Progress in our profession happens slowly as we clumsily shift from one paradigm to another. This talk looks at the next important advance in programming, and why we are trying to prevent its adoption.

1. Power
of the
Paradig

2. Quotations from smarter people.

3. Even when the experts all
agree,
they may well be mistaken.
Bertrand Russell

4. Paradigm
A model of thought

5. Paradigm
Con rmation Bias

6. In science it often happens that scientists say
You know that’s a really good argument;
my position is mistaken,
and then they would actually change their minds
and you never hear that old view from them again.
They really do it. It doesn’t happen as often as it
should, because scientists are human and change is
sometimes painful. But it happens every day. I
cannot recall the last time something like that
happened in politics or religion.
Carl Sagan

7. In science it often happens that scientists say
You know that’s a really good argument;
my position is mistaken,
and then they would actually change their minds
and you never hear that old view from them again.
They really do it. It doesn’t happen as often as it
should, because scientists are human and change is
sometimes painful. But it happens every day. I
cannot recall the last time something like that
happened in politics or religion.
Carl Sagan

8. Change is sometimes painful
•Confusion
•Fear
•Embarrassment
•Loss
•Fight or flight

9. Faced with the choice between
changing one’s mind and proving
that there is no need to do so,
almost everyone gets busy on the proof.
John Kenneth Galbraith

10. Paradigms in Programming
• Stored program concept
• Subroutines
• Structured programming
• Methods
• Higher order functions
• Pure functions

11. The problem with purity:
The universe is not pure.

12. A new scientific truth does not triumph
by convincing its opponents and making
them see the light, but rather because
its opponents eventually die,
and a new generation grows up
that is familiar with it.
Max Planck

13. Science advances one funeral at a time.
Max Planck

14. Progress waits not on discovery,
but on consensus.

15. Paradigm Confusion
• Shoot the messenger.
• I do not understand how x can be true.
• Violent disagreement with irrelevant details.
• Intensify imperfection.
• Distortion.
• Partial adoption.
• Obsess about performance.

16. More computing sins are committed
in the name of efficiency
(without necessarily achieving it)
than for any other single reason
—including blind stupidity.
William A. Wulf

17. The new shiny object is
part of the old paradigm.

18. It is difficult to distinguish a new
paradigm from a really bad idea.

20. • The Old Paradigm •
Sequential Programming
• The Next Paradigm •
Asynchronous Message Passing

21. • The Old Paradigm •
Sequential Programming
• The Next Paradigm •
Asynchronous Message Passing

22. • The Old Paradigm •
Sequential Programming
• The Next Paradigm •
Asynchronous Message Passing

23. Asynchronous Message Passing
• Sending a message to another process or
system.
• The sender does not wait for a response. The
sender is free to do more work, including
sending more messages.
• Every receiver has a queue, or mailbox, that
holds incoming messages.
• Messages will be handled one by one.
• Shared nothing.

24. Actors
1973

25. postMessage

26. NodeJS

27. Clinging to the Old Paradigm
•RPC, HTTP, SOAP, REST
•Sync functions
•Generators
•Promises
•async await

28. A single mechanism provides
Concurrency
Communication
Security

29. The Seif Project
Rhymes with “safe”

30. Seif: A secure, efficient, asynchronous
JSON & blob messaging system

31. Seif does not require
DNS
HTTP
Certificates
Passwords

32. Seif provides a module adding
cryptographic services to Node JS
•ECC 521
•AES 256
•SHA3-256
•Random generation and entropy harvesting

33. Zooko’s Triangle
Human
Meaningful
Securely
Unique
Decentralized

34. ECC521 public keys as unique
identifiers

35. Seif Protocol
Secure JSON Over TCP
Efficient sessions

36. Symmetric
S(plaintext) => ciphertext
S(ciphertext) => plaintext
Asymmetric
P(plaintext) => ciphertext
R(ciphertext) => plaintext

