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These handheld devices will someday become so close to us that it will be difficult to tell where the device ends and where the human begins. Someday large segm

These handheld devices will someday become so close to us that it will be difficult to tell where the device ends and where the human begins. Someday large segments of the population are going to gladly submit some control of their mind to 3rd parties who know which programs and products are good for you, and which you are unauthorized to use. I'll decide what I want to run and what not to run on MY computer, thanks. I guess it comes down to whether you want to be a pet in a safe walled garden with a pre-programmed experience, or a free agent out there with terrors to freeze your soul and delights to satiate your every desire.

flatline 13y ago
This is a false dichotomy if there ever was one. I love my iOS devices, they just work, I can generally trust the software not to pwn my device, and really there's a lot of nice software to choose from. I also love hacking on the Linux kernel and gaming on Windows. I don't see such a threat of the walled gardens - it is one type of thing and it has its problems but it's not the only thing out there and I see no indication that it will be any time soon.
lukifer 13y ago
What you describe is already the world we live in. The comforts of digital feudalism vs. the freedom (and danger) of being a techno-ronin is gradually converging towards a serious civil rights issue. In a different political climate, anti-trust legislation would be warranted (Apple deserves it more than Microsoft ever did), but these days, lobbyists have regulatory capture down to an exact science. The open source crowd (and I don't mean Google; they merely shift their evil server-side) needs to continue competing with with the fiefdoms on user experience, because that's what's going to sway real users and influence the market, not lofty ambitions about freedom.
rimantas 13y ago
> Someday large segments of the population are going to > gladly submit some control of their mind to 3rd parties > who know which programs and products are good for you, and > which you are unauthorized to use. This is already in place and has nothing to do with technology. Just observe carefully all the stuff people get offended about, or call racist, or call sexist—usually there is little to no thinking involved, just conditioned response, sometimes reaching absurdity (like insisting that black person from UK should be called african-american). My impression is that in these cases people don't really have moral compass or deep understanding why something is right and something is wrong—this all was "outsourced" somewhere and all left are just learned reponses to stimuli, with extremely crude pattern recognition. And yes, to some degree this applies to those inceasingly speaking about walled-gardens.

flatline 13y ago

This is a false dichotomy if there ever was one. I love my iOS devices, they just work, I can generally trust the software not to pwn my device, and really there's a lot of nice software to choose from. I also love hacking on the Linux kernel and gaming on Windows. I don't see such a threat of the walled gardens - it is one type of thing and it has its problems but it's not the only thing out there and I see no indication that it will be any time soon.

lukifer 13y ago

What you describe is already the world we live in. The comforts of digital feudalism vs. the freedom (and danger) of being a techno-ronin is gradually converging towards a serious civil rights issue. In a different political climate, anti-trust legislation would be warranted (Apple deserves it more than Microsoft ever did), but these days, lobbyists have regulatory capture down to an exact science. The open source crowd (and I don't mean Google; they merely shift their evil server-side) needs to continue competing with with the fiefdoms on user experience, because that's what's going to sway real users and influence the market, not lofty ambitions about freedom.

rimantas 13y ago

> Someday large segments of the population are going to > gladly submit some control of their mind to 3rd parties > who know which programs and products are good for you, and > which you are unauthorized to use. This is already in place and has nothing to do with technology. Just observe carefully all the stuff people get offended about, or call racist, or call sexist—usually there is little to no thinking involved, just conditioned response, sometimes reaching absurdity (like insisting that black person from UK should be called african-american). My impression is that in these cases people don't really have moral compass or deep understanding why something is right and something is wrong—this all was "outsourced" somewhere and all left are just learned reponses to stimuli, with extremely crude pattern recognition. And yes, to some degree this applies to those inceasingly speaking about walled-gardens.