> "attempts to control general computation will converge on rootkits" prediction has held up.

If you play video games, you probably have a couple of neat kernel rootkits installed as "anti cheat".

A lot of remote proctoring stuff for exams are looking a lot like rootkits too.

EDR/XDR is also just rootkits. For security. The only thing that can stop a bad guy with a rootkit is a good guy with a rootkit, after all.

Kernel rootkits are going to be redundant pretty soon.

There are cheats out there that use video captured by capture cards as input for an AI on a separate computer to actually play the game like a human would. Once that becomes widespread there is no way to stop it, save from banning capture cards entirely.

The remote proctoring stuff is downright dystopian. I bought an extra laptop to do tests; most people can’t do that and have to install this garbage on their daily driver.

Of course, I guess most people don’t care.

What's hilarious is it doesn't seem to prevent exam cheating in any meaningful way anyway, according to some students I've chatted to.

It really doesn’t. I took an exam in a meeting room at work with huge TVs on the wall… they made me show them the TVs were “unplugged”, so I just unplugged some random thing from the wall and they were happy.

The TVs are hardwired, it’d be trivial to have an accomplice show answers or whatever on them.

To this talk, there exists a less well-known sequel:

DEF CON 23 - Cory Doctorow - Fighting Back in the War on General Purpose Computers

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pT6itfUUsoQ

Thank you for bringing this to my attention, will check it out after work