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Lockdown: The coming war on general-purpose computing (2011)

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Re: Lockdown: The coming war on general-purpose computing (2011)

#11

Post by musicale »

>"fix the Internet so that thepiratebay.org no longer resolves," sounds a lot like .. “take that pizzeria on the corner off the phone network," and not like an attack on the fundamental principles of internetworking.

I don't get this - disconnecting the pizzeria from the phone network seems more severe than simply removing it from the yellow pages. If you remove thepiratebay from DNS you can still reach it via its IP address, you can still link to it, and you can probably still find it using search engines.

Re: Lockdown: The coming war on general-purpose computing (2011)

#16

Post by nixpulvis »

saltcured wrote: post #12
nixpulvis wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Or maybe they'll slowly replace it, while you lie dying in bed unaware as to the problem.

Shall we dub this the Chip of Theseus?

I like it! Hopefully we replace things with more open and frankly humane standards. Or we aren't worthy of the tales of gods.

Also, I have questions about Theseus' consciousness ;)

Re: Lockdown: The coming war on general-purpose computing (2011)

#17

Post by Buttons840 »

narrator wrote: post #10

When AI gets smart enough to do bad things there will definitely be a lockdown. What happens when you can program your robot to commit crimes for you? You won't be able to load certain types of programs by law. They are already doing this with geofencing for drones.

I disagree. It may be a convenient narrative for those who want to lock down computers, even on the desktop, but remember that our desktop computers have had intelligent agents capable of committing crimes for decades, and it hasn't been a big problem all things considered. Of course, by "intelligent agent" I'm referring to the animal that operates the computer by pushing buttons.

If machine learning and other advanced AI produces sophisticated programs capable of assisting in these crimes, or of performing the crimes automatically, how will that change anything? The human pushing buttons committed a crime and got caught, the advanced AI committed a crime and got caught, what's the difference? Either way the person responsible for the computer is punished.

Of course, if computers reach super-human intelligence, then all bets are off, and having access to general purpose computers might be the least of our concerns.

Re: Lockdown: The coming war on general-purpose computing (2011)

#18

Post by ClassyJacket »

nixpulvis wrote: post #4
basicplus2 wrote: post #2

You'll take my general purpose computer from my cold dead hands!

Or maybe they'll slowly replace it, while you lie dying in bed unaware as to the problem.

Apple is already doing this. They've recently required that ALL software run on Mac is signed by them, even apps from outside of the App Store.

https://developer.apple.com/news/?id=04102019a

Not much longer until we can't run software Apple doesn't like at all.

Because I shouldn't get a say in what I run on my four thousand dollar computer, of course.

Re: Lockdown: The coming war on general-purpose computing (2011)

#19

Post by saagarjha »

ClassyJacket wrote: post #18
nixpulvis wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Or maybe they'll slowly replace it, while you lie dying in bed unaware as to the problem.

Apple is already doing this. They've recently required that ALL software run on Mac is signed by them, even apps from outside of the App Store. https://developer.apple.com/news/?id=04102019a Not much longer until we can't run software Apple doesn't like at all. Because I shouldn't get a say in what I run on my four thousand dollar computer, of course.

All developer-ID signed software downloaded from the internet with the quarantine bit set.

Re: Lockdown: The coming war on general-purpose computing (2011)

#20

Post by saagarjha »

> People who took the software without paying for it were untouched.

This is a fundamental issue of DRM: people who "break the rules" end up better for it. If you annoy people, they will find ways around your rules, and then you won't be able to touch them.

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