Sunday, October 26, 2014

Cyber Security: A Love Story

It was a Saturday afternoon.  Or maybe it was last Sunday.

I think it started out as a bar hop.   Someone had the foresight to rent a bus.  But there were no buses left.   So the driver asked if we would mind riding on a mobile carousel.  Why not, we thought?  After the first couple of wineries we visited, nothing seemed to matter anyway.

By the time the sun set, it was all a blur: the flashing lights, the wine spilled on the backs of the horses, and the endless spinning.  We eventually switched the carnival sound track on the carousel to Django Reinhardt and Edith Pfaff.   That seemed to help.   However, by midnight, I noticed that most of the travelers had left the ride.  It was just down to four of us:  Ellen DeGeneres, her Phant, me, and this Free Entity AI with blonde hair and blue eyes.

Ellen seemed intent on getting the Free Entity AI to join her and the Phrant in some kind of tryst.   But the Free Entity was not interested.  Instead, she seemed more interested in scribbling on her notebook. The Phrant was nonplussed and waited for new instructions from Ellen.   I attempted to strike up a handshake protocol connection with the Phrant.   But my cerebral monitor indicated the Phrant had no public certificate and she was password and copyright protected.  And of course, I didn't have access to Ellen's virtual private network to mount a Man in Middle assault.

Moreover, it seemed my query to the Phrant aroused the attention of Ellen, who broke off her conversation with the Free Entity and scowled at me.   Ellen instant messaged me that the Phant was her property and that any further query's on my part would be trespassing, an invasion of privacy,  a public and private nuisance and that she would contact her lawyers to obtain a temporary restraining order.    So even in my inebriated state I got the message.  Ellen and her Phant then went to the far side of the carousel leaving the Free Entity and me alone on a pair of white trojan horses.

I asked the Free Entity AI what she was writing.  She said it had to do with her thesis on neuroaesthetics.  She was studying symmetry in art and how it was related to unconscious processes in the brain.  She believed that anytime there was symmetry in art (or nature) it suggested that the subject matter was either prey, predator, or mate.  Which made a great deal of sense to me.   If I were walking through a forest in India, I could imagine that seeing the symmetry of the design on the head of a cobra would attract my attention.  The symmetry of the hourglass design on the black widow also signals the danger of a predator.   Similarly, if I were a female Peacock, I would imagine the design on the male Peacock would arose my interest.   As such, the AI believed that if the artist wanted to construct art that resonated with the viewer, she better include some symmetry of shapes and/or colors, etc.

I thought that was really cool.  Because look, I was wearing one of my shirts that had a 3D Mandala design on the front.  Given that I was wearing one of  my mandala tshirts, I thought the AI would take an interest in my subject matter.  So I sent her my private certificate key.   But she just got off her horse and sat on one of the the couches on the carousel and began to smoke one of her token rings. She asked if I wanted to join her.   We ended up smoking together on the couch until the sun came up.



Rodrigo y Gabriella, dry eyes, basketball scar on the forehead.  What more is going to happen to me?

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