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So now that Max is six, I get to read comic books while pretending
they're for him. And one thing you learn quickly is that the comic
books people revere - the old-school Stan Lee era comic books - are
godawful. They're just terrible. The art is terrible. The writing is
campy and flowless and just basically as nauseating as possible
describing characters without motivation, depth or charm. It's
Vogon-poetry level stuff. <br>
<br>
That said, it's "age-appropriate" for a six year old. And because
these characters are still relentlessly marketed today, their 60's
era original cardboard cutouts are still "cool" to modern kids.<br>
<br>
You can get good comics as well, but they tend to give a six year
old nightmares. <a
href="http://www.amazon.com/Astonishing-X-Men-Omnibus-Joss-Whedon/dp/0785138013/ref=ntt_at_ep_dpt_2">The
best</a>, obviously, is an X-Men comic written by Joss Whedon, who
wrote Buffy and the new Avengers movie. But if your six year old is
anything like mine, he wants to dress up as Iron Man all the time
(cause why not if you're six?). So then you get to explain how Iron
Man is not named that because his suit is made from iron (because
iron is heavy and very vulnerable to the first rent-a-cop with a
taser, etc. Most likely his suit is made from custom ceramics, no?)
But of course, it's the man inside that's Iron - refusing to give up
even when your heart is broken and the system you live in wants to
crush you and your alcohol-soaked brain like an egg. <br>
<br>
And the modern comics have a nicely subtle examination of the
ethical issues surrounding building weapons systems, using them, and
how technological advancements in weapons change society as a whole.
Iron Man's job is to face these difficult issues with gravitas,
sacrifice, and occasionally humor (which is usually at his own
expense).<br>
<br>
These comics connect nicely to Richard Rhodes's book "<a
href="http://www.amazon.com/Making-Atomic-Bomb-Richard-Rhodes/dp/0684813785/ref=sr_1_2?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1337959246&sr=1-2">Building
the Nuclear Bomb</a>", which is the Pulitzer winning exploration
of the issues that surrounded building atomic bombs but also apply
nicely to modern cyber-warfare (as <a
href="http://www.vanityfair.com/contributors/michael-joseph-gross">Michael
Gross</a> pointed out over mojitos at INFILTRATE 2012). <br>
<br>
For example compare this <a
href="http://crossroads.alexanderpiela.com/files/Fussell_Thank_God_AB.pdf">tract</a>
(not from the book, but in the same vein):<br>
<blockquote>
<blockquote>When the A-bombs were dropped, van der Post recalls,
"This cataclysm I was certain would make the Japanese feel that
they could withdraw from the war without dishonor, because it
would strike them, as it had us in the silence of our prison
night, as something supernatural." <br>
</blockquote>
</blockquote>
Contrast that to modern chairman of the joint chiefs <a
href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=r8vYas46HTo#t=370s">General
Martin Dempsey</a>'s <a
href="http://defense.aol.com/2012/05/17/humans-not-hardware-will-get-military-through-tough-budget-tim/">comments
about cyberwar</a>:<br>
<br>
<meta charset="utf-8">
<blockquote>
<blockquote> "We have some pretty amazing materiel capabilities
coming online," Dempsey went on -- he cited cyberwarfare in
particular as "one of those areas where our actual capabilities
are beginning to resemble science fiction" -- "but actually the
non-materiel changes we make will matter more."<br>
</blockquote>
</blockquote>
<br>
It is as science fiction or as supernatural in some senses as Iron
Man's suit and in other senses, as real as splitting the atom, and
you can see <a
href="http://www.schneier.com/blog/archives/2012/04/jcs_chairman_so.html">Schneier</a>
arguing that it nothing more than a scare tactic to raise more
funds. But Martin Dempsey is not only very smart, but also very well
informed, I would argue, and it's more likely that he's right. <br>
<br>
Every science has a weapon of mass destruction. Physics had nukes,
chemistry had gas, biology has the unspoken terrors that we've so
far avoided unleashing upon ourselves. And computer science, of
course, has its own demon whom we've yet to fully face. We can only
hope that on both sides, we find people using these things more like
an Iron Man than a Vogon.<br>
<br>
-dave<br>
<br>
<br>
<br>
<br>
<br>
<pre class="moz-signature" cols="72">--
INFILTRATE - the world's best offensive information security conference.
April 2013 in Miami Beach
<a class="moz-txt-link-abbreviated" href="http://www.infiltratecon.com">www.infiltratecon.com</a>
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