Syntropize: An Operating Environment for Malleable Software

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Yes, this is good language to build on! Electricity is a fundamental force and effectively a “meta” source of energy (not low-entropy, which has to do with information-ness of an entity). Similarly, computers are Metamedia (this is straight from Alan Kay), in that it can simulate any other media. Much like electricity, computers don’t exist in nature either. They can intermediate between humans and digital/cyberspace (even physical space but let’s focus on information systems for now). But we need to form the right intermediation to balance freedoms vs economy vs security (better security actually increases freedom in the aggregate). We are in the infancy of this!

But you still need to make sure that it interfaces with add-ons that cover the remaining 10%

I have no intention of blocking you from running any program but limiting the interface that will force you to jump through a few more hoops, when you want to bring your own code. This is in essence no different than you not being able to connect your mobile phone to the grid directly and having to use a charger. The benefits of a uniform interface, aka a standard supply and outlet, vastly outweigh the inconvenience of using an adapter (I admit it is annoying sometimes).

I realize though I need to do a better job of explaining the security model and how arbitrary programs will run in it.

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That’s OK. All I am asking for is considering, and documenting, those hoops as part of your system design, rather than thinking about them only when the design is already in an advanced stage.

A useful image for me is to see software systems as living cells. There’s an inside and an outside, separated by a membrane that protects the inside. But the membrane also has pores for controlled exchange of molecules with the outside. And those pores are not afterthoughts, they have evolved along with the cells themselves.

Finally, a bit of nitpicking:

I am referring to entropy in its original meaning in thermodynamics. You can completely convert electricity to heat, without any loss. You can’t do the inverse. So electricity has a lower entropy than heat. Similar arguments hold for other forms of energy. Conversion from electricity to motion is more efficient than the inverse, for example.

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I think we are in agreement on the co-evolution of a system and its interface!

To nitpick the nitpick (wearing my physicist hat):

Entropy is defined for closed systems. You need to be able to count the microstates in the macrostate to calculate entropy S = k log \Omega. However, I understand what you are trying to say here, that electricity has the maximum available Free Energy!

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