bitcoin Mining Save the Environment? with Troy Cross" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bFYKq5Qe1Bs - "This Machine Greens" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b-7dMVcVWgc

The cognitive dissonance is off the charts.
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