unforum

[Leeravitz]

One of the strangest references to keys I've noticed so far is, in fact, the point made in the Academy events sidebar (or whatever it's called). One of the events is a talk on cryptography and there is a request for keys to be disconnected during it. I guess they might be afraid of delicate information being transmitted, or interference with other systems, or something. Certainly, it appears to go beyond a simple request for everyone to turn off their mobile phones because its considered impolite.

Any ideas?

[spugmeistress]

[DogsHead]

[Leeravitz]

Now I'm thinking about it (in relation to other threads), I'm becoming more intrigued by the (supposed) use of a neuro - supressant on Fran Mendling. Rather than engage in currently fruitless speculation on who had access to such a device, I found myself asking the question why it was used.

Yes, if it does something like stop brain activity, then clearly, its an effective murder weapon, but I was interested that the implication from the police appears to be that they couldn't date the time of death accurately because of the use of the device. This sounds to me a little like wearing gloves so you don't leave fingerprints - a deliberate attempt to utilise a device that would help confuse the trail once the murder was discovered.

But what does that imply? How does it work? One thing that struck me was that, if 'keys' are somehow hardwired into the brain, then perhaps you'd need a neuro - suppressant in order to stop an individual from giving out transmissions of some sort that can otherwise be detected. Admittedly, that sounds peculiarly backwards, because, surely, its the point at which your putative transmission gives out that people in authority would expect there's something wrong.

So, maybe all the police mean is that finding a body that's neuro - suppressed is a bit like finding a body that's had rigor mortis set in - it's harder to estimate the time of death. But that sounds odd in itself - do Perplexians have the technology to work out how recently things have been happening in your brain through quantum manipulations generally? What is it about neuro - suppression activity that makes an inquest more difficult? And does it have anything to do with key networks??

[Leeravitz]

Actually, further to the last point: I suppose there is a question over what exactly a neuro - suppression suppresses. I was assuming that what it stops is neuron transmission, but maybe it has to do with neural pathways, and thus, has something to do with shutting down the central nervous system instead.

That's the trouble with dealing with these non - existent technologies

[Mima]

[SPEC]If a neuro-supressor was able to stop intelligent thought (like a personality wipe out), you would be left with a functioning body that had no mind/person left. As the body would still be working you couldn't get time of death by the normal methods (body temp, rigor mortis etc).

[Violet]

I think it depends how much of the brain it suppresses - if it's just thought then yes, the mind might be dead but the body could still function. However, once we get down to reptilian brain and the programed in stuff like breathing, etc, if it supresses all brain function then that'll shut down the body, which in turn shuts down the brain completely. Don't know how that affects how warm your liver is tho.

[Leeravitz]

Interesting call. So, Mendling would have ended up in a vegetative state, then? Does that still constitute murder? Maybe in Perplex City law, it does, because the intelligence (the most vital part of an individual) is no longer functioning.

How would it work? I guess it stops electrical transmissions, or chemical uptake, or something...

If all/any of this is true, then we're beginning to get a much darker view of the City than I think we've assumed: there may be a gaping divide in terms of how much informational access the rich have vis a vis the poor; a huge black market in illegal neuro stimulants (see the Ceretin thread) particularly amongst the poorer members of society; a legal and socio - cultural system that rules that, unless one is displaying superior intelligence, one is a second - class citizen and so on. This is fascinating, because I imagine that most of us (myself included) would like to think that a society within which intelligence was valued above all other attainments would be something of a Utopia.

I wonder if the PMs are quite so morbid as we are !! If such things are true, then it certainly puts a different spin on whether we should *welcome* the introduction of Perplexian style culture to Earth!!

[BrianEnigma]

I am not sure how we went from next-gen keys to neuro-supressors, but let me throw in my $0.02. Based on what we have seen, it looks like a neuro-supressor is just a fancy high-tech poison. Whether it is chemical or some other process (shot from a scifi "laser gun" device) is probably beside the point at this stage in the plot.

