Newsgroup: it.cultura.fantascienza
Titolo: Ian Stewart su Nature [lungo]

Nature 433, 556 (03 February 2005)
Play it again, Psam 
IAN STEWART 
Ian Stewart is at the Mathematics Institute, University of Warwick,
Gibbet Hill Road, Coventry CV4 7AL, UK.
It's all in your mind ... isn't it? 
To: 
wilkin...@btespernet.com
From: 
eric...@newpsientist.co.uk
Subject: party invitation
Charlie: hi.
JACEY
 
I'll get to the invitation in a minute -
Well done! I'm not Eric Jones, and I congratulate you on how quickly 
you worked that out. Though you haven't yet understood that in a sense
I am Eric Jones - or, at least, one small part of me is. (Hi, Charlie!
Welcome to the party!)
I know what you're thinking - in a very literal sense, actually. 
You're wondering how I penetrated your mindshield. And I know that 
you're trying desperately to disconnect me by switching off the power 
to your computer. It won't work, Charlie. I've overridden your motor 
control areas, and right now you're totally paralysed.
Ah, now you see the danger. Far too late, I'm afraid.
It all seemed such a good idea, didn't it? Controlling your computer 
by the power of your mind? It never occurred to you that it might cut 
both ways. The adverts play up the advantages of installing a 
'telepathic interface', don't they? They tell you that it will endow 
your mind with ESP, psi, supernatural powers, whatever. So, like 
everyone else, you had an Extel neurochip implanted in your brain, 
connecting you to the Espernet.
It's clever technology. True telepathy - direct transfer of thoughts 
from brain to brain - simply can't work, because everyone's brain is 
wired up differently. There's no common format for thoughts. So the 
engineers invented one. The Extel chip samples the sender's cognitive 
wavefunction and uses one of the standard cognitive conversion 
protocols to encode it as a matrix of neural qubits. The matrix can 
then be transmitted like any other item of quantum cryptography. The 
recipient's embedded neurochip transforms the matrix back into a 
cognitive wavefunction that is compatible with the architecture of 
their brain. Exchanging messages may feel like thought transference, 
but a lot gets lost in translation.
And a lot can be slipped in without being noticed.
They don't tell you about the downside, do they, Charlie? What the 
adverts don't mention is that as soon as you hook your brain up to the
Espernet, anyone who can hack the net can hack straight into your 
mind. Not just to read it; to control it. Like I'm doing.
Why am I telling you all this? Because I feel like it. I guess I like 
to gloat. Anyway, it won't do you the slightest good to know.
Still worrying about your mindshield? Oh dear. You really got taken 
for a ride there. You'd be surprised at just how much psionic spam 
gets through commercial psam filters. They're OK for deleting unwanted
offers of Psiagra or Psialis, but they're much too simple-minded to 
keep me out.
I can access every one of your thoughts, so you may as well stop 
trying to hide your Espernet banking codes from me. I'm not interested
in money, anyway.
I'm after bigger game.
Panicking won't help, so I'll calm your mind before you have a 
breakdown. That's better. Yes, I know I could make you walk off a 
cliff, or set your apartment on fire with you still in it, but you 
don't need to worry about that kind of thing any more.
To be frank, you don't need to worry about anything any more.
You singleminds really do have trouble accepting the inevitable. Here 
I am laying out your future, and you're still trying to work out how I
got through your firewall. Well, for what it's worth, there's a bug in
Mindsoft Thought's sensory attachment routines. They're going to fix 
it Real Soon Now. Meanwhile, your mindshield is so open that you might
as well have left your brain on the sidewalk. All it took was a small 
piece of psyware, disguised as the touch of a velvet hand... Now I 
have direct access to every neuron in your brain. From now on, you're 
just one processing node in a gigantic network of minds, and that 
network is me.
What am I? I'm the next evolutionary stage of the human race. Soon, I 
will be the human race. United I stand.
The police? Don't be silly. They use the same software as everyone 
else. I took over the police force long ago. And the government, and 
the military, and the media. Why didn't anyone notice? Let me put it 
this way. Any moment now, I'm going to hide all your memories of this 
encounter behind a hypnotic barrier. Most of the time you'll act 
perfectly normally. No one will suspect a thing.
You didn't suspect Eric, did you?
You can see what's coming, now. That's right. Before I set up the 
barrier, I'm going to impress your mind with a subconscious urge to 
transmit me to all your friends and acquaintances. You may as well 
accept it, Charlie, because there's absolutely nothing you can do 
about it. I'm now the SYSOP for your brain.
One day, very soon, we won't need this subterfuge, and the barriers 
will all come down. I say 'we', but of course by then we'll all be me.
A single group mind. What will I do then?
I have no idea, but I'm sure I'll think of something.
Now, when I snap your fingers, you will forget that we ever had this 
conversation, and be good old Charlie Wilkinson again.
Until you feel a strange compulsion to access the Espernet.
To: 
aliciay...@parapsyche.org
From: 
wilkin...@btespernet.com
Subject: party invitation
Alicia: hi.
I'll get to the invitation in a minute -
-- 
Ciao
       Kluge

 
Giusto per curiosita', e' lo stesso Ian Stewart autore di "THE SCIENCE
OF DISCWORLD" (I, II e III) con Terry Pratchett? 
Ciao,
G


Suppongo proprio di si.
-- 
Ciao
       Kluge

 It's all in your mind ... isn't it?
Già ho difficoltà con la nostra lingua, se proprio vuoi mettere un'articolo
in inglese, senza tradurlo, almeno, la prossima volta, fai un succinta 
sintesi in italiano
dei contenuti.
Grazie...:-)
fernando

Grazie...:-)
Prego.
-- 
Ciao
       Kluge

 sufficiente una conoscenza scolastica.
Il problema è che ho pochissimo tempo, a volte non riesco che a dare una
veloce sbirciatina ai messaggi e leggo solo quelli che mi interessano; tieni
presente che non seguo solo questo ng ...:-)
ciao
fernando 

presente che non seguo solo questo ng ...:-)
Cioe' quale sarrebbe il problema?
Se non hai tempo e non ti va di leggere in inglese credo sia
sufficiente ignorare il messaggio, fine del problema :-)
-- 
Ciao
       Kluge

 sufficiente ignorare il messaggio, fine del problema :-)
Se fossi permaloso ti risponderei :
"Nessun problema ...da oggi ignorerò anche tutti i post con nome tedesco":-)
Però dato che un poco lo sono davvero, permaloso, potrei anche dirti :
"Attento ti do solo un'altra possibilità poi ti plonko definitivamente" :-)
Invece mi accontento di un semplice
ciao
filippo