夜航船

黑客做的是把规则读得比设计者更熟

《永久记录》给黑客下的定义,比通常那个"闯进系统"准得多:

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.

关键在最后那个词:不是打破规则,是拆穿规则。 被利用的从来不是规则的漏洞,是设计者以为它会怎么运行,和它实际会怎么运行,这两者之间那段距离。规则本身一条也没被违反。

斯诺登接着解释了为什么这段距离一定存在:人靠假设做判断,而其中大部分假设从来没被检验过。

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。

这条在花园里还有几个同构的邻居。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。三张卡说的是同一件事在三个领域的样子:规则的实际行为,总是宽于规则的意图。被当作人类独有的能力,三十年后成了商品 里语音识别的解法也是这个形状,它没有攻克音位这道坎,是绕开了音位这个概念本身。

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"。

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