Civilizing Cyberspace: The Fight For Digital Democracy

The subject of cybersecurity is too dry, while a readable text is too short. Instead, I hope to provoke a loud debate on the future and the urgent need for Industrial Strength Computer Science. Everyone is involved; damaging cyber-society by accident in the pre-electronic age was never cataclysmic. However, the critical flaws in the vital technology of the electronic age will destroy 21st Century civilized society. The General-Purpose Computer is the enemy. It changes the grand experiment of free society and American justice. Law and order cannot be run by super-intelligent malware in Life 3.0 if super-human software roams wild. Cyber democracy only exists if citizen users hold the keys to privacy and security in cyberspace. Within a decade, software automation in every conceivable form will dominate life in the globally interconnected electronic village of the 21st Century. However, this global village is ruled by the pre-electronic age of General-Purpose Computer Science. For cyber society to survive the software must be trusted. A Church-Turing Machine responds to this challenge; it is the proven way to guarantee trusted software throughout cyberspace, using an electronic age architecture from the Church-Turing Thesis. General-Purpose Computer Science began in the pre-electronic age of WWII and the Cold War. It grew like Jekyll and Hyde into an international weapon of mass destruction disguised as a recreational stimulant. Through digital convergence, this WMD is already in the hands of envious criminals and hostile enemies. The added threat of a breakout by super-intelligent malware creates scenarios which are too horrific to contemplate. The point of singularity is near. Artificially Intelligent Malware is both unspeakable and unstoppable, it is already in use and a solution is needed urgently. Industrial Strength Computer Science as Church-Turing Machines has become a national priority.