◘ 16 ◘ voice;

[hacktivist]

It's telling to examine the similarities in emotional and computing vulnerabilities.

Many of the same security problems that existed in IPv4's implementation were not corrected in IPv6 (buffer overflows). One careless programmer can make a hundred thousand problems down the line with a brief lapse of attention (bounds checking). Constant vigilance and repeated testing of personal defenses are the only sure methods of safety.

And safety is a target in motion.

Generally speaking: how many times do you have to make the same mistake before you learn? Only once? Twice?



A hundred times?

Comments

[hacktivist]

Perhaps you're right. [this with a deceptive air of nonchalance, secretly intensely invested in all data relating to this subject.]

...Should I get anything else?

[futurebatwoman]

I make a habit of being right. It wastes less time.

[ It's casual, almost flippant, because Max is thinking. ]

No, that's all.

But you did say that it had led to death before.

[hacktivist]

Yes. My own. [he stops, looking over his shoulder, clutching the plates to his person as though they're some kind of stolen goods he expects to be re-confiscated at any moment, and holds a still and solemn silence for a matter of long, agonizing moments]

I am aware of the personal validation effect. [and then he's setting the plates down on the table gently, making nearly no noise whatsoever, shoulders hunched]

[futurebatwoman]

[ she bites down on her instinctive 'you aren't dead' response, because she doesn't think she'll get anywhere with it and she's got a different train of inquiry to pursue here. also, wait - ]

I'm not. Aware of the personal validation effect, that is. [ psychology isn't her field either, okay. ] How does it apply here?

[hacktivist]

It is anecdotal evidence as applied to oneself. Believing a thing is true because of one's own experience, and no outside data. One of the less logical approaches. [he considers] But facts are immutable, and supplement personal observations.

[futurebatwoman]

Well, I think once doesn't make for a satisfactorily complete test.

[ Quietly, she starts to dish out the mashed potatoes. ]

Why are you suddenly concerned about it now? Did something happen?

[hacktivist]

...Some mistakes are very expensive to repeat.

[he sits, pressing his hands to his chin, deeply contemplative in posture and affect. Unusual, for him to transmit emotions so plainly as this.]

Yes. I recognize similar emotional states and behavioral patterns.

[futurebatwoman]

True.

[ she works in silence for a moment, cutting some chicken and sticking broccoli on the plates before sliding his across the counter to him and sitting down herself across from him, picking at her food in concentration. ]

Okay. So what are you going to do?