Arrival of the Personal Cluster
So here is the situation, as I see it:
We are each going to be consuming a cluster's worth of compute very soon. In fact, many of us are already - every time you type in an AI chat window, a cluster springs into action just for you.
A couple quick definitions:
what is a cluster?
A 'cluster' is many computers operated as a single entity by some sort of orchestration software (e.g. Kubernetes)
why is a cluster?
Anything that needs more than one computer working on it at a time, or needs to survive the failure of an individual computer requires a cluster (e.g. Netflix doesn't go down when a single server crashes somewhere. And even if servers were perfectly reliable, you couldn't run the entirety of Netflix's production architecture on a single server)
In fact, basically all of modern digital life revolves around compute clusters, for better or for worse. Mostly, individuals consume services that are hosted on enterprise clusters. But I don't believe that will persist. Soon, we will be using clusters at an individual level - first in the workplace (as I have for some time), and then in our personal lives.
what is a personal cluster?
A personal cluster is like a personal computer, except it's made of lots of individual computers squished together into a cohesive, more powerful whole. If our individual compute usage is continuing up an exponential curve, this evolution seems inevitable.
how will personal clusters become popular?
Like the advent of the personal computer, this movement will form by three streams:
- workplace stream
- tinkerer stream
- gamer stream
workplace stream
This will follow a similar path to the advent of Windows
(may it and macOS soon be confined to the realm of pure history, so we may be free of their architectural and proprietary sins)
A loose history of the advent of the PC from somebody who didn't really live through it but reads a lot:
- lots of people start using mainframes/terminals at work
- software gets better, technical prerequisites diminish, more people find productivity in computer use
- employers begin requiring core computer competencies in a greater percentage of roles (e.g. spreadsheeting, document editing, email)
- Late stage capitalism, Moore's law, THE INTERNET
- employees begin receiving personal computers during onboarding
An estimation of the same process for Personal Clusters
- more and more techies start using Kubernetes at work for AI stuff, don't really like it
- somebody ships a proper cluster OS on top, cluster software gets better, technical prerequisites diminish
- ???
- employers begin issuing personal clusters during onboarding
tinkerer stream
This will follow a similar path to the advent of Linux
A loose history of Linux from somebody who didn't really live through it but reads a lot:
- computers are cool, nerds want, but operating systems are way too expensive (only for business) and what the hell am I going to do with all these computer parts and no operating system?
- Linus Torvalds locks himself in a cold Swedish room for a winter and builds the first popular open source OS (and pisses off Richard Stallman, who isn't a good person anyway so who cares)
- Torvalds posts the code somewhere that probably looked like the Craigslist UI (may it never change) and says anybody that wants to add stuff to make it work on their computer can contribute code (via email at the time, wtf???)
- A long, long reign of autocratic techno-communism
- now 99.9%+ of all computers in the world run Linux, including the server that sent you this page and approximately all the AI on Earth
An estimation of the same process for Personal Clusters
- clusters are cool, nerds want
- somebody ships an open source cluster operating system
- A long, long reign of autocratic techno-communism responsible open-source governance and hopefully no rug-pulls
- ???
gamer stream
A loose history of the advent of modern computer games from somebody who definitely lived through it and should probably have touched more grass:
- More and more parents have computers at home for their work and emails and other boring parent stuff
- 1993 - John Carmack and co write some alien GPU code and create the first 'modern' computer games; They were a couple Megabytes, couldn't be patched once shipped, and are still better than anything EA has ever put out
- The youth stop asking for bikes and ask for computers, LAN, then internet
A naive but genuine aspiration for cluster games
- The advent of open source and a democratization of technical learning unlock programmatic creativity and distribute capital to a generation that might otherwise have had no access to the art form
- Upgraded community values propogate cyberspace
- Responsible and renewable amount of fun is had by all
clusterdOS
If you've made it this far, the next step may be obvious. Since 2016, I have been working to produce a future in which the power of outrageous compute cannot be gatekept by universities, governments, or business. A few years ago, the model finally clicked and I built and eventually open-sourced clusterdOS: the personal cluster distributed operating system. Every stream above requires one thing - a Personal Cluster OS.
That is what Aranya is about - bringing in the next generation of computing, and doing our damnedest to be good stewards of that movement (while still finding a way to make lots of money, sorry Linus).
[1] see CEO of Tailscale apenwarr's vibe-researched thread for a good discussion of this: https://bsky.app/profile/did:plc:7dudjk2uag3q4wb7l6vfe5yk/post/3m7gmdvphgc2x
[2] gasp - the people are WRONG
[3] who could this be???
[4] if you would like to verify this, simply ask the nearest nerd whether they would like their own cluster
