Cyberspace is here
Thursday, June 19th, 2003 10:59 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
robinturner"Well of course it is," you say. What I mean is that cyberspace as we understand it is starting to get closer to what William Gibson had in mind when he invented the word. True, we can't yet "jack in" to cyberspace using electrodes attached to our brains (though research on controlling computers through brainwaves is producing results) but an important feature of Gibson's novel, Black ICE, or lethal computer security measures, may not be too far in the future. Senator Orrin Hatch is arguing that the US government allow and support efforts by music companies to invade and damage the computers of people who download illegal music files.
Legal and moral questions aside, this is not very practical at the moment. The latest Microsoft licences make users agree to allow Microsoft to alter any data on their computers (though not many people who downloaded the XP Service Pack know that). For Windows 98, this is unnecessary, since any teenager with a grudge can get into their PCs and mess up the data. None of this, however, constitutes damage to the computer itself.
Newer developments in binding software to hardware, such as Microsoft's Palladium initiative, show the way forward. At the moment, Palladium is simply a software layer to allow your computer hardware to refuse to run any software that was not approved, such as viruses, pirated music files, or any program which is deemed to be a security threat. You wouldn't want any software running on your computer that wasn't approved by Bill Gates, now, would you? But since Palladium controls the hardware, it could in the future be enhanced, so that when unapproved files are found, the "Fritz chip" doesn't just delete or refuse to run the files, it goes bang, preventing the computer from running at all. It could even be wired so as to damage other components.
But why stop at damaging hardware? After all, it is not the fault of the computer if some irresponsible user fills it with pirated music or non-Windows software. Computers already affect us physically; I frequently get eye-strain and muscle cramps from using them too much. Why not extend the human-computer interface to include the ability to cause, say, epileptic fits? I'm sure this would, to use one of Microsoft's favourite phrases, "enhance the Windows experience," as well as bringing us closer to Gibson's vision.
Legal and moral questions aside, this is not very practical at the moment. The latest Microsoft licences make users agree to allow Microsoft to alter any data on their computers (though not many people who downloaded the XP Service Pack know that). For Windows 98, this is unnecessary, since any teenager with a grudge can get into their PCs and mess up the data. None of this, however, constitutes damage to the computer itself.
Newer developments in binding software to hardware, such as Microsoft's Palladium initiative, show the way forward. At the moment, Palladium is simply a software layer to allow your computer hardware to refuse to run any software that was not approved, such as viruses, pirated music files, or any program which is deemed to be a security threat. You wouldn't want any software running on your computer that wasn't approved by Bill Gates, now, would you? But since Palladium controls the hardware, it could in the future be enhanced, so that when unapproved files are found, the "Fritz chip" doesn't just delete or refuse to run the files, it goes bang, preventing the computer from running at all. It could even be wired so as to damage other components.
But why stop at damaging hardware? After all, it is not the fault of the computer if some irresponsible user fills it with pirated music or non-Windows software. Computers already affect us physically; I frequently get eye-strain and muscle cramps from using them too much. Why not extend the human-computer interface to include the ability to cause, say, epileptic fits? I'm sure this would, to use one of Microsoft's favourite phrases, "enhance the Windows experience," as well as bringing us closer to Gibson's vision.
