MIT Friday, 1:00P.M.
Massachusetts Institute
of Technology
(Daniel’s lab)
Daniel Roth, Phillip Sanders
I give you Randall Sparks
And this must be Liamsi?
Miss Carnegie
It is a pleasure to meet you
I am sorry for saying Mr. Sparks
It’s not good fortune to meet you
Please take no offense
We’ve never met
Why would you say that?
In my dreams Mr. Sparks
There is a prominence of peril
In my meeting you
Better you should have died
Forgive my saying sir
I should have died?
Is that a threat?
No
Not at all
You are in no danger
From my hand
You say I should die
That doesn’t sound friendly
That is not what I said
I said you should have died
It makes no difference now
What’s done is done
What difference does it make?
In my dreams, if you survive
There is an strong sensation
That the world will not
I receive no context
It’s just a feeling
I am no danger to you
I’m here to help you stop it
If I can
17001
Randall, a moment?
Sure!
Liamsi saw us in the park
On the bench
He saw us in his dreams
Do you understand?
He sees things
Accurate things
He knew we’d call
He’s connected
That’s why he’s here
He’s connected, get it?
We need to know why
Right?
Yeah
You’re right
But I don’t trust him
(taking Randall’s arm)
You don’t have to, ok?
Yeah
17002
Liamsi I’m sorry
It’s not you
It is you, but it’s not you
It’s what you said
About your dream
I’m sorry Mr. Sparks
It wasn’t good news
I thought you took it well
You are right to be upset
You’re right not to trust me
You all are
When Mr. Sanders contacted me
My dream was fresh
I was compelled to share it
But consider
Whether to trust yourselves
The danger I sensed before
Was you Mr. Sparks
That danger has passed
The danger I sense now
Has not passed
It’s coming
17003
Phillip speaks
Ok we have some issues people
Daniel, ask your friends
What’s going on here?
Liamsi stay here
You’re entitled to hear this
Lydia?
Sorry Danny
You’re right Phillip
You do need to know
The problem is
We don’t know
Randall came to know Jonathan
Jonathan Warbel?
Yes
After Jonathan died
Randall came to me
I told him to go away
Then Allen died
Who’s Allen?
Allen Phepps was a colleague
He worked at Oxford, in England
Randall and Allen never met
But both of them knew Jonathan
Before Allen died
He sent two packages
One to Randall and one to me
Inside the packages
Were notes and keys
My note said ‘Help him L’
Meaning to help Randall
Allen didn’t know Randall
Jonathan must have told him
The notes had addresses
For two storage units
Where we found the drives
And the cards
We wanted to know
What was on the drives
So I brought the drives to Danny
And one of them crashed
It ate itself
Thank you Danny
One of the drives ate itself
Since Allen sent the notes
Randall and I went to Oxford
To look for the third drive
And we found it in Allen’s office
Along with a code key
So we brought them back
Danny?
Lydia brought the drives to me
And I came to you Phillip
And now here we are
None of us knows what this is
But it seems like a pretty big deal
Because two people have died
So it’s stay in or get out time
Anyone out?
No?
Ok then we’re in
What we do now, we do together
And it stays in the family
If it goes bad we blame Liamsi
Because he’s from California
(Daniel smiles at Liamsi)
Is it too late to negotiate my price?
(everyone laughs)
Liamsi
Card shark slash fall guy
We’re depending on you now
17004
Start the presses
Late Tuesday afternoon
freight arrives from Minnesota
14 tons of punch cards
Liamsi takes charge of the contents
apparatus spins alive into action
as he directs the sorting of boxes
The 2000 card packets are marked
and sequenced in series
A gift really
because Liamsi’s write software
sorts and stacks information
according to card sequence
then traps and writes it
Weeks, days and hours pass
three weeks, four days, seven hours
but who’s counting
Hundreds of boxes of Twinkies
Not really
probably thirty or so
Data flying everywhere
accumulates like dust
In some cases more of the same
in other cases more confusion
Daniel scrubs files for their truth
Phillip looks on in frustration
where are his numbers?
Large twin towers of binary data
uniquely equivalent in size
512 or 1024 sectors
individual in ones and zeros
what did they mean?
Naked compilation algorithms
like those found on the drives
the long and the short of it
virtually tons of data
17005
There you are!
You little son of a biscuit eater!
(Daniel smiles victorious
at the surrender of his treasure)
L come look!
What is it Danny?
The little guy that ate our drive!
Boy the apple doesn’t fall far
It’s a little different
But it’s basically the same
What this application does
Is add two binary values
Stores the result in a safe place
And adds that result
Back to the result
There’s no carry!
I’m happy for you Danny
I’m sorry L
It adds and clears
Do you get it?
