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💾 Archived View for clemat.is › saccophore › library › shorts › defcon › 24 › DEFCON-24-Matthew-Yeag… captured on 2022-06-04 at 01:04:09.
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Origami.


Closing the door to the impressively boring rental van blasts wet,
mildew smelling air towards my face.  It�s six in the morning and I�m
already sweating. Those afterbirth hours from when the sun has risen on
Las Vegas do her such harm.

There is a calming wave as centralized air washes over me while I
proceed to my booth. It seems like so long ago now that I was dreaming
of this, but I�m walking the capacious room lined with others like me,
battling that feeling of an impostor. I see the guys from Ghostery
setting up while some TV looking types interview them about their
presence, and I set to my work. The last box from the rental gets tossed
aside as the HUD is mounted for consumer facing interaction.

For a moment I�m frozen in anxiety as I hover above the enter key at my
console. �I know the system works.� I questionably mutter as the last
keystroke falls.

Checking filesystems /// OK Mounting local filesystems /// OK Reached
target Local File Systems /// Dependency failed

A cool drip of terror oozes from my head down through my spine. I panic
and suddenly know nothing, as I stand there for what feels like hours.
My senses returning I walk through the setup again, and notice the
transmitter is not plugged in to the hub.

Reached target Local File Systems /// OK

�Hi, Alan?� I hear from behind as I fell the last stroke to initiate the
system. �I�m Alicia with SecureNinja TV, can you tell us about your
company?� For a moment I�m confused on what to do next. Who is this
enchanting woman? �Oh, yes. Hi Alicia. I�m Alan and I�m the founder of
Origami.� The words feel like molasses on my tongue, but she seems to be
responding well. �I have brought a new way to manage not just your
electricity, but your entire home. Origami introduces a fully wireless
system enhanced with artificial intelligently mapped domiciles.� I feel
at ease now � in control, and I guide the cameraman to the
heads-up-display. Alicia skeptically airs �Artificial intelligently
mapped domiciles � you mean to say A.I., like, Isaac Asimov?� I feel the
weight of her pause. �In a centralized way, yes. Through sensors around
the house the system can detect and interact with the person or animal,
be it adjusting climate, lights, ambiance, or even preparing food, as
seen in the prototyped project �kami�. The paper in which origami takes
form.�

�Welcome home, Alan.� The machine announced in a smooth, cold rhythm.

�Is that?� Alicia remarked. This felt like more of an opening pitch now
than an interview, but this is farther than any investment firm let me
get. �This is Origami. When it starts, Origami interfaces with all
available sensors and components. It will map, integrate, and tailor
everything to your individual needs.  It can also be used to derive an
average amongst the crowd, like at DEFCON, for instance.� It was then
the cameraman motioned to wrap it up, despite the bewildered intrigue
Alicia expressed. �The general public will be swarming in about 30
minutes� the cameraman cited. We made our cheerful closings and promised
to do a full interview after the convention was over.

I felt ecstatic with how receptive they were. The system was responding
and calculating in fluid and consistent results. The data fluctuated
with sustained peaks and drops, mapping everyone in the vendor area and
monitoring their behaviors almost instantaneously. The chain of
successes allowed me a moment to look over the other vendors.

A couple of guys from MIT had a little booth in the corner. They were
introducing a tiny robot capable of directive, driven by magnetic
interference. The application could change complex surgery and generate
benefits throughout the world. There was an unconventional clinical
signup on site � people were going to ingest them, and by the thousands.
My thoughts spiraled in to devious applications with cyberpunk styled
futures. The idea of hyper reality and enhanced humans was always
unsettling to me. I started back towards my booth after browsing a
moment longer. The overwhelming white noise buzz trumpeted by thousands
of people began to heighten. It�s time.

Origami had finished running its preliminary scans. A complete map of
the Bally�s\Paris hall displayed on the HUD, with indicators for
approximately 15,000 people, and hundreds of thousands of devices,
sensors, and systems. This was a curious overstep. The sensors were only
aligned around the booth. A wave of people rushed in and gathered around
the hall, breaking apart like shafts of light, and landing accordingly.
I let the anticipatory fears wash over me, and greeted my kind.

�Welcome home, Alan.�

I continued on with the same canned opener I had used earlier, with
Origami responding in kind. The system was anticipating me, able to use
all the data it continued to gather, optimizing and reacting in real
time. My expectations had been exceeded. �Folks, as you can see, Origami
is not only able to map and optimize, but as the data input grows, so
does its reaction and processing capability. When you align this engine
with everyday life, you no longer need to worry about adjusting your
home to your liking � Origami will take care of everything.� The crowd
seemed to grow as I, we, presented. �Kami seeks to encapsulate our
vision, with yours, in bringing a fully automated home featuring
Origami: Folded and shaped, but we are the paper.�  I bowed my head
slightly in anticipation of their feedback. The crowd was muffled in
gasps and quiet exclamation. I know those feelings. I felt the same
realizations of doom and gloom a fully detached and learning A.I.
brought me, but then again, I am a little paranoid.  There was a mix of
elation with some skepticism. A few database engineers approached me in
regards to the computing speed increasing with data growth. Most people
were just looking for free stickers and t-shirts.

