Kryptonomicon: great accordion, hello from the 90s and the best book about techies

I reread this book many times, both in translation and in the original. So much so that, talking about her, I feel a little strange. Something like Captain Obvious, who suddenly realized that he was a Captain.



And yet, I want to talk about it, if only because Neil Stevenson’s novel provides such a unique mixture of stories about war, the Internet, technology, programmers, encryption, and just about people that the task of finding something similar is doomed to complete failure. Including when trying to look for "something like that" in other books of Stevenson himself.



At the same time, this is one of the best works of art, affecting the topic of information security. And an incredibly strong motivator for studying any computer science, even if it seems to you that you are hopelessly late for this table.

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It is difficult to teach the cryptographic security of even an intelligent person. Especially smart.

Named as one of the characteristic representatives of the cyberpunk style, Neil Stephenson returns to the reality of today's day in the Kryptonomicon and even goes into the past (even to the ancient Greeks) in an attempt to evaluate the role of “techies” in modern society. The book was published in 1999, and 17 years ago it seemed that the author was experiencing excessive optimism about the influence of computers and the Internet on humanity, draws a realistic, but somewhat utopian. Now it does not seem so. Cute artifacts of the 20th century, like Windows NT and BeOS, do not interfere at all with the relevance of the Kryptonomicon universe. Technology has gone forward, but people ... People have not changed much, both in a good sense and in a bad one.



Book-reading etiquette requires me to warn the reader about spoilers, although in reality there are almost none. Any attempt to squeeze a 900-page volume in which two storylines and a dozen side, in a few pages of reviews, fortunately, is doomed to failure. Instead of spoilers, I will try to evaluate how the technical and social computer-related ideas put in the book have been implemented in practice.

The setting

The two main characters - Lawrence Pritchard Waterhouse and his grandson Randy - live in parallel realities, in different time periods, one during World War II, the other in the atmosphere of the rapidly expanding Internet bubble of the late 90s. They rarely intersect, although, being people of a technical mentality, practitioners in the world of theorists, politicians and lawyers, they solve a similar set of problems. As they can - creating in the midst of chaos and uncertainty, sometimes even in spite of it, something previously unseen. Both are comfortable in a tiny little world of their own hobbies: Lawrence is infinitely happy, having the opportunity to play the org and not, Randy could live all his life in the virtual reality of role-playing games.



Unfortunately, or fortunately - did not work. Circumstances interfere: war, lawsuits, the need to get out of the cozy reality - at least for a living, though because really interesting techno toys are available either in the army or in the sharks of the emerging network business. “Kryptonomicon” is a success story of two geeks in the brutal real world, worthy of admiration, although both heroes, if asked, would hardly have signed up for such a break through problems (they are made up by other characters, who are inclined to look for problems on their own head and other parts body). As a result, one participates in the creation of the first computers, the other - creates either a networked paradise, or the first digital currency, with unclear prospects, knows the world and finds love (where without it).



“Kryptonomicon” is the only art book in the world that contains Perl code (and yes, it is an integral part of the plot). It is also a storehouse of allegorical descriptions of the fundamentals of cryptography and the basic principles of computing systems.

Ocean - Turing machine, sand - tape; water reads signs on the sand, sometimes erases them, sometimes writes new twists, which themselves arose as a response to these signs. Wandering in the surf strip, Waterhouse leaves craters in the wet sand, and the waves read them. Over time, the ocean will erase traces, but in the process will change its state, the pattern of the waves. These disturbances reach the other side of the Pacific; With the help of some top-secret device made of bamboo and chrysanthemum petals, Japanese observers will learn that Waterhouse was walking here.

Translation difficulties

In “Cryptonomicon” I am more offended by the relations of the heroes with the outside world. Stephenson writes about this expertly, being a geek himself, a role-playing fan and programmer. The clash of good ideas and the cruel reality of this world occurs repeatedly and is inserted into the plot without embellishment, hence the lack of a happy ending. That is, almost everyone lives happily ever after, but probably the fact is that only with technology this world cannot be fixed. Maybe he is hopeless at all? Perhaps it would have been a reason to fall into despair if the whole book had not been imbued with some kind of impenetrable love of life in all its manifestations. The main thing: no matter what, technologies really change the world, and this is the most reliable means against lowering hands.

A young nerd is quickly offended when some statements are made nearby, as if he, a young nerd, may not know something! Older nerds are more confident and understand that people sometimes need to think out loud. And highly advanced nerds understand something else: a statement of facts is part of normal human communication and should not in any way be regarded as a personal affront.

