Part 95 (2/2)
But where, questioned Scott, is the line between man and raence, then the salobal inforrammed to learn how to plan for future Network expansion and that piece of the Network calls another co the same problee? Isn't the Network acting as an extension of man? But then, a ha being
Unto itself it is not alive, Scott reasoned The Network rowth patterns and behavior of the cranial highway system He was ready to concede that a netashiives me a lot to think about,” Scott assured the Dutchman
”Ya, ya, it does Do you understand quantum physics?”
What the hell would ht Scott
”I barely passed Quantuhed kindly, ”I do relobal Network there is no way to predict where the next information packet will be sent Will it start here,”
the Dutchman motioned to his far left, ”or here? There's no way to know All we can say, just as in physics, is that there is a probability of data being transferred between any two points
Chance And we can also view the Network in operation as both a wave and a particle”
”Wait,” stopped Scott ”You've just gone over et the point, I think You and your associates really believe that this global Network is an entity unto itself and that it is growing and evolving on its own as we speak?”
”Ya, exactly You see, no one person is responsible for the Network, its growth or its care Like the brain, ions control their own piece of the Network And, the Network can still function normally even if pieces of it are disconnect- ed The split brain studies”
”And you're the caretakers for the Network?” doubted Scott
”No As I said we all have our reasons The common denominator is that we treat the Network as an incredibly powerful organism about which we know very, very little That is our function - to learn”
”What is it that you do? For a living?”
”Ah, ya I ay at the Uni- versity of Ainal proposal for my research came from personal beliefs and concerns; about the way the huy leaps NATO is funding the research”
”NATO,” exclaihed the Dutchather the raw data my research requires, so they pretend not to notice or care What we are trying to do is predict what the Baby, the global Netill look and act like when it grows up”
”Isn't crystal ball gazing easier?”
”Ya, it reed ”But nohy don't you look around? I am sure you will find it ain about the Spook ”Is he really here in Amsterdam?” Yup! ”And he said he'd be here today?” Yup! ”The Spook, at the conference? He hasn't made an appearance in years”
Well, that's what he told me, he'd be here
Scott profusely thanked his host and assured hi he needed Thank you Kirk had been vindicated, thought Scott who had expected a group of pi around like Spring Break in Fort Lauderdale
Scott slowly explored the tables loaded with various types of coear IBM clones were the most common, but an assort- ment of older machines, a CP/M or two, even a Commodore PET proved that expensive new equipment was not needed to becoroup was the elite of hackerdom These were the Hacker's Hackers
In his discussions with Kirk, Scott figured he would see some of the tools of the trade But he had no idea of the level of sophistication that was openly, and perhaps, illegally, being deain, maybe that's why they hold their Hacker Ho Downs in A very critical early on
”Once you let one of us inside your computer, it's all over The system is ours” The universal claim by hackers