Filed under: Bruce Schneier, Expert systems, movies, NYT, Science Fiction, Society, tech, Terrorism, Travel, Violence
In listening/reading about the Toyota car crashes earlier this year, a thought had occurred to me: if it was a software problem with controlling the brakes or throttle, could that be something which could be used maliciously against the owner of a car? I mean, I could see where it would make an interesting plot point in a mystery – someone gets into the car’s computer system, mucks around, and then a couple of days later the car crashes, killing the driver. But since I don’t write mysteries (though there are elements of that in Communion of Dreams), I let the idea just slip away.
Now it seems that I wasn’t thinking on nearly a large enough scale:
Cars’ Computer Systems Called at Risk to Hackers
Automobiles, which will be increasingly connected to the Internet in the near future, could be vulnerable to hackers just as computers are now, two teams of computer scientists are warning in a paper to be presented next week.
The scientists say that they were able to remotely control braking and other functions, and that the car industry was running the risk of repeating the security mistakes of the PC industry.
“We demonstrate the ability to adversarially control a wide range of automotive functions and completely ignore driver input — including disabling the brakes, selectively braking individual wheels on demand, stopping the engine, and so on,” they wrote in the report, “Experimental Security Analysis of a Modern Automobile.”
Well, it’s too late to enter this year’s Fifth Annual Movie-Plot Threat Contest by Bruce Schneier, but that’d be a great one: terrorists design a computer worm which targets the control systems of cars, and when the worm is activated on a certain date, all the cars will suddenly go out of control on America’s roads, killing thousands and spreading mass panic. Given the level of dependence we have on cars & trucks in the US, this would quickly cripple the economy and destroy the country.
Make a hell of a book or movie, wouldn’t it? It could even be done as a 24 style TV show, where the protagonist has to track down and stop the mad computer genius behind the plot.
Gah. Now I suppose Homeland Security will be paying me a visit for coming up with such an idea . . .
Jim Downey
Filed under: Artificial Intelligence, Expert systems, Science, Science Fiction, YouTube
Man, the robots get to have all the fun these days:
I couldn’t do it. You?
Progress marches on.
Jim Downey
(Via MeFi.)
Filed under: Apollo program, Bad Astronomy, Buzz Aldrin, movies, NASA, Neil Armstrong, Phil Plait, Saturn, Science, Science Fiction, Space, YouTube
Via Phil Plait, this brilliant bit of high-speed film of the launch of Apollo 11 – right there on the pad:
Narration by Mark Grey of Spacecraft Films.
Jim Downey
(Here’s a hint: these DVDs would make great gifts for a certain SF author . . . )
Filed under: 2nd Amendment, Ballistics, Feedback, Guns, Promotion, Publishing, Science Fiction
Time for a recap of April.
There were another 484 downloads of the ‘classic’ Communion of Dreams, and another 70 downloads of the 2010 revision. 134 people downloaded at least one of the MP3 files of the book, and 32 people downloaded at least one individual chapter. We’re quickly approaching at least 24,000 downloads of the book. Who woulda thunk it? I hope some % of those who have downloaded the book will also buy a hardcopy once it is published and out.
And over at Ballistics By The Inch, things continue apace. April was the third-highest month for total hits since we launched the site in November 2008, with a total of 178,170 hits. That puts us at 2,351,313 hits. I spent some time yesterday afternoon finally getting some links to BBTI on Wikipedia, and I’m sure that will help to keep hits climbing.
And so it goes.
Jim Downey
(Cross posted to the BBTI Blog.)
Filed under: DARPA, Government, NASA, Predictions, Science, Science Fiction, Space, tech, Wired, Writing stuff
The Air Force launched a secretive space plane into orbit Thursday night from Cape Canaveral, Florida. And they’re not sure when it’s returning to Earth.
Perched atop an Atlas V rocket, the Air Force’s unmanned and reusable X-37B made its first flight after a decade in development shrouded in mystery; most of the mission goals remain unknown to the public.
The Air Force has fended off statements calling the X-37B a space weapon, or a space-based drone to be used for spying or delivering weapons from orbit. In a conference call with reporters, deputy undersecretary for the Air Force for space programs Gary Payton acknowledged much of the current mission is classified.
The X-37B looks like a miniature space shuttle, and evidently the design was based on that system. The much smaller size (about one quarter the size of the shuttle) does give some indications of the limitations of the missions it could be used on, and it seems to not be quipped for life support – but beyond that, not much is publicly known.
One particular reason I find this of interest is that in the ‘future history’ in which Communion of Dreams occurs, this is exactly the sort of secret tech which has been developed by joint US & Israeli efforts – a fleet of these sorts of unmanned vehicles forms the basis for a concerted effort to establish a colony on the Moon, which are then supplied with personnel by use of new full-size shuttles which have built using the same technology but equipped to handle human life support. One of the main characters of Communion of Dreams, Darnell Sidwell, is heavily involved in this effort, and his role is mentioned in CoD. In my future history, this whole development is about ten years ahead of what is indicated by the news of the X-37B launch. In fact, most of this story forms the background for the prequel to CoD which I have mentioned previously, titled St. Cybi’s Well.
But then, who knows how much of what we’re now finding out is the actual truth? I mean, the Atlas lift capability has been around since the Apollo days. The basic shuttle design goes back to the 1970s. Do you really think that they stopped improving the tech for military applications until just ten years ago?
Really?
Jim Downey
(Also via MeFi.)
Filed under: General Musings, Science, Science Fiction, Society, tech, Writing stuff
This morning, as I was listening to the latest news about the impact of the Iceland volcano on European air travel, I had that classic science fiction notion: what if what we’re seeing in Europe currently were a simple fact of life all around the globe? And what if it had always been the case?
Think about how the history of flight would have changed if there was a functional barrier to flight at say 12,000 feet. Think about how the history of the 20th century would have changed – perhaps impacting WWII. Yeah, sure, you can fly a jet at 10,000 feet, but it consumes a lot more energy to do so – just that much of a technological challenge could have made a difference in the geopolitical structure of the world. Most cargo is transported by ship or trains, so that wouldn’t change too much, but would the world now rely on ships and trains for most passenger transport? Would we have developed high-speed trains earlier and more completely, perhaps even introducing trans-oceanic train technology?
Or what if something happened now to impose such a limit on jet transport worldwide as we’re seeing in Europe? How would that change our world in the present and going forward? Again, we’d probably find work-arounds – that’s what we do in this technological age – but how would those changes and challenges shape our reality?
There’s an awful lot of interesting fiction waiting to be written with just this one change . . .
Jim Downey
Communion Of Dreams 
