Ask HN: What Is the Future of Software?

In a world dominated by the few, what is the future software and technology? Where are we in 2-3 decades from now? Watching Amazon, Apple, Google, Facebook and Microsoft become the giants that proliferate the real and virtual world, it's clear that they have far more power over people than governments. And that we choose willingly or unwillingly to give them that power over us.

What is the future of software in a world dominated by the few? Google is building an entire city, around it's HQ. Eventually citizenship of countries will fall to a different super power, the one created of tech giants that offer their own rules, their own housing, their own infrastructure and jobs. There was a day I was enthralled by the uprise of the FAANG companies, dismantling the existing incumbents. The irony of such a statement is not lost on me. But what now? Are we to really exist in a world where our very existence is dictated by those that would lead us to believe we have free will?

What is the future of software in a world where Apple gatekeeps not just what the people can use but also how they can make a living. Distribution is hard to build and Apple has done an incredible job creating a platform for distributing everyday applications to those who need it but at what price to the creators? How much of the livelihood of the creators should they be entitled to?

In a world dominated by the few where do we go from here? Where we pay rent to our AWS overlords to build the critical services of the world. Where we depend heavily on the technologies created by the oligopoly mob bosses of the internet era. In 2010 I looked at the world with great promise, excitement and exhilaration, to think, what would come to be. And today, I am not only disappointed but concerned at the future my children will be entrenched in, without the knowledge of how it came to be.

What is the future of software? I really don't know.