authoritarianism is so ingrained in the fabric of software development
Based on this thesis I thought it was going to be a bit more meta about how software itself is inherently authoritarian-by-default from a technical perspective, how it takes active work to mitigate that dynamic, and how that spills over into our communities.
To illustrate this, I'll point to the differing mindset required to write secure code, and how most programmers are not good at it - ie modeling a second party who acts independently from the intent of the programmer. The programmer who doesn't do this is assuming an inherent authoritarianism whereby the code will only be used to carry out their intent, rather than as part of a mediation between parties with diverging interests. (security vulnerabilities specifically are the narrower "emperor has no clothes" dynamic)
We can see this manifest with how business types look at technologies like remote attestation (aka WEI, etc) - as a technique for preventing end users from using their own chosen software for their own purposes, in favor of the business's singular top-down vision/desires.
(OP essay focuses on social dynamics, which are much tougher to frame and substantiate arguments for. The attempt is laudable but then kind of falls flat due to only using one example (regardless of how flagrant of an example it is))
Comments
Based on this thesis I thought it was going to be a bit more meta about how software itself is inherently authoritarian-by-default from a technical perspective, how it takes active work to mitigate that dynamic, and how that spills over into our communities.
To illustrate this, I'll point to the differing mindset required to write secure code, and how most programmers are not good at it - ie modeling a second party who acts independently from the intent of the programmer. The programmer who doesn't do this is assuming an inherent authoritarianism whereby the code will only be used to carry out their intent, rather than as part of a mediation between parties with diverging interests. (security vulnerabilities specifically are the narrower "emperor has no clothes" dynamic)
We can see this manifest with how business types look at technologies like remote attestation (aka WEI, etc) - as a technique for preventing end users from using their own chosen software for their own purposes, in favor of the business's singular top-down vision/desires.
(OP essay focuses on social dynamics, which are much tougher to frame and substantiate arguments for. The attempt is laudable but then kind of falls flat due to only using one example (regardless of how flagrant of an example it is))