Caveat Tasks

[mikeizbicki]

Recall that in order to earn a grade that is at least an A- in this class, you must either read Harry Potter and the Methods of Rationality or watch a handful of videos. (Details and links are in the syllabus.)

In order to get credit for having completed this assignment, you should reply to this post with a 2-3 sentence description of your favorite part of the reading/viewing.

[ben-smith23]

Lex Fridman & BDFL: It was fun to hear Lex and Guido oscillate between lay person speak and high level discussions. It was also interesting to here more about the development of Python and what goes into the updates, as well as behind the scenes workings like the interpreter and compiler. I also enjoyed the little discussion over the best IDE to use.

War Games: My favorite part of this film was when David escaped NORAD. I love a good prison break scene and it was fun to watch him use his ingenuity to outsmart the officials and guard. I first watched the movie years ago but had forgotten how intense the ending was.

CitizenFour: I did not realize an entire documentary existed that aligned so well with what was portrayed in the film Snowden, so that was interesting to see. What data they were collecting from outside the US was something new I learned and the fact that 1.2 million people were on a watch list at some point during the documentary is incredible.

Zero Days - Security Leaks for Sale: I found the imbalance in the field of cyber security, with offense being far easier than defense, to be very interesting. The repercussions of this make for a large moral gray zone among hackers and governments. It is freighting to know the number of zero-days that exist at any one time is unknowable and that those who discover them can make far more money selling them to black hats than white hats.

[mikeizbicki]

@ben-smith23 This is just a friendly reminder that it is not enough to watch a single one of the videos. The choice is to either watch all of the videos, or to read only the HPMOR book.

[Kal2025]

Season 1 of Mr. Robot: My favorite episode of Mr. Robot season one was episode 10 (eps1.9 zer0-day.avi). The most memorable moment of the episode was when Elliot stands in Times Square and sees his own reflection on the billboards around him. Throughout this same scene, Elliot has a heartwarming chat with his father's apparition.

War Games: My favorite part of the movie was when Joshua was searching for the launch code IMHO, it is probably one of the best 'countdown climaxes' I have ever seen in a movie. In all honesty, my only criticism for this film was that it was too short; I think the whole scene in Goose Island could have been a bit longer.

CitizenFour: My favorite part of this documentary was the whole 'fire alarm' scene; even though it was extremely tense, the actual storytelling of the scene was amazing. At some points during the documentary, I honestly thought I was watching a movie; it is crazy to think that this is a retelling of our reality.

Zero Days - Security Leaks for Sale: I think that the most interesting part of the documentary was when they interviewed Olivier Beg, a white-hat hacker. Specifically, when they questioned him about making a video to show Yahoo the leak in their system. I thought it was really interesting that companies are willing to pay or hire these white-hat hackers for showing the vulnerabilities in their systems.

[xristinazogopoulou]

Season 1 of Mr. Robot I loved the scene in episode 8 of season 1, where Elliot ended up in his father’s grave and realized that he was Mr Robot after all. This was unexpected and reminded me of the movie Fight Club where the protagonist realizes that it was just him all along.

War Games I thought it was funny when the protagonist Daniel with the girl Jennifer casually hacked the military’s computer by typing “list games”. On the one hand, I thought that moment was realistic taking into consideration the date the movie was made but on the other hand it was funny to just type list games and get Global Thermonuclear War as a result.

CitizenFour The whole documentary was very insightful but at the same time it is very stressful to think that your steps can be tracked through your purchases and many other ways. During his interview, Edward’s Snowden interview mentioned that “We are building the biggest weapon for oppression in the history of mankind,” which stresses you out when you start thinking about everything. I also really liked when Eaward Snowden said that he does not want to be the center of the story since he believes that the media tends to focus on personalities, minimizing the story's significance.

Zero Days - Security Leaks for Sale I liked the part where Kate Moussouris, the chief policy officer of hackerone said in her talk that “software is always going to have vulnerabilities. As long as humans write code, there will be flaws in code.” I think this idea of imperfection gives people the opportunity to push boundaries and build on each others’ ideas.

