The war on general purpose computing

Today, many people tweeted about Cory Doctorow's keynote at the CCC. Every one that uses the internet on a daily basis should spend the 50 minutes to listen to it. It is smart and enlightened.

In this talk, he asserts that the fight against dumb copyright regulation is merely a battle in the war to protect the very nature of general purpose computing devices. And by extension, the war to save the internet.

The assertion is based on the fact that most technology-based solutions to protect digital assets imply creating locked computing platforms. Platforms where the user is not in control or aware of the software that runs on the computer. In essence trying to create a computing device that is specialized. The natural extension of this is that companies (and governments) won't have any incentive to produce/allow general purpose computers.

I agree with the argument. It is a really dangerous thing to not have any control over the software that runs on your computer. It has implications on many of your freedoms and it creates many potentials for abuse by corporations and governments.

The problem that I am seeing there is when he extends his argument to software that is running on the computer in your hearing aid or in your car. The idea of complete knowledge and freedom on what happens on your own devices is really appealing. But, aside from the people at that conference, who has time and knowledge to deal with that? Who will actively monitor and control software that runs on the hundreds of devices that they own?

Some devices, even if they are at heart a general purpose computer, need to be trusted implicitly. Accepting a trusted computing platform in some circumstances is one of those necessary compromises that we need to make in our modern lives.

There is only one alternative solution that I can see to this problem: Force (through legislation) the software that runs in our devices to be open-sourced. And then, you can trust any 3rd party you choose to validate the software that runs your devices or even do it yourself if you're so inclined.

But I wouldn't hold my breath for that.