Urbit: an operating function

[ElZorro]

http://urbit.org/preview/~2015.9.25

http://urbit.org/preview/~2015.9.25/mat ... whitepaper

Someone is agreeing with my assertion that the Internet and computing has gone the wrong way. Still working through the whitepaper, its a bit of an odd read, but its interesting enough that I'm still reading.

Definition

An operating function (OF) is a logical computer whose state is a fixed function of its input history:

Code: Select all

V(I) => T

where T is the state, V is the fixed function, I is the list of input events from first to last.

Intuitively, what the computer knows is a function of what it's heard. If the V function is identical on every computer for all time forever, all computers which hear the same events will learn the same state from them.

Is this function a protocol, an OS, or a database? All three. Like an OS, V specifies the semantics of a computer. Like a protocol, V specifies the semantics of its input stream. And like a database, V interprets a store of persistent state.

[ElZorro]

And while an Apple product is a good benchmark for any usability goal, it's the exception that proves the rule for architecture. iOS is Unix, after all -- Unix with a billion-dollar makeover.
Unix is not a turd, and Cupertino could probably polish it even if it was.

Simplicity is the only viable path to usability for a new platform. It's not sufficient, but it is necessary. The computer feels simple to the user not because it's presenting an illusion of
simplicity, but because it really is simple.

Fortunately, while there are problems in "n:1" services that no platform can solve for you (mostly around consistency) there are set of problems with "1:n" services that no platform can
solve for you (mostly around scaling). Scaling problems in "n:1" social services only arise when you're Justin Bieber and have a million friends, ie, a rare case even in a mature network.
Mr. Bieber can probably afford a very nice computer.

[ElZorro]

Conclusion
On the bottom, Urbit is an equation. In the middle it's an operating system. On the top it's a civilization -- or at least, a design for one.

...

The Internet didn't scale into an open, high-trust network of personal servers. It scaled into a low-trust network that we use as a better modem -- to talk to walled-garden servers that are
better AOLs. We wish it wasn't this way. It is this way.

[Sabre]

Good lord, those are some good tid bits in there... I need time to read and absorb this paper. It's an interesting idea though!