Something Worth Fighting For
I fear for the future of the PC. The whole of consumer tech seems to have embraced the idea of autopilot computing: we’ve traded our freedom of choice for hollow devices coated in black lacquer and chained to strict software repositories and restrictions. If we dare defy the manufacturer by running unapproved software, we risk remote deactivation and lawsuits.
I fear for the future of the Internet. As eagerly as we’ve surrendered general purpose computing, we’ve sold our right to access an unadulterated and open web. If we don’t take action to preserve net neutrality and to ensure that the carriers — and our representatives! — cannot strangle our Internet, soon we’ll find our web browsers just as crippled as our mobile devices.
I fear for the future of developers. With the workings and machinations of our computers buried beneath layers of abstraction, litigation, and restriction, future generations will be deprived of the discovery and learning that has characterized computing through the 80s, 90s, and 2000s. Those that do pursue programming will spend their time studying proprietary APIs and complex licenses with little hope of accessing source code let alone the hardware itself.
I submit that we’ve taken for granted the single most important aspect of the computing revolution: openness. The closed systems, networks, and technologies that loom on the horizon reek of 1984 and threaten to dissolve the progress humanity has made over these past decades. This is something worth fighting for.
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