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Tag Archive for Science Fiction

Mind the Gap

March 26, 2015 future, Writing Comments Off on Mind the Gap

http://cyber.bgu.ac.il/blog/bitwhisper-heat-air-gap

I am always looking for clever ways to hack stuff.  Most of what I write falls into the science fiction genre with an eye towards future tech, but one of the things I find, over and over again in my day job as a game developer is that you can’t ever ignore your legacy.  Every system, no matter how sophisticated, went through a development process.  It started out based on the preconceptions and experiences of the original designers and unless that system was burned to the ground and started from scratch at some point, those legacies are going to be there, informing everything from the color choices down to the arrangement of microprocessors on a board.  As the staff at a company turns over and the original engineers move onto new things, the reasons for those legacies are often forgotten.  People know the system handles things one way, but over time, they *why* is left behind.

Ken Liu brought the above article to my attention (via a FB post) and I think this is a great example of a legacy hack that goes deeper than a system’s initial design.  You’re hacking one of the fundamental characteristics of a computing system itself, the heat that plagues everyone who has ever held a laptop on their lap for too long, or who has tried to play Minecraft in a sweltering 100 degree apartment.  What was a vexing problem before now has become a potential security risk.

 

Big Fat Patents

March 24, 2015 future, Writing Comments Off on Big Fat Patents

 

http://www.popsci.com/boeing-just-patented-force-field-lasers

So here it is, the force field we have all been waiting for.  Well, the patent for it, at any rate.  As far as I can tell (after consult with a couple scientists with fancier degrees than mine), the science is sound.  In theory this might just work as advertised, but there are a heap of roadblocks to overcome on the way to finally being able to repel photon torpedoes.

Anybody remember the foam-cannon?  Back in the late 80’s the military developed a weapon that could immobilize a person by covering them with a quick-hardening foam.  If used properly, it could allow enemy combatants to be incapacitated reasonably harmlessly (thereby giving you the chance to make sure they weren’t civilians) and could be used in softer situations (protests running out of control, for example) where the numbers game meant a high likely-hood of civilian casualties.

But there was a chance that a target could get foam in their face, over the head and thereby suffocate.  This, of course, meant they were just as potentially lethal as any physics-based lead-slinger.  So when they finally got deployed, they were relegated to building insta-barricades (which apparently could be torn down with relative ease).  They couldn’t be deployed where there was even a risk of someone getting foamed in the face and so, a really great idea got relegated to obscurity.

The key to this particular patent (as I see it) is that they are targeting the blastwave.  Rather than trying to stop shrapnel, they are focusing on the invisible killer.  The motion of force through the air that can simply kill you out of hand, no pointy bits needed.  So one could argue that any civilians close enough to be affected by the shockwave are dead no matter what you do, so any damage they might incur by getting hit by a laser is going to be irrelevant.

But, my money is still on this technology getting back-burnered until absolute safety can be proven which (as anyone who has walked down a sidewalk can tell you) is a nigh-impossible thing to prove.

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