I like how you're thinking it through. *[the boxes in boxes in
   boxes is literal; that's what you're presented with. *You are
   inside of a box, which represents the computer. *There are
   things you can do in the box. *You move things around anywhere
   you like. *You can hook things together. *There's stuff in the
   boxes. * In the boxes there are other boxes. *You can connect
   boxes from different levels together and it would all be visual.
   * Even if you are 37 levels deep in nested boxes, you can
   teleport to a higher level and hook them - or create a transport
   mechanism for the stuff inside - together. [this would be akin
   to a shortcut on a desktop. *I'd basically be replacing files /
   folders metaphor with boxes in boxes, but it's an ineractive
   system and not so darned flat] And yes, what your're talking
   about would definitely work. *The layers of security needed are
   interesting; they'd likely have to be implemented keystroke by
   keystroke. Or.. perhaps it could solely be a hobby system to
   start with with no security features. *That might be easiest.
   *Many systems started with no security built-in and then stapled
   on later. Others started with security-in-mind from the start -
   depends on your personality/interests/needs which way you'd want
   to go. I never found much luck learning a language just to learn
   it though. *I have to want it to dosomething that I can't do any
   other way. Example is PHP. *I never sat down and learned it.
   *But I was running a website which had a nice package I wanted
   to modify that was written in PHP. So, once I configured it the
   way I wanted, and found I wanted it to do more - then I had to
   dig into the code and understand its structure and processes. *I
   was allowed to be blind to it before, but I had to dig in and
   take it apart. Then I learned. *As I added each new feature, I
   learned PHP, until I ended up with the system more-or-less what
   I wanted, which is one that ran itself and I didn't have to
   monitor. *Made me nice money for a few years too - about 6 years
   ' til Google changed algorithms. *Boo. but I was exploiting the
   lack of local businesses online. *Google ended up using my data
   [which I was grabbing automagically week-by-week using scripts
   from a so called "Deep Web" *place where new businesses were
   posted and google was blind to. *[it's still blind to it], and
   I'd just have it change a few words here and there so it looks
   different from the originals. *[my 'fingerprint', so I knew if
   it was taken by Google, and yeah, a lot of it was, but I didnt't
   really care. *I was just curious to see where it would go]. I
   was disappointed the Semantic Web didn't really take off, but a
   lot of good ideas full of sharing fall off once money gets
   involved. *Oh well :) * I just made money off of ads and
   provided a service for the local ppl without having to ask
   anybody for a penny. I didn't feel like repeating the process.
   *But anyway yeah, having goals and incentives ["I'm going to do
   something that doesn't exist yet!"] was my impetus for learning.