Palladium Eye & Ear Implants

[Hadmut Danisch]

One of the main properties of the TCPA/Palladium
architecture is the (asserted) ability to 
limit information leaking to "untrusted" parties.

In what way does this affect the appearance of
computers as we know them today? It certainly
means more than that you can't simply forward
copyright protected informations by email in 
plaintext. 

I remember that about 20-25 years ago I read in 
one of the early computer magazines a proposal how
to build a cheap printer from a plain electrical 
typewriter by attaching a board with electromagnetically
operated punchers onto the keyboard without any
modification (!) of the typewriter itself.

Assumed that a "trusted" computer is completely
sealed, it still needs some kind of human interface,
probably a mouse, a keyboard, and a screen
(otherwise whould be questionable what to pay for).

Even if the computer is tamperproof, you still
could attach such a board simulating your fingers
on the keyboard and a camera in front of the screen
doing OCR. Should not be much of a problem to 
teach an untrusted Linux box to read from a 
trusted sealed machine, reading an e-book page by page.

As a consequence, it is not enough to just
encrypt the connection between the computer
and the monitor or the keyboard. An encryption of 
the connection between the computer and the 
authorized person itself is needed.

The solution would be to implant chips in 
one's head and to connect them to the eye
and ear nervers, thus injecting the
decrypted information directly into the
brain.

This also solves the problem that when
a person who has paid reads an e-book, 
always other persons who didn't pay could
watch too.

Of course, "blue screens" become a much
more intense experience once they can
happen directly in your head and 
completely shut down your visual 
and acoustical perception.

Hadmut 




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