Full Interview: Cory Doctorow on the War on General Computing

The black outs of Dark Wednesday are over and the United States Congress has listened, shelving the contentious anti-piracy bills SOPA and PIPA indefinitely. Now, you would think that the internet was finally safe from corporate control. Huzzah! Bring on the cat gifs!

You would be wrong. Sort of.

Sci-Fi author, journalist, and Happy Mutant at large Cory Doctorow believes the copyright wars are just the opening salvo in a much larger conflict. This time it’s not just the internet; what’s at stake is the fate of all computing.

From rendering game worlds to managing insulin pumps, computers do almost everything. Think about that. Computers are devices that can be set upon any task and we’ve readily embedded them in every aspect of our daily life. To most of us, that’s been the chief boon of the digital age. But that same universality is also a threat — corporations, governments, every vested monopoly is worried about the disruptive power of computing.

And according to Doctorow, this fear means general computing has a giant bullseye on it.

You can hear the full, uncut interview below, or download the MP3. [runs 29:03]

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