Lockdown – The coming war on general-purpose computing (2012)
This and Stallman's "Right to Read" (posted yesterday at <a href="https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=14332257" rel="nofollow">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=14332257</a> ) are particularly relevant given the whole WannaCry situation --- no doubt there will be plenty of authoritarian-minded thinking computers (and maybe even programming them) should be locked-down/regulated more, to stop such attacks.<p>In some sense, I rather take solace in the fact that hacks, attacks, cracks, leaks, etc. are continuing to happen regularly --- they are a sign that there is still some freedom left in society. "Imagine a world without crime" is a somewhat common phrase used by some, and if you actually do, you will realise that it would pretty much be the world of Orwell's 1984: there is no crime because there is no more freedom of thought nor action; everything has become under the control of some central authority.<p>This goes beyond computers, although they will be a large part of it; it's really a general war on <i>freedom</i>.