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June 28, 2003
Setac Astronomy
For some reason I've been thinking a lot lately about Setec Astronomy. For those of you that don't know, that was the codename for a super secret project in the movie Sneakers. First off, if you haven't seen in, don't walk, RUN and get it. One of the best movies of all time. Anyway, Setec Astronomy turned out to be an anagram for Too Many Secrets. This scientist had developed a little black box that would break any and all encryption schemes. Whoop die doo you say. Without giving the movie away, the implications of such a device existing are staggering. Basically, all financial and government institutions would be rendered useless. Money as we know it would go away. All financial markets would collapse. Its all digital now. There's no gold backing up our money anymore, its just ones and zeroes. But now that its all digital, it relies on secrecy, encryption. Without encryption, anyone could transfer money from anywhere to anywhere. Anyone could read any of our or any other governments' documents. Its like Fight Club, but without the violence. TRW, gone. Visa/Mastercard, gone. Wells Fargo, gone.Again, for some reason I've been thinking about this lately. Wondering what would really happen. Not in a hollywood sense, but in a true sense. The long term implications. The biggest thing I've realized is that we wouldn't die, we'd adapt and live, though our lives would look nothing as they do today. It seems obvious, but usually we can't imagine a world without $$. So, once we admit that life would go on without $$, we can more freely ask ourselves what benefit or detriment money really plays on our planet. I've really just started thinking about what would happen. There'd obviously be a period of pandaemonium and chaos. The question is whether we'd come out of that and would society would look like once we did. There'd be HUGE pressure to come up with some other form of tender that would work. People would naturally assume we'd HAVE to come up with some form of monetary exchange. I'm not so sure. But what would it look like. Its fun to think. [sigh]
Posted by wonko at June 28, 2003 05:55 PM
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Comments
One of the best movies of all time? I'll admit it was a great movie. Better than some of the $50M crap that's out there now. Ahem, HULK. In my opinion, the best movie of all time would have to be "The Princess Bride."
Posted by: useEvil at June 28, 2003 09:48 PM
I didn't say THE best movie of all time. I said ONE of the best. I'd also put The Princess Bride in that category. Along with What About Bob, Caddyshack, Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory, Failsafe, ... too many to mention. :)
Posted by: Wonko at June 28, 2003 10:47 PM
I'll have to watch Sneakers again. But, I just don't get that 'Best of all time' feeling from Sneakers. I'll let you know.
Posted by: useEvil at June 30, 2003 12:25 PM
I have to put sneakers as one of the best i've seen... Princess Bride and Willy Wonka are on that list as well. Sneakers is one of those movies that kind of snuck in quietly and went away before anyone ever saw it. I would highly recommend seeing it if you haven't already!
Posted by: PJ at July 14, 2003 12:55 PM
Sneakers I would also put in the catagory of "Best Movies Ever," along with Princess Bride. Sneakers I first saw on TV, and my tape of it has degraded horribly from over-watching. Thankfully, the DVD and LaserDisc versions will not wear out quite so quickly, and yes, I like the movie enough to own the LaserDisc also.
Posted by: Digital Nomad at August 20, 2003 02:23 AM
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