No Danny, I don’t
Look here
Add 1 plus 0 and you get 1
Add 1 plus 1 and you get 0
In binary math anyway
Then
1 plus 1 gives a result of zero
So does 0 plus 0
It adds and then it clears
Like a digital piranha
Nobody understands!
It’s so simple it’s brilliant!
Basically, it extracts information
And then erases its own tracks
As if the information
Was never there
That’s huge!
What’s it for Danny?
I don’t know
But it’s almost viral in nature
It could do a lot of damage
Or provide cover for a lot of bad
I think we I’ll call it ‘the cleaner’
17006
Wait just a minute!
Suppose we take the cleaner
And apply it to the tower sets
Same math as RAID5
Maybe two add to make one
Phillip
I may have found your numbers
First we create a working copy
Now add them in binary
And what do we get?
Nothing
It was a good try Daniel
Ok Phillip
What if we invert the sum
And add it back
To each initial tower?
0 0 + not 0 = 0 + 1, 0 + 1 or 1 1
0 1 + not 1 = 0 + 0, 0 + 1 or 0 1
1 0 + not 1 = 1 + 0, 0 + 0 or 1 0
1 1 + not 0 = 1 + 1, 1 + 1 or 0 0
1 and 2 stay the same
3 and 0 trade places
0 1 2 3 becomes 3 1 2 0
And that is a very different sum
You are sick and twisted Daniel
You do know that, right?
But if it works
You’re a genius!
(Daniel smiles)
I prefer ‘Lord of the files’
Clever
‘Lord of the flies’
I get it
Sometimes it’s a matter
Of seeing what you’re looking at
17007
Editor’s cut 17007
Decimal is a 10 state system
counting each column from 0
through 9 and back to zero.
Binary is a 2 state system counting
each column from 0 to 1 and back
to zero.
Subtraction is achieved by adding
the one’s compliment of the number
to be subtracted back to the number
it’s subtracted from, then adding
one to the sum and discarding the
leftmost column’s carry.
This is how calculators subtract
and it’s not important or testable
for our story.
The one’s compliment is achieved
by simply changing each 1 or 0 of a
binary value to its compliment
(its opposite). This is also called its
“not” function.
If it’s not 0 it’s 1 and if it’s not 1 it’s 0.
This is the discipline of logic and you
may dismiss it as math, but the logic
and ciphers in this story are accurate
actual and germane to Phillip, Daniel
Liamsi and even Lydia’s world to a
lesser degree.
You may explore or ignore them at
your discretion.
Some stories differ to such wizardry.
This story shows you the math
behind it. You can take it’s
authenticity for granted or prove
it for yourself.
17007ec
Whoa Nelly!
With Daniel’s binary adaptation
a panorama of files and directories
unfolds before the team
We hit the mother lode people!
Look at this!
Data and applications
All over the place
And they all make sense
No more hidden passages
Or secret chambers
And this is just the start
We have so many files to check
Liamsi
I think we need you to stay on
And run another station
Are you in?
That will be fine Daniel
Phillip
Here are some directories for you
Your numbers as requested sir
Thank you sir
Lydia and Randall
We need you to screen data
See if any makes sense to you
17008
We have something here
Daniel!
Looks like an encryption program
With a bit packer sequence
It’s extremely advanced for the day
It works with message blocks
Packet-switching, Phillip?
Yes
It looks like it facilitates both
Data and instruction input
And Daniel
It works with your cleaner program
Really?
Danny tell me
Did you and Phillip
Have the same mother?
What Phillip said L
Is that someone was trying to
Piggyback unrelated code and data
On top of network packets
And disguise or incorporate it
With encryption techniques
Which would make it invisible
And render it undetectable
Who what where when
And why Danny?
Phillip
Would you like to take this one?
Certainly Daniel
Back in the day, my day
Larry Roberts was summoned
By Mr. Robert Taylor
To realize Licklider’s idea
Of an interconnected
Network system
Lick who?
