夜航船

黑客做的是把规则读得比设计者更熟

《永久记录》从理解系统规则的角度谈黑客:

To hack a system requires getting to know its rules better than the people who created it or are running it, and exploiting all the vulnerable distance between how those people had intended the system to work and how it actually works, or could be made to work. In capitalizing on these unintentional uses, hackers aren't breaking the rules as much as debunking them.

debunking 强调的是揭出设计者理解中的问题:预期的运行方式与实际可能的运行方式有距离。利用这段距离,并不意味着行动必然没有违反任何规则。

斯诺登接着谈到未经检验的假设:即使聪明人,也会依据一些未曾验证的想法作判断。

even the smartest among us rely on assumptions that we've never put to the test—and because we do, the choices we make are often flawed. Anyone who knows better, or thinks more quickly and more accurately than we do, can take advantage of those flaws.

由此他说出这件事最平等的地方:hacking 不管你是谁,只管你怎么推理。 所以它特别适合用来对付那些笃信自己那套系统天然正当、从没想过要检验它的权威。

还有几张可以对照的卡片。演化会从你没想到的角度解题 说的是你只能设定筛选压力,不能设定被筛选者用什么办法通过;生物学唯一的原则是:只要能用就行 说的是先跑通的方案会被锁死,此后优雅与否无关紧要。这些讨论都提醒人留意预想之外的结果,但自然演化没有设计意图,不能和人为规则直接等同。被当作人类独有的能力,三十年后成了商品 则可以从技术路线改变既有难点的角度并读。

还有一个更近的:所有的锁都是可以打开的。费曼说多数人看见锁就放弃,其实先要意识到锁都能开;他实际的战绩是挨个试出厂密码,五个保险箱开一个。那正是这条定义的现场演示:他没有破解任何机械结构,他只是比设置保险箱的人更认真地想过"这台机器实际会怎么被使用"。

——收入 一得

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