[FRIAM] Agentscript steganography for distributing model code with an image (was Re: ... --- ...)

[glen]

Excellent! Transparency is inadequate, though. As with open-source, transparency reduces to reachability, which facilitates hacking by obscurity, one of the many kinds of supply chain channels we're seeing so much of in the news these days. E.g. the recent chainsaw vulnerability. ... or, perhaps more appropriately, the recent, *quiet*, Tesla module elision: https://jalopnik.com/tesla-chip-shortage-fix-was-to-pull-steering-components-1848498652

It's also akin to hiding persnickety little "terms of use" clauses in huge contracts that nobody reads, then using those obscure, but totally transparent, clauses to, say, kick you off Youtube or whatnot.

In addition to transparency, you need something like "flatness" ... like the holographic principle, where everything that's inside you or your service is visible by the laity on the surface. The unix philosophy handles this by wrapping little tools as little "monads" that do one thing, well. Any large, systemically complex package will prevent such flatness. It can be mitigated with "pipes" (e.g. <https://www.howtogeek.com/438882/how-to-use-pipes-on-linux/>) or "data flow" architectures because the flatness lies in their sequentiality. But the control surfaces for any modern application prevents such flatness through sequentiality. Everyone insists on immediate gratification and interruptibility.

The better path is to target *credibility*, rather than verifiability. But, as our modern political discourse demonstrates, credibility is susceptible to tribalism. So we need a hybrid approach that balances sequentiality, walkable depth, and character/credibility.


On 2/10/22 10:45, Stephen Guerin wrote:
> Yes, we do have chrome extension that could look for code in any image in your browser. We're trying to design a network to deploy BuenWare - is there a better prefix for virally good software that benefits your digital metabolism and connection to the earth?
> 
> We're currently using the extension to be a persistent compute and storage node on our "acequia" p2p network. It can also screen share and open the web camera on phone or desktop. Of course, the trick to all of this is transparency and creating a "sousveillant" network vs a surveillant. Ala Brin's "Transparent Society" book.


-- 
glen
When elephants fight, it is the grass that suffers.