Cryptography

It is the central technology of the book, and appears in almost all possible forms, from the Enigma encryption machine (there is an excellent description of periodic polyalphabet encryption systems using a broken bicycle as an example) to modern cryptography, and even the specially developed encryption algorithm for the book (the link spoilers are real). Appears in many other contexts - from very spectacular attempts to create a smoke screen to deceive the enemy, to purely social problems with understanding people who are very different from you in character.

Lieutenant Colonel Earl Comstock, representing the Electric Till Corporation and the US Army (in the sequence), is preparing for the next report of his subordinate Lawrence Pritchard Waterhouse, as a test pilot - to fly into the stratosphere with a rocket engine under the ass. He goes to bed early, gets up late, orders the adjutant to (a) have a lot of hot coffee and (b) Waterhouse will not give it. He puts two tape recorders, in case one breaks, and invites three experienced, technically savvy transcribers. He has two subordinates - docks in mathematics (in the peaceful past, too, employees of the ETC). Comstock delivers a small pep talk to them.



“You are not required to understand what this Waterhouse carries.” I will scratch him in all the blades. Your job is to grab his legs and hold with all my strength so that at least I can see his back. “Comstock is proud of its analogy, but both docks just clap their eyes. He irritably explains the difference between literal and figurative.

Cryptonomicon Technologies 17 years later

Digital paradise - in the book is a virtual entity, free from the influence of states and governments, as well as "earthly" laws and rules, giving complete anonymity on the network. It is implemented through a fictional island state in which all power belongs to the Sultan. Despite such an unrealistic statement of the question, the plot reveals the whole range of problems - from the inevitable use of such a design by criminals, to the ability of other states to influence its performance even by cutting the submarine communication cables. "Crypt" certainly exists in reality, at least in the form of Tor and other darkweb, but it will never be completely independent.



Electronic currency is another accurate hit of a fantastic plot into reality, although with a little different methods. Being built on the basis of the same sultanate, the cryptocurrency in the book is provided with gold, but in reality it turned out to be a distributed, little dependent anonymous system, provided with nothing but a belief in its perfection. The prospects for digital currency in the "Cryptonomicon" are vague, and in reality, too. I will come to update this post in ten years .





Van Eyck interception - A private story of the book, which seems to have appeared there due to the sophistication and beauty of this method of espionage. The security services are supposedly used to this day, but it is unlikely to be used en masse, as long as there are a lot of much easier ways to steal information.



Biometrics - is presented as a promising identification technology, the basis for protecting the “crypt” from unauthorized access, using a palm print, retina, and even voice. Here it seems it did not work out. On the one hand, biometrics is used massively in the same smartphones. On the other hand, the reliability of this technology as the only means of authorization turned out to be extremely low. A topical example is the re - creation of fingerprints based on photographs of a person speaking in public.



The same cryptography attaches to the eternal relevance of the “Cryptonomicon”: its need to protect personal data in the network, the clash with the interests of states were predicted exactly. In the book of the 99th year, the obsession of the main characters with encryption, and, in a broader sense, data protection is presented as a small, but deviation from the norm. In reality, 2016 is a rather useful life habit, something like washing your hands before eating.

He is so paranoid that he doesn’t even trust Ordo ( in the book this is an advanced program for data encryption )

... - Ok, then everything is ok.

History repeats itself

"Kryptonomicon" is trying to determine the place of the creators of technology (once they are compared with the Tolkien workaholic "dwarfs" as opposed to talkative hobbits) in the overall picture of the world. The heroes of the “military” unit are trying to use their practical knowledge to discourage some of the resources from the illogical and evil world in order to direct them to some useful work (for example, to build hospitals or schools). And suffer defeat. The heroes of modern times, in general, are trying to do the same, keeping their startup afloat for the realization of a good idea, surrounded by business sharks, interested only in personal gain, fame or power. Whether they succeeded - it is not clear whether the plot ends before the happy ending, or, more likely, failure. But you know, this is in fact not important: such people even have a favorite work, experience and knowledge in case of a defeat. Investing in this is the most correct strategy, since everything else is your employer, a roof over your head and even a peaceful sky are, alas, not guaranteed.



The world of "Kryptonomicon" rests on those who are able to head off into solving a complex problem, and solve it. Despite the chaos and a lot of problems, this world looks very, very attractive.

What else to read with Stevenson:

It never repeats, so the "Kryptonomicon-2" does not exist. And this is great. These books describe completely different technologies, but with a similar scale, detail and a fascinating storyline:

" Diamond Age " - nanotechnology

Snow Crash - Virtual Reality

" JP and paranoid chip " - a short story from the conventional universe of "Cryptonomicon" (but not a continuation), artificial intelligence

" Seveneves " is a 2015 book, not yet translated into Russian, space exploration and human survival after a catastrophe.