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> As in-a planetwide em-event knocks out all computation This is an impossible scenario. There will always be working computers somewhere, either shielded, ex

> As in-a planetwide em-event knocks out all computation This is an impossible scenario. There will always be working computers somewhere, either shielded, excluded from the disaster, or by luck. Now they may not be the easiest thing to get to, and if all you can find is an iPhone or some other trusted compute platform you're probably SOL.

TeMPOraL 2y ago
> and if all you can find is an iPhone or some other trusted compute platform you're probably SOL. Good point. The computer age is already poised to become a historical dark age; increasing adoption of trusted computing is only going to make this more severe. On the other hand, some of it is necessary; on the other, security is the sworn enemy of sugar, spice and everything nice.
RodgerTheGreat 2y ago
A scenario where general-purpose "unlocked" computers become extremely rare and nearly every computing device is a non-user-programmable appliance designed not to function without remote servers and regularly cycled cryptographic keys seems possible, though not inevitable. It would be a very stupid kind of apocalypse to live through if a solar storm didn't destroy many actual computers but did enough damage to brick 99.999% of the computers that survived intact, and left civilization with a crippling bootstrapping problem of capital's own design.
- candiddevmike 2y ago
  > left civilization with a crippling bootstrapping problem of capital's own design Sounds like the delicious irony humanity is known for.
rustcleaner 2y ago
>if all you can find is an iPhone or some other trusted compute platform you're probably SOL This reason alone should be impetus, for national security reasons, to severely tax products containing universal machines the device owner does not have full control over (by additional purposeful actions beyond owners' simple ignorance of the technology). I say a 100% sales tax on the retail price is fair, all tax proceeds going to fund GNU-compatible competition to the likes of iPhone and Playstation (and your proprietary microwave, and car, and TV, and ...). A post collapse society having to deal with iPhones hopefully will adopt the [corporate] death penalty for proprietary shenanigans like this. It is borderline treasonous how many people will die because your product's bootloader was locked! Unforeseen consequences, Gordon.

TeMPOraL 2y ago

> and if all you can find is an iPhone or some other trusted compute platform you're probably SOL. Good point. The computer age is already poised to become a historical dark age; increasing adoption of trusted computing is only going to make this more severe. On the other hand, some of it is necessary; on the other, security is the sworn enemy of sugar, spice and everything nice.

RodgerTheGreat 2y ago

A scenario where general-purpose "unlocked" computers become extremely rare and nearly every computing device is a non-user-programmable appliance designed not to function without remote servers and regularly cycled cryptographic keys seems possible, though not inevitable. It would be a very stupid kind of apocalypse to live through if a solar storm didn't destroy many actual computers but did enough damage to brick 99.999% of the computers that survived intact, and left civilization with a crippling bootstrapping problem of capital's own design.

candiddevmike 2y ago
> left civilization with a crippling bootstrapping problem of capital's own design Sounds like the delicious irony humanity is known for.

rustcleaner 2y ago

>if all you can find is an iPhone or some other trusted compute platform you're probably SOL This reason alone should be impetus, for national security reasons, to severely tax products containing universal machines the device owner does not have full control over (by additional purposeful actions beyond owners' simple ignorance of the technology). I say a 100% sales tax on the retail price is fair, all tax proceeds going to fund GNU-compatible competition to the likes of iPhone and Playstation (and your proprietary microwave, and car, and TV, and ...). A post collapse society having to deal with iPhones hopefully will adopt the [corporate] death penalty for proprietary shenanigans like this. It is borderline treasonous how many people will die because your product's bootloader was locked! Unforeseen consequences, Gordon.