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Comment by _dh54 | Hacker News Reader

The general public will lose access to cheap general purpose computers, to the extent that they even exist now. Maybe because it poses a threat but probably most because the general public doesn’t care about general purpose computing. There will be no outcry when it becomes inaccessible to them.

The government can never effectively ban general purpose computing in an authoritative way because it’s just too easy to build a computer. You can build a computer using a bunch of fpgas connected together. If they ban fpgas, hackers will start using 80s-style 8 bit micros.

That is all to say, the people who care about general purpose computing will never lose it and the people who don’t care won’t even notice.

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> The general public will lose access to cheap general purpose computers, to the extent that they even exist now.

How much did a general purpose computer cost 30 years ago?

How much did it cost 20 years ago?

How much did it cost 10 years ago?

How much does a Raspberry Pi Zero W cost now?

Despite the cheapness of those devices, they are increasingly irrelevant and inaccessible to the general public. They are instead being passed over for locked down devices like iPads and iPhones. To a normal person the mere thought of figuring out how to use a raspberry pi (or increasingly even a windows PC) induces a stress response.

How relevant and accessible to the public were general purpose computers in the past?

> To a normal person the mere thought of figuring out how to use a raspberry pi (or increasingly even a windows PC) induces a stress response.

I’d argue that this has always been true—the only difference is that now, if you’re willing to push through that stress, you can get one for dirt cheap. And I’d also argue that the reasons that this is true are completely ignored by the article at hand.

> How relevant and accessible to the public were general purpose computers in the past?

There were no alternatives in the past. Now that locked down alternatives have been invented, general purpose computers will slowly but surely fall out of use

So they've gone from not existing, to existing but expensive, to cheap and unpopular.

I see, there was a misread of my original comment. The bit about “to the extent that they exist now” is a comment on the state of current so called general purpose computers like the ones based on intel platforms. In appearance they are “general purpose” but there are various locked down subsystems that are not under the control of the user.

I never claimed they were expensive, not sure what you’re referring to there.

If they don't have a motivation to do so, sure, because it's extra work. Introduce a motivation, and that quickly changes given the wide range of introductory material out there.

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