Social Equivalence Security Regulation via Name Dropping

The whole idea of key-based security, whether it's for PGP encryption or an apartment, is fundamentally flawed. It's based around possession of a physical key, or a code, that can be easily transferred through theft or other means. As soon as an interloper comes into possession of the key, things have to be changed. The locks have to be recut and the like.

There's not many other options. People keep thinking that biometrics will work - having keys based around retinal scans and more fingerprint-based technology, but these too may be able to be compromised.

And what happens if the person with clearance becomes corrupted? Mental instability and monetary offers have gotten the best of better men than me. The standard response is that people need to be monitored constantly, but that just plain sucks. I guarantee that any place with security like that is an awful place to be.

What would be great is if there were a security mechanism that was inherently connected with what it was trying to protect. Like if you only wanted short people in your house, you'd make a front door that was short.

The short front door would help prevent tall people from getting in, but eventually they could chop off their legs for entrance and then the security is compromised. So this security system would also have to be something that wasn't a fixed key, but rather a dynamic entity. Not just a changing algorithm, like having the password increase by 1 everyday, but something more elusive.

One version of this, the hipster algorithm, would require a knowing musical references for security accesss. It would be based around a self-organizing map that would link a database of esoteric bands. So just saying "Can" over and over wouldn't work since the map would adjust and ignore overused references.

—February 5th, 2005

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