Gold point! But, the real world is so far gone by now that fully GPLed computing isnt realistic right now. I would first try to push for more users of non corporate OSes for the beginning, let's say more /e/ more lineage more graphene OS users. And maybe cool alternatives to Maps applications like OSMand
fmajid · 1h ago
Not a good term. Anti-personnel mines do exactly what they are intended to do. These devices/software do something against the interests of the user in the process of doing something the user actually wants (otherwise why would the user even get them?).
Perhaps "Faustian computing"?
Zambyte · 1h ago
Anti-personnel computers also do exactly what they're intended to do. The interests of the subject are not considered a priority, just like with mines.
> otherwise why would the user even get them?
Why does a moth fly into a flame?
schroeding · 3m ago
Hostile computing systems have some upside for the user, though - and if it's only getting dopamine from watching funny videos.
Anti-personnel mines have no upside for the, eh, "user" at all - they just die or get maimed.
People use hostile computing systems, sometimes even if they know they are hostile, because it does something useful or desirable for them. Nobody who isn't suicidal would, on their own volition, on purpose trigger an anti-personnel mine. If a moth knew the funny light kills them, they also wouldn't fly into it. That's a significant difference, IMO.
rixed · 37m ago
At the contrary, to me the term evoked exactly what the author meant.
And after the series of detonations of the communication devices in Lebanon some time ago, the analogy with anti-personnel mines takes an even more concrete and sinister meaning.
cess11 · 1h ago
Where in this do you see the connection to worldly, scientific, knowledge?
keisborg · 31m ago
I love term how it plays on the words and the negative association we have with anti-personell mines
If we could have a ban on anti-personell computers…
Tepix · 2h ago
It's all in the software. Avoiding systems that work against you is harder than ever. Even our brains betray us, falling for the dopamine rushes expertly assembled by the exploiters.
An unchecked drive for profit maximisation is often at the source of this evil. Cory Doctorow has expertly described the phenomenon in his essays¹ about enshittification, a term he coined. He has raised a lot of awareness, yet we're still in a timeline where non-profit, decentralised services have small market shares. Perhaps the Leidensdruck, i.e. the degree of suffering, is not yet great enough?
anti-personal computing: data collection, closed ecosystem, dark patterns, opaque programs, central control
anti-personnel computing: the use of a computing system to target, harm, control or neutralize individuals
pjc50 · 2h ago
Eh. I think "user hostile" or "hostile architecture" (like unsleepable benches) is a better analogy, reserving anti-personnel for those cases where computers are used in genuinely dangerous ways. Like the Chinese ethnicity-recognizing security cameras.
from https://www.gnu.org/philosophy/keep-control-of-your-computin...
Perhaps "Faustian computing"?
> otherwise why would the user even get them?
Why does a moth fly into a flame?
Anti-personnel mines have no upside for the, eh, "user" at all - they just die or get maimed.
People use hostile computing systems, sometimes even if they know they are hostile, because it does something useful or desirable for them. Nobody who isn't suicidal would, on their own volition, on purpose trigger an anti-personnel mine. If a moth knew the funny light kills them, they also wouldn't fly into it. That's a significant difference, IMO.
If we could have a ban on anti-personell computers…
An unchecked drive for profit maximisation is often at the source of this evil. Cory Doctorow has expertly described the phenomenon in his essays¹ about enshittification, a term he coined. He has raised a lot of awareness, yet we're still in a timeline where non-profit, decentralised services have small market shares. Perhaps the Leidensdruck, i.e. the degree of suffering, is not yet great enough?
--
¹ https://www.wired.com/story/tiktok-platforms-cory-doctorow/
anti-personnel computing: the use of a computing system to target, harm, control or neutralize individuals