Licklider, my dear
Seriously, you can’t make this up
Anyway, in 1969
The ARPANET was established
Between UCLA and the Stanford
Research Institute
A network Miss Lydia
This inception would establish
The rules or protocols
We know today as the Internet
And World Wide Web
Whoever came up with our little
Packet-packer encryption program
Would have had to envision
The Internet and done so
Twenty-five years before its time
They would have had to
Establish themselves somehow
Into a founding position
To help write rules
From the beginning
Then place their secret passage
Into the architecture
You don’t get those positions
Just by walking in off the street
You must be somebody
Or know somebody or both
It sounds wrong, deeply troubling
And nefariously government to me
As if anyone in government
Possessed the ability, agenda
And sheer genius for it
17009
Here is how it works
Phillip explains packet-packing
to Lydia and the team
Imagine you have a box
And you place some objects
Such as clothes inside
But the clothes don’t fill the box
Now suppose someone else
Puts other clothes on top of yours
Perhaps with a towel in between
Now the box is full
But it still maintains
Its original dimensions
So it looks the same
That’s the concept
Now move that concept
To the US Postal system
A single one-ounce letter
Posted with your stamp
One-third ounce of it is yours
Two-thirds of an ounce
Belonging to someone else
It’s still one ounce all together
Their contents ‘piggybacked’
On top of yours, using one stamp
Then all they have to do
Is remove their contents
At the destination
Before the letter gets to you
Using something like
A ‘cleaner’ program
Now move the concept
To the World Wide Web
And you have a subnet network
That can share information
Between any computers
Anywhere in the world
Without being detected
Invisible networking
But to have any real power
You would have to have access
To the subnet on a vast multitude
Of secure and vital servers
Of course Miss Lydia
This only tells us how it’s done
It doesn’t explain who or what
Where or when
Or most importantly why
But I’ll bet the answers
Are somewhere in these files
I’ll bet we find Liamsi’s danger
In the same place
17010
You do realize
This is a nearly impossible task
Right?
Miss Lydia
I am surprised to hear you say that
I am a mathematician
You are a scientist
Do you know what the odds are
For something to be impossible?
Yes the task is vast and unknown
And we have no starting premise
At which to begin
But we do have
Tons of material to work with
Fourteen tons of it
So we start with basic psychology
Encode, store and retrieve
We start with the laundry
Colors and whites
In separate baskets
Then cotton versus silk
Heavy versus delicate
Before too long
We’ll begin to understand
What temperature
And cycle we need
One basket for this data
Another for that
Numbers and text tell the tale
Then the golden rule
Don’t look for anything specific
It will blind you
Keep your eyes and mind wide
To see what’s before you
We are not they
So we must let go of we a little bit
To see what they see
Once we understand the what
The where and when
It should give us a why
And that will tell us the who
Then there’s the silver rule
Which is?
We’re too stupid
To know it’s impossible
And that we’re not qualified
Still think it’s academic Phillip?
No Daniel
You made a believer out of me
There’s something here
It’s dangerous
And I’m sensing evil
Old evil
17011
This is interesting
Liamsi?
Yes Phillip
These names are places
From ancient Babylonia
Southern I believe
And kings also
Look
Seven names in this file
Eridugga
Kish
Shirpurla
Enshagkushanna
Alusharshid
Sargon
Hammurabi
Babble on?
Yes Mr. Sparks, Babylon
And its twin city Borsippa
When one thinks of Babylonia
It’s natural to think of Babylon
And God’s confusion of tongues
That confounded completion
Of the Tower of Babel
Along with all to follow
Borsippa
Gets lost in the conversation
Even though some believe the tower
Was in the ruins of Birs-Nimrud
In Borsippa
It was the Civil
Pardon, Mr. Sparks?
Oh nothing
17012
Gaussian process
Jonathan Warbel’s words
Gaussian process
Don’t assume a pattern
Let the data speak for itself
Error’s what you have
When you have a lie
Add and subtract facts
Regress and project forward
It was the Civil
What data do we have?
Who are the people in this room?
Lydia?
Who might be of the Civil
Yet can’t be
Daniel?
If so it’s a good act
Phillip?
Maybe Phillip
He was around back in the day
Back in his day
He was a player then
He could have created the subnet
He said something familiar
Keep your eyes and mind open
See what’s before you
Warbel said it
They show you
Knowing you won’t believe
You won’t see
What you’re looking at
All sins reside in numbers
Phillip’s about numbers
He brought in Liamsi
Liamsi the dreamer
Who thought I should be dead
Liamsi
Brought up the Tower of Babel?
What did Warbel see in these files?
Was Lydia aware?
Warbel said
When you see the face of evil
You know it
Liamsi’s ways are spooky
But I don’t see evil in his eyes
They’re looking at me
17013
It’s a family affair
Ok it’s not nothing
What Liamsi said
Meant something
To Jonathan Warbel
He and Allen Phepps
Studied these files
Warbel knew about them
And these things we are finding
He said they
They meaning the Civil
Created structure
And controlled things
Warbel said he was lying
About some of it
I believe the Civil are the who
And balance is the why
Balance?
Yes Phillip, balance
The Warbel Effect
That’s when they came to him
They being the Civil?
Warbel didn’t lie about that
He talked about global data
And the World Wide Web
Allen sent the packages
Right after Warbel died
Then Allen died
And here we are
17014