| From: | "J.D. Falk" <jdfalk@****.CAIS.COM> |
|---|---|
| Subject: | Nature of Psi, Tech of Hardening |
| Date: | Sat, 23 Jul 1994 21:46:49 -0400 |
> On Sat, 23 Jul 1994, Dylan Northrup ripped into me by writing:
>
> > IF the PSI could determine the physical location of th etarget decker and
> > IF the decker was within the range of his powers, then I would agree that
> > the above were possible. BUT, I do not believe that the Matrix
> > propogates the mental energies that allow Psionicists to do their thing.
>
> Well, that is basically where we break down then. It is my belief that
> a suitably trained PSI would be able to produce energies that are
> compatible with propogation over the net.
>
Interestingly enough, Rob, I have yet a third POV on this one.
Going with the mainly misunderstood Worldmind theory, there is no
discernable distance between any two psyches on or near Earth (not sure
about elsewhere, but we'll blast that alien when we come to it.)
Let's ignore Cyberpsionics for a moment and explore this theory,
which is based on both fiction and New Age-type books (which, admittedly,
are usually pretty close to being fiction as well.) In order for a
psionic to affect another psyche in the worldmind (in other words,
another sentient being who thinks along Human-like wavelengths; this
probably doesn't include Dragons), then the psi needs to be able to
locate that person's "frequency."
Due to limitations of the human mind at our current stage of
evolution, the psi needs some sort of visual or emotional representation
in order to make that first contact. Therefore, line of sight for
complete strangers, or else knowing the person personally (good friends
w/o modifiers, passed-in-the-street with major modifiers.) A photograph,
holopic, video image, or such like would also work, with some modifiers to
the target number.
A person's Matrix icon would, to a psi experienced with the
Cyberpsionics discipline, work as well as a photograph -- they would use
that so that the concious mind could tell the subconcious mind (or, in
some books, higher self) where in the Worldmind to look in order to
affect the target psyche.
This is how I see Cyberpsionics working -- it is less
down-to-Earth, I admit, but makes a lot of sense to me.
> > Hardening only filters in the rudimentary way that a surge protector
> > does. You don't get shocked by the overload that the Black Ice
> > generates. However, hardening does not protect against actual data
> > content. You need some sort of software for that. Fuses don't protect
> > you from viruses.
>
> I understood that Hardening was more like performing error correction on
> incoming packets, to remove things that aren't supopsed to be there.
I agree -- just remember that in most applications, including the
TCP/IP that most of us don't realize we're using every day, it works in a
totally transparent fashion.
FYI -- TCP/IP is what makes the Internet work. Every Internet
computer uses TCP/IP in order to "talk" with other Internet computers.
No system can be connected to the Internet without it.
