I like how EP's technology feels futuristic, yet not so far fetched. Except for one things: computers and hacking - appart from AIs, it feels like a scaled up version of nowadays technology, and hacking procedures are basically the same as today (spoof, exploit, privilege escalation ...) So, here I am, trying to imagine what the computers of the future could be, and how different hacking would be. To do so, I am starting from our current tech and move forward, based on actual research (and of course some works of fiction you will surely recognize). This is a work in progress, I'm not sure yet how it could be played - this is a request for comments. --- During the 21st century, three trends are converging : 1. the internet is growing exponentially. More and more data flows around the world as everyday objects get connected, and processing it to extract information takes more and more resources. 2. the nature of the data to process is evolving : instead of well formated digital data (text, databases), streams of analog data such as audio and video recording needs to be processed in realtime. Techniques developed in the field of artificial intelligence (artificial neural networks, bayesian filters and the like) are used more and more to filter the noise, but as the scope of the task grows, they demand tremendous computational power to be effective. 3. the moore law is loosing ground. The exponential growth of computer power is slowing down, physical limits makes it impossible to go smaller (random quantum effects) or faster (heat dissipation). At that time, computer technology has painted itself in a corner, but as usual the solution arrive in the form of a paradigm shift. The discovery of the memristor [1], a fundamental electronic component that behaves pretty much like a synapse, makes it possible to burn artificial neural networks directly in chips rather than simulating them on a computer with a regular architecture. It becomes possible to build huge ANN, capable of processing vast amounts of analog data in realtime with very little energy. This is a revolution for computing - computers are now good at dealing with noisy, incomplete, ambiguous data, which was formerly the realm of humans. AI is progressing fast, as the researchers finally have the horsepower to solve the symbol grounding problem [2] - progressively, AIs are more and more capable of assessing a complex environment such as ours. A lot of computer programs are not really programmed anymore - it's more like they are grown, or taught. Neuroscience keeps working on deciphering the human brain, and with computers now mimicking the brain's architecture, researchers are progressing faster than ever. Soon, they know how to interpret the patterns of activity in the sensorymotor regions of the cerebral cortex, then in the frontal regions responsible for conscious, abstract thinking. From there, the gap between artificial and biological neurons shrinks fast. Techniques are developped to grow artificial neurons within the brain tissues to allow direct electrochemical exchanges with a computer. The direct neural interface (DNI) is born. The cool thing about DNI is that it works both ways: you can "pull" a pattern of activity from a living brain to see what's going on in the subject's mind, but you can also "push" a pattern of activity to the subject's brain, to make him experience something. No more corneal implants or heads-up displays : the image is directy integrated to your visual field by inducing activity in a part of your visual cortex. The same goes for the other senses, even conscious thoughts to a certain extent. It is even possible to synchronize parts of your brain with someone else's - an experience called Diving. Depending on the areas synchronized, the effects can go from shared senses, group thinking, to irreversible ego fusion (usually for the worst). Of course, those neural patterns can be transmitted through the network. In fact, more and more computer systems adopt this paradigm to interact with users. Early lifeloggers start broadcasting their sensory feeds for anyone to dive into. Using machines and softwares is more and more about diving into them. In a way, it is like sleeving into a new morph, except you are not alone in it - and depending on how deep you are, you may share much more than a body. --- Okay, for those who are still there, how would you imagine day to day use of computers like these ? And what about hacking ? To me, hacking a big system would be done by diving into it and slowly subverting its thoughts to get what you want. But by doing so, you are putting your ego on the line - and the more you want, the deeper you have to dive, and the more dangerous it gets. For example, you could have intrusion countermeasures designed as mazes of traumatic experiences that will deeply traumatize the poor hacker ... [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Memristor [2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Symbol_grounding