Life as a service (LaaS)?

About digitalization and not only, and not so much at all.

Life as a service ( LCD ) or in English “Life as a Service” (LaaS) has found expression in the minds of several people or groups of people: here it was viewed from the perspective of the general digitalization of life, turning all its parties into services and the required political system capitalocommunism, but here the self-critical view from the United States regards the services of life as an attempt to solve the problem of waste of resources (recognizing that Americans spend 4 times more resources than the entire planet provides) was. What unites these views is the identification of a tendency to abandon private property, such as vehicles, computing devices, houses, and even clothing. However, to what extent does the concept of life as a service actually relate to already widely known IaaS , SaaS , PaaS , and with which of them is it possible to make a comparison? How to ensure security and compliance with ethical standards, your own worldview in the new conditions: consider the existing problems and some of their solutions.

Today I also came to realize the concept of life as a service, not knowing yet that such thoughts had already been expressed. But I discovered this new concept as a warning, as a frontier that cannot be broken, as a reminder that, nevertheless, life cannot be presented as a service. On the other hand, the very disclosure of thoughts becomes a service due to the openness of the network and the availability of search engines. Thought as a service allows you to instantly find like-minded people and evaluate the difference between your own views and theirs, while the search engines create an invisible library, in which the truth is more like a dump, but they also throw jewels at the dumps as recently with bags of money. But the network space can be reminiscent of a dump precisely because the thinking of mankind represents this dump, that is, the language itself as a service is a dump of thoughts. But what distinguishes intelligence is the ability to accurately identify the wheat from the chaff, even if all the seeds are uncertain and probabilistic in nature. In the end, with the property, all tenants and owners are only temporary owners, although it seems to them that they can transfer their rights to their children and grandchildren to infinity in abstraction. But you first need to give birth and raise children, and then it will be their right - to accept from us the gift of our property or go their own way, the property is not burdened.

My concept of the LCD is different from the above-stated statements of social changes in the way of everyday existence, in which the scope of services expands to such an extent that it fills almost the entire observable universe of everyday thinking. The difference is in a different angle of view on what is happening: instead of full digitalization, I assume a limited, but life as a service in literal decoding is nothing more than an analogy of a person acting as a machine, that is, doing some work as part of his life. Earlier in the entry “On Performance in the Service Sector” I identified the differences between people as service providers and, in this case, similar to providing software or an operating system as a service from a genuine creative path, the essence of which cannot be reduced to the concept of services. For example, you can hire a photographer or order a picture for an artist (as it has been for different epochs) and in this case the likelihood of turning creativity into a service is high, or you can refuse this institutionalization and remove and write without thinking about the monetary system and pragmatic significance. This is the meaning of the previously proposed concept of cultural pragmatism , according to which not only monetary, but also every practical motivation is associated with a pragmatic principle, whereas the cultural principle uses other grounds and much deeper aspirations. For example, religious and philosophical creativity, the striving for knowledge of the world in physics and the discovery and application of pure mathematics in the frame degree confer cultural pragmatism on the basis for the development of human activity, although I regard cultural pragmatism as a post-modern society (postmodern) with reference to modernity. Therefore, in a dream or a house, as a service, we can find completely different manifestations: from providing a certain set of quality-compliant hotel chains, taxi order services to the uncertainty of providing apartments for living together within a certain community (for example, fans or travelers), getting other cars "go." And in this regard, we can apply the degree of depth of service that has found in the field of information technology for consideration and all other aspects of life in the field of service provision.

