[Noisebridge-discuss] Philosophy and Computer Language Question

[Will Sargent]

On Mon, Jan 2, 2012 at 6:45 AM, Joshua Juran <jjuran at gmail.com> wrote:

> On Dec 31, 2011, at 5:10 PM, Will Sargent wrote:
>
>  CS can only model reality by simulation.  What it's really good at is
>> concrete math, sets and category theory -- telling you what answers are
>> possible and which are not, which systems can be built and which cannot,
>> which operations are possible and which are not.  There's an interesting
>> paper that shows all computer programs are formal logic proofs, and you
>> can
>> do fun things by breaking out of a restricted environment to another --
>> escaping into a wierd machine -- but ultimately it's always the rules of
>> the machine as defined by the chip.  Whatever world we define in there is
>> simulated, and isn't going to break out of the instruction pointer of the
>> CPU running it.
>>
>
> Although you can *simulate* a system where something breaks out.  Examples
> include A-ha's Take On Me video and Six-Part Ricercar, the final dialogue
> from Douglas Hofstadter's Gödel, Escher, Bach.  But you won't see Alan
> Turing popping out of the pages of the book or pencil-sketch dude entering
> your room through the screen.  (Unless of course you're in some altered
> state.)


In some sense, that's every security exploit -- it pops out of the page and
starts slouching towards Bethlehem.

Will.
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