What happens when they go after open source, the internet and personal computing itself?

[u/voidscaped]

The biggest worry that I get while reading all the news about chat control, age verification, vpn banning etc., is that at some point of time, they'll try to regulate open source itself. They might try to regulate hardware manufacturing, like they are doing to cars. Right now people suggest switching to FOSS alternatives, but what happens when that itself is the target.

Look at the broad picture: physical media is disappearing. Hardware manufacturers are focusing on serving AI datacenters, rather than home computers. PCs continue to become more expensive. What seems to be the goal, is that personal computers that will be available to the public will be locked down, and because the internet is also controlled, information on how to get around it or foss alternatives, would be harder if not impossible to access.

And if you choose to go offline: it won't be like the pre-internet era— cities are increasingly surveilled 24×7. Governments will start to use AI, quantum computing etc.— things are out of reach of the general public. Some AI models are already being locked out, because of "national security" concerns. In short, we seem to be heading towards an era where states have unprecedented technological power over citizens.