As you know, due to the development of cloud technologies, instead of owning equipment, you can now use equipment remotely for rent. These can be network devices or computing power. But equipment for rent is only the first level, albeit the deepest, in the direction of service, it is the receipt of technical Infrastructure as a service or IkU for short ( IaaS from Infrastructure as a Service). But in this case, as with a house, we get only “iron” or “concrete”, that is, bare walls, electricity and water supplied. How we will use water and electricity, to create an internal climate in the apartment for vital activity is the business of the residents. In fact, an apartment building is similar to a server cluster from which parts can be handed over for various needs. But within the framework of IkU, users do not receive either an operating system for computing or applications. If they receive them over the network, then we move to the Platform model as Services or PCU (eng. PaaS from Platform as a Service) and Software as Services or PCO (eng. SaaS from Software as a Service). It is important that in each case, the cloud holders not only grant the right of use, they ensure the constant maintenance and updating of what they provide, as well as solve emerging issues. In fact, our house, which corresponds to the IkU model, must have security and a tenant support service, that is, be considered together with the management organization. In the PCU model, the conditions for the direct implementation of user tasks by application tools, that is, the availability of the operating system, database management systems, network services, are added to these services, while the selection and maintenance of the final and intermediate tools (such as content management systems, office and production applications) for solving problems remains for the user. For a home, such fundamental foundations for home living consist in the availability of storage (analogous to the file system), working and sleeping places, amenities and entertainment places with equipment and internal software (and televisions, refrigerators already have operating systems which you can increasingly install applications; beds usually do not have an operating system, but this only means that such an operating system is not automatically configured, however the bed itself has a mattress are platform, while bed linen - analog sample application). Basically, the concepts of the PCU correspond to furnished apartments and rooms with supported bathroom / toilet facilities. Finally, a PODS model means the provision of already configured (at least installed and updated) and ready-to-use software. In this model, we can not even guess which operating system provides processing of our data, in the first place we will simply evaluate the versions of database management systems and software environments, the amount of available memory, the speed and reliability of the connection. Although for the purposes of security and compliance with our own principles of business and life in general, we will be obliged to clarify all the technical details and compare different policies, ranging from ethical and environmental policies to the actual security policy. In fact, we do not break our connection with the reference to our own life, our worldview, just one of the common elements today is functionalism and self-elimination from the ethical implementation of transactions, when people become like non-ferrous metal dealers who do not bother to clarify the origin of the objects of reality they buy. Similarly, the proliferation of IkU, PKU and POKU concepts can more and more alienate people from thinking that air coolers are working in computing and data centers, not the most efficient in terms of heat dissipation solutions are used, but cheaper or more reliable ones, which leads to more greenhouse gases entering the atmosphere today. Also, with security, you may need to be personally inspected, accompanied by the appropriate specialists, in order to establish compliance with the requirements and monitor the actual implementation of the declared policies. Therefore, we are actually faced with a paradox in the transition to servicing the increasing need for control and management of delegation of responsibility, whereas formally it is most often declared that personal maintenance and maintenance of equipment and provision is turned into a service as getting rid of the “headache” associated with accompanying processes. But this can occur mainly only in cases where the user has so little thought about backup and archiving issues, increasing reliability, the impact of his property on the environment, and ensuring security. But in this case, even familiarization with the measures taken by professional owners of computing devices and software will already require him to learn the basics of computer literacy in order to get some idea of ​​them and not only the basics in order to be able to control the activities of the service providers. Similarly, when we check into a hotel, we begin to use soap, shampoo, water, to dine and dine in a restaurant, to sleep on the bedding provided, but usually we don’t think that soaps and shampoos contain harmful substances; after its use, the food in the restaurant does not correspond to one or another ethical and religious beliefs. In this case, we are already applying unconsciously the model of software and software analogue in this case are bed, kitchen, toilet, television software. It can be called not programmatic, but programmable in the sense in which it is determined by the local social and organizational culture and language scenarios.

But everyone knows about the changing forms of furniture and even exoskeleton, turning even the body into a service, especially if the exoskeleton or avatar can be rented. Already today there are not only mechanical seats transformers, but also digital ones. What type of cloud service model can include such a decision:

Choosing a POKU and receiving only initial information about the organization of the provision of services and services, we therefore always compromise during the post-modern era, or we can try to minimize this compromise and try to find a POKU that meets safety requirements, for example, which are not used in the provision potentially dangerous chemical elements or to find "green" servers for which energy supply only renewable energy sources are used. The problem is that, like for other massively provided services, we agree with a certain institutional set of norms, such as a privacy policy or compliance with the legislation of a particular country, but we often do not have time to get acquainted with a variety of documents and legislation countries (which are subject to change), neither the ability to verify the implementation of legislation and policies, nor the resources to choose several times or several orders of magnitude more expensive (but olee meet our requirements) offers.

Scaling the concept of cloud computing to other aspects of public life, you can create the following table, which corresponds to the general ideas about the Company 5.0.

Table. The correlation of cloud service concepts with some elements of private and public life. * Note: “KU” means abbreviation “as a service”.

In general, people can be at different levels of approaching “life as a service”: for example, renting a cottage, having an apartment in the city and using a hotel on vacation, just like they can use their own customized operating system and office applications at home, use customized ones at work. employer, making the necessary additions, and on the way to go into the cloud office and business applications. It is important to understand that, irrespective of the distribution of the POCU model, employers already actually provided the POCA for employees, identifying the units responsible for the relevant functionality, that is, providing employees with services for installing and maintaining software to perform functions in the workplace. On the other hand, network organizations and remote work are most often and can lead to the need to shift the provision of the software from the employer to third parties, which causes the emergence of new markets, on which the relevant decisions of the software are applied.

