curl http://www.winestockwebdesign.com/Essays/Eternal_Mainframe.html |
  pandoc -fhtml -tasciidoc |
  grep -E 'The Endgame' -A38 -B8

By extending the capabilities of computers to their technological _and_
logical limits, we get computers controlling mundane gadgets and doing
major calculations. Good user experience demands that the computer
interface should get out of the way, that it be _invisible_. Thus, it
makes sense to present only as much computing power as the user needs.

The mainframe is the eternal computing platform.

==== The Endgame

____
Janie Crane: “An off switch?”

Metrocop: “She'll get years for that. Off switches are illegal!”

-_Max Headroom_, season 1, episode 6, “The Blanks”
____

The desktop computer won't completely disappear. Instead, the outward
form of the personal computer will be retained, but the function — and
the design — will change to a terminal connected to the cloud (which is
another word for server farm, which is another word for mainrack, which
converges on mainframes, as previously prophesied). True standalone
personal computers may return to their roots: toys for hobbyists.

Those who continue to do significant work offline will become the
exception; meaning they will be an electoral minority. With so much
effort being put into web apps, they may even be seen as eccentrics;
meaning there may not be much sympathy for their needs in the halls of
power.

So much personal data in the hands of a small number of corporations
presents a tempting target for governments. We've seen many pieces of
legislation meant to facilitate cooperation between Big Business and Big
Government for the sake of user surveillance. Some of this legislation
has even been defeated. We will see more. Where legislation fails, we
will see court precedents. Where the courts fail, we will see treaties.
When all of those fail, the bureaucrats will hand down new sets of rules
by fiat.

Big Business will be on their side; whether as masters, lessers, or
partners does not make much difference.

Offline computer use frustrates the march of progress. If offline use
becomes uncommon, then the great and the good will ask: “What are you
hiding? Are you making kiddie porn? Laundering money? Spreading hate? Do
you want the terrorists to win?”

curl http://www.winestockwebdesign.com/Essays/Eternal_Mainframe.html |
  pandoc -fhtml -tasciidoc |
  grep -E 'What Must be Done' -A29

==== What Must be Done

____
If only there were evil people somewhere insidiously committing evil
deeds and it were necessary only to separate them from the rest of us
and destroy them. But the line dividing good and evil cuts through the
heart of every human being. And who is willing to destroy a piece of his
own heart?

-Alexander Solzhenitsyn
____

We must establish as many precedents as we can to preserve the right to
buy, build, use, sell, donate, and keep fully functional, general
purpose, standalone computers. Plenty of activists are already doing
that. This is good.

What I have not heard those activists say — what I advise — is that we
should second-guess ourselves as well as our masters. The point of this
essay is that it's not only advancing technology that has recreated the
mainframe and the abuses to which it is prone; the very desire for
absolute freedom has done its part, as well. The good intentions of our
fellow nerds who promised to _not be evil_ has brought us to this.

This is not a fight between Good Guys and Bad Guys. This is a balancing
act. Some rule; others are ruled. This is a harsh truth. We can't change
that. We can soften the edges. This will require a conversation to which
we must invite philosophers, ethicists, theologians; people who have
thought deeply on what it takes to make a just society. Otherwise, we
will — yet again — find ourselves back where we started.