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28c3: The coming war on general computation

28c3 · 267.1K views · 2011-12-28 · 54:35

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Overview

Cory Doctorow's 28c3 keynote argues that the copyright wars were just a skirmish and that the real fight will be a war on the general-purpose computer. He explains why locked-down devices, DRM and surveillance tools all depend on removing general computation.

On Hacker News

HN returns to it constantly as a prescient talk, cited whenever threads cover DRM, locked-down devices, app verification or restrictions on running your own software.

Recommended by 6 HN people across 6 months · HN mentions 2011–2026

Topics

Hacker culture & free softwareFree speech, censorship & civil libertiesPrivacy, surveillance & cybercrime
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drmcopyrightcory doctorowlocked-down devicesccc

What people said

pdkl95 · 2014-09 · Strong recommendation

> the idea that users shouldn't be developers has lead to a situation in which access to development tools and information are seemingly treated as a privilege instead of a right Unfortunately, a lot of people have been starting the War On General Purpose Computing[1] for a while now. While many people saw Doctorow's first talk[1] on the War On General Purpose computing, his sequel talk[2] about the upcoming Civil -War On General Purpose Computing is one of the most important talks I've ever seen. The talk is about exactly this point: Turing completeness scares various traditional powers (and some new/upcoming powers), and their instinct is to lash out and try to mandate that someone make a computer that can't run the various programs that scare them. Not understanding what "Turing Complete" means, they end up in a cycle that tries to blacklist anything that allows these scary programs to be written and used. Hiding the dev tools is just one step on a path that - by definition - must end up with the hobbling of computing devices until they are no longer Turing complete. This problem needs to be fought right now , in a big way. The non-technical population is just starting to understand the full impact of what it means to have a General Purpose Computer, and we are only seeing the first skirmishes. The 2nd talk I mentioned above by Doctorow[2] - which I very strongly recommend that everybody watch - points out how modern concerns over "dev tools" (or "copyright") are trivial.

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ugh · 2011-12 · Strong recommendation

It’s worth watching the talk (linked in the article, but special pointing out seems appropriate): [VIDEO] I like to call it the secret keynote of 28C3.

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supern0va · 2026-03 · Recommendation

Is it a serious problem that you can run whatever software you want on your computer? Should we make it so that no one can do that without permission to protect them? I recommend Cory Doctorow's talk on why this is a serious problem for society: [LINK] [VIDEO]

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Sources

Video by 28c3, played through YouTube.

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