Mossberg: The Disappearing Computer

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If you haven’t yet read Walt Mossberg’s last column, it’s fascinating. From his first column, in the Wall Street Journal October 17, 1991: Personal co
[See the full post at: Mossberg: The Disappearing Computer]

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dononline, Elly, SueW, MikeFromMarkham, AJNorth, JDeC

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How quaint is his faith in laws and regulation to stop hacking, invasions of privacy, etc.

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It may be quaint to some but he is highlighting there are very weak privacy laws in the US (and many other countries). This lack allows many practices that are ethically dubious by various companies which ultimately hurt the user. Many of the practices of MS and Google that people complain about are perfectly legal in the US though many consider the practices to be very unethical. No laws means you are relying on the terms of a the EULA for protection.

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? says:

apologize for not being much of a paragraph reader, i missed out on eloquent description, was only looking for cmd line and reg tricks and searching (sometimes desperately) for a way to get out of the mess i had just created somewhere inside the box. loved the early 90’s ads in your link and now i realize why i liked you from the start of the get winx conundrum when i wandered in for outside help. maybe crossed paths with you at tulagi’s and/or down below at the sink near the bottom of the hill in the day. and i thought you were from somewhere back east…

everything changes and the good stuff remains

 

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Ah, Tulagis, I remember it well. And the Sink. My misspent youth… grad school at CU Boulder.

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Hummm … For some reason I have a queasy feeling in the pit of my stomach at the thought of even some of Mossberg’s divinations coming to fruition in just 10-to-20 short years. Especially the ambient computing thingy. I’ve been on the bleeding edge of “computing” since the ’70s, and up until Windows 8 came along almost five years ago, with their dumb “reimagining” running a smartphone OS on every device, including desktop computers, and even worse, giving birth to “Windows as a Service”, “computing” was fun and exciting. Now, not so much. Especially since every tech company on the planet is now also sucking up every individual’s personal information faster than you can say, “monthly cumulative update”. Everyone here knows what I’m talking about so no need to embellish.

But really, do we want a tech industry led by a company that gave us the screwed-up mess we have now to not only replace our computers, but als0 transform the environment all around us with intelligence and capabilities that don’t seem to be there at all?

I cringe at the thought of one day looking back and thinking that until ambient computing came along, during the good old days of  “Windows as a Service”, “computing” was fun and exciting. Now, not so much. Especially since every move I make and every thought I have is instantly shared with every company and government agency in the whole wide world.

Actually, I most likely won’t live that long, but my children and grandchildren will. 1984 will just be about 40 years late!

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Bill C., Ascaris, DeWayne12, HiFlyer, David F, MikeFromMarkham, AJNorth, Cybertooth

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…if we are really going to turn over our homes, our cars, our health and more to private tech companies, on a scale never imagined…

I’m not willing to turn my home, my car, my life, over to tech companies. I don’t want a “smart” car. If I’m not in control of my car, then someone else can be. And that’s exactly why “smart” cars and “smart” everything else are being pushed so hard.

Group "L" (Linux Mint)
with Windows 10 running in a remote session on my file server

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Cascadian, Bill C., samak, Alice, AlanH, Noel Carboni, dononline, Elly, DeWayne12, HiFlyer, SueW, Cybertooth, Deep Lurker, wdburt1

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“Smart” and “connected” do not necessarily have to go together.

We have had digital controllers in things for quite a long time that just can’t be remotely or unexpectedly hacked – simply because they’re not online.

My question to the industry is: What’s wrong with that?

Sure, they don’t self improve, but then again they don’t self infect either.

There’s a great line from Jurassic Park that seems to apply:

Your scientists were so preoccupied with whether or not they could, they didn’t stop to think if they should…

-Noel

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Cascadian, MrJimPhelps, Bill C., samak, Alice, dononline

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Great article, thanks Woody!

Noel says: “Smart” and “connected” do not necessarily have to go together.”

Great truthism! I have always felt that the “smarter” the device, the less smart the user.

That however is a result of my love of history. Marx opined on religion as the opiate of the masses. To me it is now the smart phone addiction, and the wanting to be connected. It is a solidification of the herd mentality, since when connected you are fed content instead of researching content and verifying its veracity. The “question everything” aspect is gone from regular stream education.

We have legislatures all over the world decrying texting and distracted driving, yet nary a peep as to the role of the auto companies being enablers with Wifi in cars. At least tech has taken a role in some ways. On the iPhone driving app Waze, it disables certain functions unless you tell it you are the passenger. I only encountered this as a passenger playing with the app.

Thanks for the Jurassic Park line also.

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Cascadian

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Big thanks for the historical framing, and what follows is not meant to unmake your point. But an observation in favor of progress.

When Mom used to say, ‘to much television hurts your eyes’ or ‘rots your brain’ after only two 30min programs, she had no way to predict being paid 8hrs/day to stare at a CRT. Or later, 12 or more hours with LED backlighting that VERY much hurt eyesight and mess with minds through altering our alert state artificially. We adapt, for good or ill, to progress.

With your point, is the all important manual-override. Final choice, decision, freedom, and responsibility belongs to the human. Taking that away is just a different kind of bondage.

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Walt to me was always a Apple guy. He always found fault with PC’s. Never really said a bad thing about Apple. What were seeing today is less about the end user doing the work and more about devices understanding what you want and doing the leg work. Its supposed to be about giving up privacy so the computers of the world can figure you out. You’ll be surprised how many can’t properly search the web for something. Now you have virtual assistants that can basically become an extension of you if you allow them too. The PC used to be a tool to gather information, now it has become a tool for others to gather information about you. I’ve used a PC so long I don’t really need assistants to help get information I need. But I understand how some people would gladly give up some privacy just to have artificial intelligence do it for them. I think many of us would still like a opt out rather then a automatic opt in.

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This discussion brings to mind a bit of dialog from the novel (and later film) “Fail-Safe”:

KNAPP: “The more complex an electronic system gets, the more accident-prone it is. Sooner or later, it breaks down… A transistor blows, a condenser burns out. Sometimes they just get tired, like people…”

GROETESCHELE: “But Mr. Knapp overlooks one thing. The machines are supervised by humans. Even if the machine fails, the human being can always correct the mistake.”

KNAPP: “I wish you were right. The fact is the machines work so fast; they are so intricate; the mistakes they make are so subtle that very often a human being can’t know if a machine is lying or telling the truth.”

And that was in 1962 (the film was released in 1964; six years later, another film involving computer-generated chaos was released: “Colossus – The Forbin Project”).

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