"Personal" computers were subversive when first introduced. They were designed for complete control by an individual. They were also, initially, not networked.

"Personal" computers were subversive when first introduced. They were designed for complete control by an individual. They were also, initially, not networked. When networks first appeared it was with the assumption that the user community of the network did not have a persistent high level of malicious security threats. In a kludgy, gradual way personal computers were tamed. This was inevitable. If you network completely general purpose, user-controlled machines in an institutional environment you will get security chaos. Some of this, though, like putting digital rights management into personal computers, was tragically evil. What we are left with is neither here nor there: Computers are not secure. Our communications are not secure and are under constant surveillance. And we do not control machines we supposedly own. Lose, lose, lose. You cannot have security and surveillance and central control of "personal" devices. You cannot protect "digital rights" and sell entertainment content to users that truly control their personal computers.