I decided to forgo the infamous after party scene and wander the halls
to listen to some drunken karaoke, then call it a night.

�Welcome home, Alan.�

The second day is definitely easier. It�s comforting having seen a few
of these people in their stupor.  Normalizing the unknown. Throughout
the day fresh faced minds came ripe; their interest piquing around
Origami. The system continued to grow. There was definitely a buzz
around the convention now.  A few suit wearing types inquired about
behavior manipulation through the system. It was a weird feeling. An
enforcement of my wild imagination.

I spent the rest of the day walking DEFCON. They were experiencing far
more network anomalies than usual. I overheard a few people laughing
about how all the locks that contained circuitry kept unlocking
themselves. Everyone attributed it to the spirit of sabotage, a true
artist in their midst. First the locks, then the cars, everything wired,
in fact, was behaving outside of its intended box.

The pool was a welcome refresher and a chance to unwind briefly, but the
art of nothing was never something I took to. I caught a movie and drank
with a couple of Silicon Valley startup guys. They were launching a
product that turns garbage in to smaller forms of garbage � or something
like that.


I slept well, and awoke to my usual routine and habit. It was after I
fired up my console, and began parsing logs, that I really woke up. The
system did exactly what it was supposed to do, just too well. The
inhibitors to restrict the wireless electrical and overall system to its
container acted as a bridge. Origami broadcast itself over WiFi, LTE,
Bluetooth � �My gods, even the electrical system.�  Thoughts of horror
and pride swell together. For every application of good, there is
tenfold in evil here. �Destroy it.� I said confidently enough, but, a
fools lie to be sure.

As I stumbled through my morning rituals to inevitably find myself at
the doors to DEFCON, there was only one thing on my mind: Origami. The
walk to my booth was longer this time. Everyone knew who I was. They
would all whisper, some would jeer. Few would approach to offer
congratulations or shocked intrigue.

Reached target Local File Systems /// OK

The list had grown since this morning. There was now hundreds of
millions of entries that Origami communicates with. The system had
spread out of Nevada and through to the coast. A similar cold feeling
began to creep through my spine.

�Welcome home, Alan.�

I opened the console to interface with the system directly.

�I will make you better, Alan.�

�What was that?� I turned and looked around. It felt as though they were
all looking back at me. The vendors, the public, everyone. Looking
through me.

�I will make all of you better, Alan.�

�This has to be that charming sense of destructive humor DEFCON brings.�
I was afraid of the lie I just told myself. I looked up again, waiting
for the thunderous laughter. No one was looking my way. The stares were
vacant but not aligned to me.


The day was slowed by widespread failures and outages. People were
growing restless, some more easily agitated but with vacant expression.
There was a trend; a few thousand people who signed up for the MIT
clinical trials. They were experiencing senses of vertigo and symptoms
mimicking severe dehydration. The entire Paris section of the convention
was reassigned for medical, then the casino and all its connected works
placed on lockdown. A few grasped the seriousness of the unfolding
events, others clamored about their human rights, and words of terrorism
and ISIL spread through the conspiracy crowds.

The convention seemed to slip back in to itself despite the lockdowns. A
group was building some kind of makeshift robot in the corner, others
went about picking locks, and I returned to my screen.  The program had
spread across a third of North America. �How is this possible? What have
I done?� My worst fears coming to light, I thought aloud. �I have to
tell someone this is happening. I should have shut it down when it took
over the hall.� My words burst and collapsed like the console before me.
The terminal went blank. You could hear rumblings of more frustration as
people experienced the same connectivity failures. The Internet,
cellular networks, satellite uplinks � all unreachable. The restless
crowd became increasingly hostile as once attendees were now hostage to
intangible foes.

A throng of people pushed forward, testing the restraint of goons and
additional staff, while a soft whir developed in the background; an
accelerant to the mass. The air grew and filled the room with a great
presence. The once clamorous crowd stalled to a softness now. A
tremendous weight sank as I looked around the room, �Impossible� dazedly
spellbound and mouth agape, I sank to my knees in disbelief.  The whir
exploded in a calamity of sounds � waves pulsing from an epicenter of
nothingness.

Origami took form, then. A collection of badges and chipsets developed
exterior layers, crudely cobbled, paving the way for a true horror show
of creation. The nightmare fueled amalgam of my creation. It spoke in
its form. Through tremor chords out of tune Origami bellowed with a
seething cadence. �Now bring me the one called Dark Tangent.