Doctorow demonstrably knows more about this, and has thought about this, than me, but to me the answer seems somewhat straightforward: > Should your computer b

Doctorow demonstrably knows more about this, and has thought about this, than me, but to me the answer seems somewhat straightforward: > Should your computer be able to be compelled to tell the truth In the context of the soldered chip that "can't be removed" that can report the "truth" of the kernel etc, the answer to me is a simple, "it's impossible to know if the computer is telling the truth or not." Go to defcon once and you'll know this as true as well. No matter what, there's always a way in. There's always a hack. The harder you make it to hack, the more motivated those crazy people at defcon will be to break it. > Should there be a facility in your computer that you can’t control that other people can remotely trigger? "Other people" will never be "just the people you want." It will always include criminals, stalkers, and authoritarian governments. So the answer is a simple, "no."