Earlier, IkU already partly belonged to service centers of manufacturers or to third-party centers where computer equipment was serviced, and manufacturers of portable devices made extensive use of the PcU level, supplying devices with operating systems and a basic set of applications. Today, the idea of ​​assembling a phone from components may cause some confusion, while self-assembly of desktop computing devices is still a normal process, although less and less common. On the whole, shifts from the level of ownership to IQU, further to the level of the PQU and further from the level of the PQU to the level of the POQI, are considered by themselves as an alleviation of life, reduction of associated costs. But it is important to understand that there is equipment and infrastructure that is really idle and can be used more effectively with the distribution of network organizations and technologies, such as cars or computers, oven, bed, mixer, drill, on average, not used most of the day, unlike taxi fleet of cars and servers, and there are houses in which people live all their life, bookcases that store family books, a refrigerator almost completely loaded with wholesome food, etc. People "merge" with things and develop existence can mean losing oneself. The choice of a technological model means not only the choice of political preferences, but also a philosophical change in the way of existence: a shift from settled life in favor of nomadism. Reducing transaction and infrastructure costs will increasingly turn life into services and live more regardless of location and function. This increase in efficiency is necessary to save the planet, so people just need to give up attachments and splices, but they should be chosen and saved, if necessary, special feelings and affections, especially since the home library on paper can even reduce greenhouse gas emissions: instead the work of a computing device, the reading of an analog book does not require additional energy, and its production either binds a part of the carbon in the used wood or will allow the disposal of landfills If recycled plastic) will be used for pages.

Life as a service (LCD) can be viewed from two sides: on the one hand, it is the embodiment of the lives of those who organize and execute the provision of services to us, that is, the embodiment of cloud services and the impressions we receive, we receive a portion of the lives of others and enter it into my life as an impression in those periods when we get the quality. On the other hand, it is our own life, in relation to which we apply either our own norms, views, beliefs, attitudes, or trust in the attitudes and scenarios of the world around us, but in one way or another we influence others' lives, sometimes directly providing services, performing actions. Usually in social phenomena this process of mutual influence is two-way. But, for example, in popular culture it is often replaced by a predominantly unidirectional process of exposure from the perspective of trusting idols or brands. It is in this case that we risk “turning a blind eye” to breaches of confidentiality, security, and going against our own feelings and beliefs. And often in the case of digitalization, this means the trust of a technology that even begins to rely on “neutral”. But this assumption can create a source for illusions about security, for example, if we trust some technology, ratings and reviews, while going to an unknown country, selecting the right driver and homeowner. In this world, even a reliable and true story cannot mean an acceptable level of confidence, while the mass news and public statements themselves are increasingly at odds with reality. And the reason for this is the one-pointedness of the impact of mass culture, the absence of feedbacks, which are based on life as a reality, and not its functional simplification as a set of services.

In the materials indicated at the beginning of the article, the concept of an LCD is considered from the point of view of applying to the mass consumer for services in the era of digitalization and is considered as the basis for a more efficient use of resources, objects of reality that are no longer property. But, as correctly noted in the comments to these visions, the concept of ownership in this case does not disappear, it rather passes under the control or ownership of service providers, ranging from hotels with restaurants to cloud computing centers. As for the levels, the authors consider almost entirely only the level of the software, citing as examples numerous applications and nodes relating to different aspects of our life. But it's like a theater: you can't turn it into an online cinema, and a page with a rating of theaters is not at all the same as a page with a rating of restaurants. In the end, on the pages where people reveal their own zin, its components can be found, but only until they become the pages of service provision (this is the difference between personal culture and pragmatics). In general, it is possible to question the principle of displaying cultural phenomena on the network space and the possibility of representing the cultural part of any aspect of life in digital format, because at best, such a display is only a strong distortion, and not at all approaching the abstraction of reality that we achieve eg using languages.

Yet, with the advent of the possibility of renting personal vehicles and even finding a companion within the framework of a common platform or giving up the right to live in your own apartment, you can expect the emergence of an independent computer network to solve office and entertainment tasks, wider distribution of storage networks like today exists for scientific distributed computing or for the issuance of cryptocurrencies, to distribute files. But here there are a number of serious problems that do not allow distribution of some technological solutions, such as independent search engines, as a publicly available and widely used service. Firstly, openness in itself is often in the field of globalization, which may in reality be unacceptable for most people on the planet, therefore decisions that involve everyone’s participation with their own resources can be regarded as an attempt to oblige each apartment owner to take a certain number of guests in year Secondly, the business models themselves are based on the monetization of advertising and information provided, which ensures the activities of the largest information corporations, but which users may prefer to give up or want to limit if they think about it. Thirdly, more beautiful and correct solutions are often more complex and costly to master and maintain, even if they are distributed free of charge. In fact, it is here that we find the key parameter of the PSMC: often the cost of maintenance, transaction, maintenance and safety, and even more so social and environmental impact assessments are much more than the usual perceived initial costs. But on the other hand, the same costs and risks exist with respect to traditional services, especially with regard to software, although in traditional service organizations, the methods for reducing the corresponding risks are more industrial. , , — , . , . , - , , . , , , , , , . .

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