Hackers and Anime

Hackers and Anime. They go together well, don't they? Serial Experiments Lain, Ghost in the Shell, Steins;Gate, Battle Programmer Shirase, Bubblegum Crisis, all classics in their own right (well, maybe not Battle Programmer Shirase...). The medium gives the writers and directors complete freedom to invent their world and shape that worlds technological evolution to support their storytelling. How could Serial Experiments Lain have become the phenomenon that it was without a free hand at re-imagining our world? Had it been a live action work, how could the sense of integration between the Wired and the real world have been so grandly achieved?

As we watch these works, it is worth considering that in the long run, no matter how far fetched and impossible some of these scenarios may seem, we really do have the potential to shape our world until it resembles not so much what it is today, but what we dreamed about yesterday. With the proliferation of network-connected security cameras, the standardization on iOS and Android smartphones, and the instant feedback, small attention span worlds of Twitter and Facebook, how far fetched is it that some external actor may be able to slice and dice these data streams at will? Like the Laughing Man, the "eyes" of the wired society could be deceived into displaying what they want them to, not what is really there. We can look at Zeus and other botnets out there that harness the power of thousands upon thousands of unwittingly infected computers and see that it is not beyond the realm of possibility to infect a significant portion of devices and have what amounts to complete control over them. And what if infection is not even required? In Zero History, William Gibson floats the interesting idea of an undisclosed 'feature' being built into the very architecture of visual recording equipment to either stop recording or destroy the resulting image when they detect a particular image.

I'm not much of one for futurism, but just thinking about these things is exciting (and sometimes terrifying) no matter how far-fetched they may seem at the time. Who would have though that when the TalkBoy was the coolest toy around, in 15 years everyone would be carrying around a little gadget the size of a cigarette case that can make calls, browse the internet, check email, play music, take pictures, show where you are on a map, and let you post cute cat pictures to the web?

How do we even begin to shape the future of our tech-obsessed world? A crucial step is that we must realize and accept that technology is here to stay and it is just that, technology. No one would say that a pencil and pad of paper or a printed book controls our lives, but every day we hear neo-luddites and self proclaimed intellectuals scream bloody murder that cell phones and video games and computers are making us their slaves. This is bunk. We are at a critical point in our technological evolution and are just coming to grips with being able to hold an almost infinite amount of knowledge in one hand. That knowledge is just data, though, without the volition of the human mind. In and of itself, it offers nothing more than a closed and locked library. I do 90% of my work and writing with a pen and notebook, I'm not fond of tablets, and I don't really like twitter. However, I recognize that these are technologies and ideas and new modes of social interaction that as a society we must learn to harness and direct to our greatest benefit.

A key part of shaping the future of technology is knowing how to not only imagine that technology, but to defend it, break it, fix it, modify it, reverse engineer it, and make it do exactly what we want. To that end, it is worth checking out local groups of technology enthusiasts, whether it be at a local hackspace or maker gathering, or even science fiction night at the local library. Two groups/evens that I endorse wholeheartedly are (full disclosure: I am a member of the first, staff of the second):

304geeks is a West Virginia-based group that seeks to bring together professional and non-professional geeks for networking, camaraderie, and the sharing of knowledge. Find an event and stop by, we'd love to hear from you.

Hack3rCon is an information security conference put on by 304geeks in association with CharCon, the Charleston, WV gaming convention. Hack3rCon provides access to some of the most exciting speakers and developers in the information technology arena in a relaxed, social atmosphere. As a charitable organization, Hack3rCon also supports Hackers for Charity and their work to feed and educate the world's most vulnerable citizens.