I don't think it has anything to do with PC and has a lot to do with being C. There's a lot of bravado among older programmers that carries over from a time when they really could do whatever they wanted because stuff needed to get done and a principled, lone gunman solution could actually be a much closer approximation of correct than some BS consensus built monster.
That simply isn't the world we work in anymore. Everything has been done and if it's being done again it's because the subtle mistakes and approximations of the past aren't good enough. Linus' complaints about the scheduler are the best example of what I'm talking about. A scheduler is a super hard problem now and there's a lot of complexity to wrestle with that simply didn't exist in 2001.
Anyway, the kernel is still open and discussion is still happening so I don't think we're in some kind of crisis. Good for Linus to take time off - maybe this will be an opportunity to develop processes that can create a more dynamic open source environment, one less reliant on a few individuals.
Being sure that it's really my son talking to me over the phone is primarily a communication problem, no? The social and political implications are quite large, but they can be addressed by solving the communication problem. This can involve crypto.
Or am I missing something?
(I say nothing for or against the particular scheme proposed by gp, just against parent's implied generalized dismissal of crypto to solve this problem)
Agree. I was just talking about a pure technical issue of voice synthesize, and its implications to voice encryption. In other words, a communication-over-the-phone problem. I didn't mention nor intended to talk from a political or social perspective.
While I understand the parent comment's stance that cryptography is not the magic sauce, I don't think it's related to my comment.
Cryptography can solve social problems, but the problems need to be approached from a social perspective, not a computer science perspective. There's a hint of this type of approach in the work of Keybase.
And that's why my new startup is all about COBOL on the Blockchain! Next step is an ICO to raise enough money to thaw out some good COBOL programmers...
The entire economy of the world is a time bomb since it is predicated on exponential growth continuing indefinitely into the future. That cannot happen, so sooner or later we need to radically shift gears or we're in for a world of hurt. It's a question of when, not if. But since the current regime has been working for several millennia now, it is hard to make the case that The End is Near. It may or may not be.
>The entire economy of the world is a time bomb since it is predicated on exponential growth continuing indefinitely into the future.
Adding zeros is not that hard. Munis have actual tax bases and actual obligations and those seem out of step in some situations. That muni debt will be mispriced because of tax incentives seems obvious.
Municipalities are in the same spot that Greece or Italy is in. They have debt in a currency they do not issue. They cannot devalue or inflate that debt away. Therefore they have to manage their debt as a corporation or state would, but they are much smaller and less flexible. Bad buy.