37. Seif Handshake
Alice
•PA Alice’s public key
•RA Alice’s private key
•PB Bob’s public key
•H Handshake key
•S Session key
Bob
•PB Bob’s Public Key
•RB Bob’s Private Key
•PA Alice’s public key
•H Handshake key
•S Session key
→ {"seif": 1, PB(H), H(PA )}

38. Seif Handshake
Alice
•PA Alice’s public key
•RA Alice’s private key
•PB Bob’s public key
•H Handshake key
•S Session key
Bob
•PB Bob’s Public Key
•RB Bob’s Private Key
•PA Alice’s public key
•H Handshake key
•S Session key
→ {"seif": 1, PB(H), H(PA )}

39. Seif Handshake
Alice
•PA Alice’s public key
•RA Alice’s private key
•PB Bob’s public key
•H Handshake key
•S Session key
Bob
•PB Bob’s Public Key
•RB Bob’s Private Key
•PA Alice’s public key
•H Handshake key
•S Session key
→ {"seif": 1, PB(H), H(PA)}

40. Seif Handshake
Alice
•PA Alice’s public key
•RA Alice’s private key
•PB Bob’s public key
•H Handshake key
•S Session key
Bob
•PB Bob’s Public Key
•RB Bob’s Private Key
•PA Alice’s public key
•H Handshake key
•S Session key
→ {"seif": 1, PB(H), H(PA)}

41. Seif Handshake
Alice
•PA Alice’s public key
•RA Alice’s private key
•PB Bob’s public key
•H Handshake key
•S Session key
Bob
•PB Bob’s Public Key
•RB Bob’s Private Key
•PA Alice’s public key
•H Handshake key
•S Session key
→ {"seif": 1, PB(H), H(PA)}

42. Seif Handshake
Alice
•PA Alice’s public key
•RA Alice’s private key
•PB Bob’s public key
•H Handshake key
•S Session key
Bob
•PB Bob’s Public Key
•RB Bob’s Private Key
•PA Alice’s public key
•H Handshake key
•S Session key
→ {"seif": 1, PB(H), H(PA)}
← H({PA (S)})

43. Seif Handshake
Alice
•PA Alice’s public key
•RA Alice’s private key
•PB Bob’s public key
•H Handshake key
•S Session key
Bob
•PB Bob’s Public Key
•RB Bob’s Private Key
•PA Alice’s public key
•H Handshake key
•S Session key
→ {"seif": 1, PB(H), H(PA)}
← H({PA(S)})

44. Seif Handshake
Alice
•PA Alice’s public key
•RA Alice’s private key
•PB Bob’s public key
•H Handshake key
•S Session key
Bob
•PB Bob’s Public Key
•RB Bob’s Private Key
•PA Alice’s public key
•H Handshake key
•S Session key
→ {"seif": 1, PB(H), H(PA)}
← H({PA(S)})

45. Seif Message Send
• Normal send
• Automatic persistent retry
• Status send
• For telemetry and gaming
• Messages may be discarded

46. seif: publickey @ ipaddress /
referral

47. Difficulty of software security
•Does what it should
•Doesn’t do what it shouldn’t
•No software is initially secure
•Only a minimal approach can produce
software that is eventually secure

48. There is nothing new here.

49. The goal of the Seif Project is to
provide safe and effective relationship
management on the web.

50. Still to do
• Port the Seif Protocol to other platforms,
including
• Java
• Unix
• IOS
• Windows
• Development of frameworks that use Seif.
• Browser support.

51. The Seif Project
http://www.seif.place/

52. • The Next Paradigm •
Asynchronous Message Passing

53. It ought to be remembered that there is nothing more
difficult to take in hand, more perilous to conduct, or
more uncertain in its success, than to take the lead in
the introduction of a new order of things. Because the
innovator has for enemies all those who have done
well under the old conditions, and lukewarm
defenders in those who may do well under the new.
This coolness arises partly from fear of the
opponents, who have the laws on their side, and
partly from the incredulity of men, who do not readily
believe in new things until they have had a long
experience of them.
Niccolò Machiavelli