Amped Tech

The folowing post is attribuited to Aaron, from http://www.securegfx.net. His link is now on the side of the site. This was part of the Submit Post Program. Thanks Aaron!
This is from OSWeekly, the designers of a new OS.

Imagine if you will, a world where your ideas and perhaps, even your own creative works became part of the OS of tomorrow. Consider the obvious advantages to an operating system that actually morphed and adapted to the needs of the users instead of the other way around. Not only is there no such OS like this, the very idea goes against much of what we are currently seeing in the current OS options in the market.

It’s like my PC loves me. It makes no difference which operating system you choose. With every version of Windows, OS X and Linux, you must use certain given functions to accomplish specific tasks. This has served us well since the very beginning, but perhaps it’s time for a change to this perceived "norm"? Now before we start jumping to any conclusions, let’s examine this very closely.

Here’s an example for you: imagine you are sitting there working away on a video project. After stopping for a break, your OS pops up with a small alert box asking you if you’d like the PC to roll into adaptive mode. You select yes and the OS begins to learn, as you work, what your needs are.

You go to open your video project again after lunch and almost immediately, you find that the program feels more in tune and responsive to your needs. On the second monitor, you discover a virtual palette of all the editing tools you use the most. No longer are you being forced to locate the editing tools you need from some arcane menu. No, instead your PC has done the work for you with no interaction on your part whatsoever. Sounds interesting? Just wait, it gets weirder…

During the course of your editing work, your PC has already learned from previous experiences that you do not like to be bothered with e-mail alerts when working on specific projects. It’s not so much the software being used mind you, rather the type of "work" being done at the time.

An important e-mail from your client comes rolling in along with a number of less important messages. Thanks to Brand X OS’ new probability engine, the only e-mail you are alerted to is the one the OS knows will be critical. Even though the other less important e-mails are coming from the same person, your OS understands how to handle this just the way you prefer.

Entering the Sci-Fi Mode. If a lot of this strikes you as a little too "2001 – A Space Odyssey," that would be because of the power that is being described to a single machine. In many Sci-Fi movies, we have seen the power and the danger of computers gone mad.

But back on Earth, would a more likely danger be something a bit more grounded? Instead of AI gone mad, maybe it might be just a single company that has the power to control all of that information that the OS described above has learned about you?

Consider what it would be like if you discovered that all of the daily work habits that you "taught" your PC were somehow stolen from a company who was using it for marketing research. Seriously, look at all of the privacy problems that AOL has been plagued with lately. They’re not a malicious company really; they’re just amazingly naive with your data.

So before too many of us become overly excited about the prospect of having a PC that totally anticipate our every whim, we ought to consider the consequences of such ability. I don’t think there is any question whatsoever that enjoying the fruits of tomorrow’s coders will be something truly amazing. However, nothing in life is free. And this includes the right to privacy with our operating systems.

When I first thought of this topic for discussion, I was all but convinced that having an operating system that could do much of my thinking for me was the way to go. But when we turn over that much control over to a glorified toaster, we are simply screaming someone to come along and help themselves to that kind of access. Seriously, can you imagine the type of spyware that could match this? Yeah, that would most certainly keep me up at night, too.