unforum

[Macavity]

[SPEC] Djinn Revisited

[Seej]

Sorry to go OT here, but that's a pretty scary idea from the FBI there. It says it's a virus, so what's to stop it propagating to innocent computer users as well? guess I'm gonna have to take a close look at what processes I've got running......

[RI_Barnica]

[Bongadoo]

Well, this is very interesting. Up until now I thought that article was purely about a virus. The fact that the Perplex City Government could have been running Spyware/Keylogging (or whatever the equivalent of those would be on PC keys) for long periods of time could have implications in several plot-lines:

1. The 'ancient' keys possessed by the Recons Maybe there could be more to this. Software could still be running on them.
   
   
2. The night the Cube was stolen If spyware was running on keys, any interface taking place would have been recorded. Maybe there's some pertinent information recorded in some PC Government Archive somewhere.

And many others. Of course, if this is just an obtuse reference to our world, then it doesn't mean anything at all. However, if not, maybe someone here on Earth could be (co-)responsible for the theft of the Cube. That's it, I'm off to question the FBI!

[Leeravitz]

That's *very* interesting. Doesn't sound that unlikely, either - inasmuch as the notion that Perplexian government is attempting to find ever more extensives ways for keeping the population under sureveillance appears to ring true for me. I wonder what it means in more general terms, though.

The (slightly) curious thing is that something called 'Magic Lantern' is real. I guess, OOG, it's perfectly feasible that Mind Candy learnt of this and incorporated it as a parallel. Peculiarly, though, there's an obvious internal pun going on here - the virus is the 'djinn' (or genie) and the 'magic lantern' is the aladdin's lamp - and, as far as it goes, I thought that this was all a witty allusion to early AI discussions from a now bygone era. So, which came first - the real world project or the joke? Are we to assume that MC picked up on the real world 'magic lantern' and then 'reverse engineered' its inclusion in Perplexian culture? (I'd guess that's logical). Otherwise, it has to be one of the most bizarrely apt coincidences of all time...