I hadn’t thought of it this way, but I agree.

This is why Windows 8 and equivalents are coming in so heavily. Windows 8 separates those who will handle data and those who will be excluded from any form of competency in this area.

I don’t think it’s a formal conspiracy, but like many great shifts that occur in society this one has come about because a bunch of powerful, self-interested people who can exert control decided to do so nearly simultaneously. It takes no organized cabal, just as flowers blooming require no grand conspiracy; both just occur at the most propitious time.

Tablets, locked-down phones, interfaces optimized only for consumption and user-facing OSes that can’t be changed or modified on the threat of legal punishment — this is exactly analogous to the professionalization of occupations such as law and medicine.

In the future, I would also expect it to require an expensive license to even operate a true, general-purpose computer with severe legal penalties for doing so without government and industry authorization.