The keyscannot be an implant because Scarlet's is red and has a picture of a kite. While they could be an external device directly hooked up to your brain (through a Neuromancer-esque jack or funny looking hat with wires), but we have seen very little to suggest they have this sort of technology. While their technology is advanced, it can't be much more than 50-100 years more advanced than ours: cars with autopilot, on-demand television, drugs that are the brain equivalent of steroids, etc. A truly useful machine/brain connection is further out than that.

More than likely, the keys offer a camcorder or webcam in their Swiss Army Knife of functionality. Just like we are not allowed to bring a camcorder into a movie theater or a tape recorder to [most] concerts, they probably frown on taking such a recording device to similar functions.

[POTUS]

Totally. Swiss Army transceiver device. A key may just be a code stored in memory on that device, but people refer to it as key because at the core of the device it is logically structured.

[Leeravitz]

If we're suggesting that Perplexian keys work as universal translators, then maybe that explains why Violet was using the anomalous expression 'what on earth...' in her blog. If we imagine that the ability for us to access Perplexian info. is powered by their keys, then maybe such sites are always 'translating' to 'nearest Earth equivalent'. That might explain why their language seems such a bizarre amalgam of tongues to us - the translation's a bit imperfect (like Babelfish!) and it approximates...sometimes to English, sometimes to Polish, sometimes to French...

I quite like the theory, anyway, even if it's rubbish!!

But I fear I may be getting off topic again.

[tanner]

where i normally work you have hand over all phones laptops organisers etc to the gatehouse -- none allowed on site

[dopefiend]

maybe a side function of the keys is as a sort of black box recorder for the brain- the could logeverything someone says or sees, explaining why the cube thief may have "neuro suppressed" fran?

[Leeravitz]

That was one of my first thoughts as well. Although there's currently a big debate over whether a key is simply a very advanced piece of hand - held technology, or whether it's somehow hardwired to the user, so I guess we can't be sure.

The flaw in the theory of 'black box recording' is, I suppose, that if it's the equivalent of an ident tag or whatever being constantly monitored, then surely, at the point at which it cuts out, someone becomes aware that someone is going wrong with the key. I'd have thought that failsafe monitoring would be even more important for members of a security operation than for ordinary joes as well. So, the fact that Fran was not discovered for some time, and then it would appear, by happenstance implies either a) that such transmissions are not monitored well or b) this is not how keys work.

The only thing that might help explain how a 'black box' failure would have gone unnoticed is by virtue of the fact that we know security is more 'lax' on ball night - so, perhaps, attention was focused on too many other aspects of the night to notice that a single security guard was failing to 'report in'.

On the other hand, I quite like the notion of the key as partly a 'black box'; it does suggest that a murderer might have have to stop you 'transmitting' in the same way that a thief would have to smash a video camera so as not to be identified. Equally, some of the strange properties keys also appear to possess - that they may be able to transmit secure data inadvertantly, for instance - *might* point in the direction of the notion that, if you have a key, it's always on, somehow.

However, if Perplex City was governed entirely by such effective 'big brother' tactics, then I find it hard to appreciate why crime would remain so rife, why the police would be left regularly stumped as to how certain matters developed etc. If the City Council, Security or whoever could keep near - permanent track of everybody, then this doesn't seem feasible. But maybe the criminal element deliberately avoid having keys, or jury rig them somehow??

The final point to make is an obvious (if unhelpful) one: to the Perplexians, whatever happened isn't a mystery in this sense. They know full well how keys and neuro - suppressants work, and why the murder was commited in this way. This is different to them, say, being uncertain as to who the thief was. So, either we need to get in contact with someone who can enlighten us further on this matter, or we're gonna have to keep hoping that more information turns up. Pity we can't just question Eoin Morgan and be done with it!

[joolsweb]

Just for info, I don't think the key can be hardwired to the user as the Sentinel article on lower crime in East Old Town, suggests keeping your key close at hand. Therefore I think it must be some kind of small portable device, which means that surely someone could steal someone else's key fairly easily???? http://www.perplexcitysentinel.com/archives/2005/03/crime_down_in_e.html