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.In addition, there are horror stories that go along with this technology, like security break-ins being accomplished by cutting out a person’s eyeball and holding it up to a retinal scanner.” Javier wiggled his eyebrows to look evil.“Unfortunately”—Jaimie gave a little shudder—“that really does work.”“Can I just bring the kid down here and shove his eye at the computer, or do you need me to really cut it out?” Mack asked, straight-faced.Jaimie made a face at him.“I don’t think we need to do anything quite so drastic.My PhD dissertation introduced a new approach that combines the idea of generating more secure passwords with the idea behind biometrics: coming up with a unique identifier for each person.Here’s the idea.Just like a person’s retina or fingerprint, everyone’s brain is unique.In particular, everyone has memories that no one else has.If we could identify a unique memory for a person, and find a way to express it in the form of a sequence of words—enough words to be secure of—we’d have a password no one could ever break.The program would be a terrific new tool for security without requiring the extra hardware that biometric approaches like retinal scanning does, and without having to remember an impossibly long sequence of random letters and numbers.I call it ‘mememetrics’—because, in contrast with biometrics, it’s based on unique memories rather than unique biological characteristics.”“How does it work?” Javier asked.“Here’s how it’s done.My AI program conducts an interview with a person aimed at ferreting out a memory unique to that person, and expressing it in six words: the password.A password made of six unguessable words is just as secure as a password made of twenty-three random letters and numbers.”“Because there are about 170,000 words in the dictionary,” Javier said, grinning with excitement.“Brilliant, Jaimie.I knew there was a reason I fell madly in love with you.”Mack smacked him on the back of the head.“She’s in love with me.Keep talking, Jaimie.”Javier ignored him.“If you choose six words at random from the dictionary for a password, a program trying to crack the password would have to search through an impossibly large number of combinations.”Jaimie nodded.“Multiply 170,000 by 170,000 by 170,000 by.you get the idea: six 170,000s multiplied together.Our fastest supercomputers would take over three hundred years to search through all the possibilities.So this kind of password is pretty secure.”“You never told me about this, Jaimie,” Javier said.“How does the program work?”“It has about a thousand different ‘schemas’ representing different kinds of remembered personal experiences: from happy childhood memories, to low-grade traumatic experiences, to fantasies, to love or sexual memories, to memories of accomplishments, on and on.”Mack frowned at her.“I don’t want to know the kid’s sexual fantasies, Jaimie, just his password.I need a look into that computer.”“You have no patience,” Jaimie reprimanded.“The program is looking to find an uncommon memory or fact.So, exactly not the kind of thing you often are asked for in security questions like, ‘your mother’s maiden name,’ ‘your favorite pet’s name’—that sort of thing.And not your sexual preference, you perverts.A lot of people besides yourself could acquire those pieces of information.So the program steers away from those sorts of things.Instead, it looks for facts or memories that are unique to you, and that you have never shared with anyone else.”Javier shook his head, his mouth open, his eyes lit with respect.Mack’s chest expanded.He loved how intelligent Jaimie was, that she could do things few others could do and he had no understanding of.But he loved to listen.Sometimes, when she talked, he felt like her accomplishments were the best in the world.He was more proud of her than of anything he’d ever done.He wanted to show her off to the world—and he wanted to keep her strictly for himself.“The program uses a natural language interface and a unique AI learning algorithm that almost always allows it to converge on a unique memory for a person within five attempts.So it might start off looking for a low-grade traumatic experience from childhood—something you remember but never told anyone else about—but then it discovers that you are someone who basically doesn’t recall any unhappy childhood memories.So upon learning that, the program might shift over to looking for mildly happy childhood memories.”“I see you’re focusing on ‘low-grade’ traumatic experiences or ‘mildly’ happy childhood memories,” Javier said, speculation in his voice.Mack wished he could keep up; this was obviously exciting stuff.Jaimie nodded.“Because horribly traumatic experiences or the fantastically happy childhood memories are the kinds you might very well have told others about.We’re looking for a memory that doesn’t stand out that much, but is still unique, but is something the person can remember as their password, because after all, it’s created from one of their own memories [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]