Barbara Liskov proposed a vision of abstraction-powered Internet Computer in 2009, updating John McCarthy’s 1961 vision of utility computing. But what kinds of abstractions are needed? What fundamental problem do such abstractions aim to solve? This position paper points out a ``Liskov-Lamport chasm'' problem and argues that one type of abstractions is needed to realize a planet-scale, abstraction-powered computing utility, termed monadic abstraction. We outline three desirable properties and research goals of such abstractions: 1) a single programming concept encapsulating data, program, and machine, 2) abstraction mechanisms facilitating enforced dynamic soundness, and 3) amortized zero-cost abstractions.

John McCarthy proposed the vision of utility computing in 1961. Barbara Liskov proposed a related vision of abstraction-powered Internet Computer in 2009. This position paper outlines a distributed computing model towards realizing the McCarthy-Liskov vision. This “hypertasking” model aims at extending the “hypermedia” model of the World Wide Web into a model of World Wide Computing Utility, turning an information web into a computing web. The hypertasking model contains three abstractions, including global resource space, stored-computer architecture, and monadic hypermedia. A prototype architecture and experimental evidence are presented to support this perspective.

Metcalfe’s law states that the value of a network grows as the square of the number of its users ( $V\propto n^2$), which was validated by actual data of Facebook and Tencent in 2013–2015. Since then, the users and the values of Facebook and Tencent have increased significantly. Is Metcalfe’s law still valid? This paper leverages the latest data of Facebook and Tencent to fit the network effect laws and makes the following observations: 1) actual data of network values fit a cube law ( $V\propto n^3$) better than Metcalfe’s law; 2) actual data of network costs fit a cube law; 3) actual data of network sizes show a growth trend matching the netoid function well. We also discuss the underlying factors affecting such observations and the generality of the network effect laws.

In a 1961 lecture to celebrate MIT’s centennial, John McCarthy proposed the vision of utility computing, including three key concepts of pay-per-use service, large computer and private computer. Six decades have passed, but McCarthy’s computing utility vision has not yet been fully realized, despite advances in grid computing, services computing and cloud computing. This paper presents a perspective of computing utility called Information Superbahn, building on recent advances in cloud computing. This Information Superbahn perspective retains McCarthy’s vision as much as possible, while making essential modern requirements more explicit, in the new context of a networked world of billions of users, trillions of devices, and zettabytes of data. Computing utility offers pay-per-use computing services through a 1) planet-scale, 2) low-entropy and 3) high-goodput utility. The three salient characteristics of computing utility are elaborated. Initial evidence is provided to support this viewpoint.