In watery Rlyleh, dark Turing sleeps....

[vaxjedi]

I just finished reading Cryptonomicon by Neal Stephenson.

It got me thinking.



The story is a hack. Not a hack as in a bad story. But a hack in the MIT we-pulled-off-some-weird-shit-because-we-are-so-devestatingly-intelligent menaing.

It's all about hacks. And not just computer hacks. Sure there is breaking into a unix system to remove data and breaking cryptography codes, etc. But there are more ingenious ones, like the raid on a cryptography company where the company has set electromagnets into the doorframe so that if their equipment gets seized, it gets wiped when it goes out the door. But it goes farther.

The entirety of WWII intelligence was a hack. Breaking codes, yes, but more importantly convincing the enemy that the codes weren't broken.

And the political hacks - lawsuits designed not to win, but to slow people down, to set them of guard. Moves by corporations and governments to imply threat, but not intended to be used. All of it just tactics and strategy.

And even a geological hack - extracting tons of gold from a crypt designed to keep people out by just drilling some drain holes and melting the gold down and having it dribble out.

I'm impressed.

Oh yeah, and MacArther was one fucked up guy.

Comments

[xiombarg.livejournal.com]

That's a really good way of thinking about the whole thing. I like it. I hadn't thought of that.

On a less profound note, I like the stuff about Athena.