To clarify my work on Industrial Strength Computer Science, starting in 1969 with the PP250, and the principles of the Lambda Calculus, my views on the future of digital society and the Information Age have become dystopian. Unless citizens rebel together, we will be forever slaves to digital dictators.
Author & Motivation
The Moment: On stage at SIGOPS '77, in an argument with Butler Lampson, I realised that computer science had abandoned mathematically sound, secure computer science, exemplified by the Church-Turing Thesis and the Plessey System 250 (PP250), in favour of fast but fundamentally flawed "General-Purpose" binary computers. It was still the Cold War days of top-down, mechanical security led by the traditional view of warfare. But, in the fullness of time, we were building a global civilisation for the everlasting Information Age and World War III to be fought in global Cyberspace.
Why does it matter? Because cybersecurity isn't about computers anymore; it's about civilisation. If the digital foundation crumbles, democratic nations go with it. You cannot build a democratic, free cybersociety on enslaved hardware.
Evolution of Thinking: My focus has shifted from the "how" of hardware (Microcode/architecture) to the "now" of survival. With the rise of AI, the flaws in binary computing are no longer just bugs—they are existential threats that enable "unspeakable and unstoppable" malware to hurt individuals, impede social progress, freeze industry, and turn democracy into surveillance dictatorships.
Core Thesis & Big Ideas
Blind Trust: General-purpose computers are designed to immediately execute any instruction given to them, good or bad, without question. It has no conscience and no built-in security to stop theft and prevent malware. It is an "open door" design, whereas a secure computer should be a function-tight, data "vault" that requires a key for every "named" action.
WWII Legacy: Instead, computers still use a mechanical architecture designed for ballistics and code-breaking—individual tasks that required raw speed—before these tasks were integrated and the world was interconnected in cyberspace. Today and forever, we have speed, but we lack digital security. We took a calculator designed for war in the Mechanical Age and tried to build a global Information Age society on it, ignoring the dangerous fact that it lacked the internal capacity for civil, lawful interactions.
Digital Convergence: We are already at the brink. By connecting critical, national infrastructure to insecure General-Purpose machines, we weaponised our own discomfort and inconvenience. It is now a question of national survival. Until we switch the foundation, the damage is irreversible, and the future is dystopian.
Cyber Democracy & Citizen Power
Keys to Privacy: True privacy is holding the "Golden Token" (an immutable capability) as a key to digital wealth. If you have the key, you own the data. Now, the "system" has all the keys, meaning you own nothing. The war of the world has moved to cyberspace, where hard work, inspiration, and democracy itself, which is driven by individuals, are lost.
Control Surrendered: Most people think they are users; in reality, they are products. They have surrendered absolute power to the "superuser" privileges and the surveillance system inherent in branded binary operating systems.
Government vs. Citizen: Citizens must demand Industrial Strength Computer Science as a consumer right—safety by design. Governments must stop funding insecure "legacy" hardware and mandate liability for software that fails to protect the public.
Artificial Intelligence & Existential Risk
Super-Intelligent Malware: It is a catastrophic certainty on current hardware. An AI doesn't need to be "conscious" to destroy us; it just needs to be efficient at exploiting the open memory of General-Purpose computers. We are totally unprepared because our defences are software patches, not physical laws.
What Keeps Me Up: The speed of the surprise attack. Automated AI malware can exploit the global namespace faster than any human can react. It is the "perfect storm" meeting the "perfect victim." The binary computer cannot defend itself, so it cannot defend us in the next World War.
The Singularity: It is inevitable, but its nature is our choice, or lack of it. On our current path, it is a cataclysm. However, by switching to Church-Turing architectures based on the Lambda Calculus, we can constrain AI within mathematical bounds, making it a tool instead of a tyrant.
Industrial Strength Computer Science
The Fundamental Difference: Today's systems rely on "permission" (Orwellian software surveillance and event checks that can be bypassed). Scientific security depends on hard engineering facts as limited "Capabilities." These mathematical tokens are only distributed on a need-to-know basis. In a Church Meta-Machine, the unforgeable ticket (the Golden Token) enables the system to physically act.
Global Change: It pays for itself by eliminating the financial losses over "cybersecurity." Trust becomes intrinsic to the Church-Meta-Machine instructions (LOAD, SAVE, CALL, RETURN, CHANGE, and SWITCH). You don't need antivirus software for a flawless mathematical machine that cannot be infected and produces no garbage.
Tangible Benefits: The end of identity theft, the end of Ransomware, and the elimination of chaos through traditional passwords. You carry your digital rights as unforgeable tokens.
Ethics, Law & the Future of Society
Law in the Electronic Age: Laws are now just words on paper. In the Information Age, code is the law, and the reason why digital dictators are so dangerous. So, the hardware must enforce a citizen's legal rights. You cannot litigate against a millisecond-speed AI attack; you must block it architecturally, by design.
Ethical Responsibility: Ethics cannot be programmed or legislated. Engineers must stop optimising solely for speed and start prioritising safety. Continuing to deploy General-Purpose binary code is like the 737 MAX, and other dangerous products, professional negligence. It should be prosecuted by the Government.
Are We Progressing: No. We are dangerously behind. We are fighting international enemies, state-sponsored criminals, and ourselves, using World War II bureaucracy and tools from the 1940s in a silent, invisible war of ideas that can only be solved by the computer.
Personal Perspective & Closing Reflections
Unsettling Truth: The device in your pocket is not your friend—it is a double agent working for whoever has the best programmed exploit.
Key Misconception: The software updates you make are work, but we cannot patch a broken architecture from decades ago, just like you cannot fix a foundation by painting the walls.
Message to Leaders: Stop subsidising failure. Adopt Industrial Strength Computer Science. Move from "von Neumann's" binary chaos to "Alonzo Church's Lambda Calculus" for scientific order.
Source of Hope: The proof exists, and PP250 showed it works. We don't need to invent magic; we need to return to the correct, scientific path of capability-based computing.
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