A Glimpse at the Future of Computing

I was thinking of the whole "Cloud Computing" controversy and was reminded of an article I read back in 2003.

A Glimpse at the Future of Computing

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by Phocks

published in 2600 Magazine Vol. 20, No. 1, Spring 2003

Imagine a world, if you will, plagued by terrorists and evildoers, whose weapon is the personal computer. It has powerful encryption used to block anyone from reading plans of how to destroy structures vital to a country's survival. It contains a slew of programs designed solely for destroying security and rendering the world helpless to attacks. And anonymously connecting to a terrorist network consisting of tens of thousands of systems just like it, bringing together all who oppose a country to share information and formulate plans of attack. Welcome to the government's view of the Internet. An innumerable array of systems that have direct access to any one another at any given time, able to share data with a grade of encryption higher than their own military standards.

Something must be done to contain the threat for the good of the world. These systems which are run without regulation of any kind; controlled and even built by those who operate them, must be stopped for there is no telling what they are doing. It has even been proven that millions of these systems can come together to shatter the encryption that holds this country's secrets (distributed.net). Something must be done - to let all activities be controlled, to bring all this terrorism to a halt. To shut down the Internet.

A scheme that sounds so improbable, nay, impossible, is easily completed. All that must be done is pass a new bill (or hide an appendage to an existing one) that will force the ISPs of the country to obey new government standards, to all connect to a central server array that is tightly controlled by the government, and shut off all access to foreign servers.

Simply put, dismantle the Internet in the United States (or any other country that wants to implement such a system) and rebuild it the "right" way. The way that can be constantly monitored for suspicious, terroristic activity.

Personal computers will also become completely incompatible with the new standard. In exchange for turning in your computer to the local recycling center, you will be given a voucher for a free USNet (the new, patriotic "Internet" name] terminal. The terminal will consist of a flat panel monitor, a moderate processor (450 MHz), a mediocre sound card, 32m of ram, a mouse, a keyboard, and a USNet connection card (proprietary) ISDN-based modem for both speed and compatibility. No hard drive, no networking card, no CD drive, no floppy drive, no external or internal media at all allowed. The USNet terminal will cost no more than $150 (less than $100 for manufacturers to build), and will be greatly appreciated by the manufacturers because of the extremely high profit made from selling millions of machines to anyone who wants a computer.

How it works without a hard drive is simple. The operating system is stored on pre-burnt ROM and is checked by the USNet servers every three minutes to make sure it's working properly. All web servers are run on the government's super cluster of servers, and a second cluster (or rather, section of the super cluster) is designated for the personal systems. Every user is allotted one gigabyte of storage on the USNet system, which is more than enough.

Everyone wins on this system, for downloads take mere seconds since the personal data section is directly linked with the servers. All programs are run remotely, and only the data that is entered to them (such as typed words in a word processor) is stored in ram until sent out. No trace of the program is allowed on the USNet terminal, for fear of terrorists editing the ram and taking control of the programs.

It even works out for software designers like Microsoft. Office tools will not need to be sold, only paid for on a per-use basis. That way everyone wins; the customer doesn't pay for anything that they don't use and the corporations get paid for every use.

Only programs carefully scrutinized by the government are allowed to be run and no amateur programming at all is allowed, for programs should be left to the corporations - that is what they are for. There is no need for a user to program anything. The corporations will take care of everything necessary, even special USNet games that are finally family-friendly. Even the censors will be happy.

Since USNet covers anything a computer should be used for in a free, but secure, society, all other computers will become illegal to own. Why would you have one for any other reason than keeping secrets from the government? Everything will be taken. But you will get money back because the government knows what an investment all that technology must have been. Desktop computers will be exchanged for $150, enough to buy a USNet terminal, and everything from laptops to PDAs will be confiscated on sight, but a voucher will be issued by the officer stating what model and condition it is, and will be cashed at a fair value (not to exceed $200).

All data that enters and exits the USNet clusters will be scanned thoroughly for anything that may be suspicious, such as terrorist-like texts that defame the country. All transactions between servers and personal areas will be logged, and personal data sections cannot send files to one another, lest there be music or movie piracy. In such a system, everyone will be happy because they can chat and play games and run office programs, and the government gets to carefully watch all activity for anything suspicious and keep a tight control of USNet to let it be safe for children to browse, since only their servers can communicate data. That way even the schools and parents can let young children browse the USNet without a single worry, for there will be no more pornography or online stalkers (because all communications are watched by specialized computers to look for any suspicious activity) and all activist pages like those that share information on the Secret Service to terrorist networks and those that actually help evil software pirates and hackers will be shut down forever.

Shoutouts to:
psykOmantis, Vie, Twilyght, Arwynn, everyone from SPR and Taps, and anyone who stands by my side, physically or digitally (too many to name personally). I'd like to point out the obvious - that the general happy and positive attitude is not my own. It merely fits the article.

Now, doesn't it strike you as uncanny? Scale the tech appropriately and there are some definite parallels to what Google is trying to do with its Chrome OS, a completely browser-based operating system.