[rpassi]

Mr. Robot:

It is really interesting to know that the hacks in “Mr. Robot” are plausible after watching the show. I would love to understand more about how some of these tools used in the show work. I was initially pretty shocked that “fsociety”, the cyber vigilante group, was able to hack into FBI agents’ androids and collect data. I also had never seen Raspberry Pi before like Elliot uses in Season 1. The series finale of the show was especially intriguing since I was left confused whether or not Elliot was in another dimension. It was shocking to see that the Elliot we know was not the real Elliot, but instead an alternate personality “The Mastermind.” I would recommend this show to friends.

War Games:

It was fun to see this movie, which includes the actor from one of my favorite movies, Ferris Bueller’s Day Off. My favorite scene was when he simply typed in ‘Global Thermonuclear War’ and it started an actual war. It is interesting to see if there is a deeper message being exposed of what people thought technology might have the power to do in the future. That vision is practically reality today.

CitizenFour:

I had seen CitizenFour a while back so it was nice to rewatch it. Edward Snowden’s story has always been something that has intrigued me. I have been perplexed by whether or not he did the right thing and if I would do the same if I was in his position. I think I like the Snowden movie better, but appreciate how there is another element when watching the documentary that makes it all feel a lot more real. The live-action version really humanizes who we see Snowden as and what his motives might have been. It is crucial to see how governments have abused technology for years and there must be a balance between security and transparency. I love that people might finish the documentary thinking Snowden is either a hero or a villain.

Zero Days:

Zero days continues the theme from CitizenFour on the government's negative involvement with technology. Stunext was a joint project with the United States and Israel to sabotage Iranian attempts to get the atomic bomb. However, no country has yet to take responsibility for involvement in Stuxnet. This builds upon the role power and money plays in technology both domestically and internationally.

[henrylong612]

Mr. Robot: The parts of this show I enjoyed the most were the small ways that Elliot hacks the people in his life, from the coffee shop owner he reports to the police in Episode 1, to his hacking into the accounts of characters like Angela's boyfriend Ollie, Krista's boyfriend Michael, and Gideon. This, in addition to @mikeizbicki's warnings about protecting your privacy, made me realize how easy it is to have your online privacy violated. The computer science methods Elliot uses to hack these people seemed the most closely related to the things we learned in this class.

War Games: I enjoyed the part of the movie when David and Jennifer visited Professor Falken's island and Professor Falken nearly refused to help them save the world from nuclear armageddon. Falken, as portrayed in the movie, seems to have been a remarkably intelligent man who developed many valuable computer programs. This goes to show that even the most intelligent people can be plagued by hopelessness.

Zero Days: My favorite part was when the Dutch commander Hans Folmer outright refused to tell the interviewer whether the Netherlands was sitting on any zero-days. He goes on to discuss how quickly zero-days can become useless if institutions discover their own zero-days. This highlights just how seriously countries take the issues of zero-days.

Citizen Four: The part of the documentary that stuck out to me was how clearly (and not irrationally) paranoid Snowden was in the initial hotel room in Hawaii. From putting the blanket over his head when working with the computer, to panicking when he hears the fire alarm go off, to laughing when he heard about how construction trucks were surrounding his home, it was clear that Snowden was concerned for his and his partner's safety.

Lex Fridman: I was comforted by the part where Guido admits that he is a poor typist—I myself can relate. I agree with his argument that you should only be using StackOverflow to help you do things you already know how to do instead of using it for code you can scarcely understand. It is also crazy to think that Python may be a mostly obsolete language a few years down the line.

[jadersaunders]

Season 1 of Mr. Robot: I really enjoyed watching season 1 of Mr. Robot. I felt that the show was incredibly realistic (and most plausible out of all the shows/movies I watched this semester), as I saw the use of common errors we learned about in class ie. Error 404, URLs, and IP addresses in the show. This show displays how one piece of code can lead to so much destruction, and Elliot’s main way to learn about others is by hacking them/using phishing techniques/writing malwares etc as well.

War Games: My favorite scene was the scene where the computer thought that David was Professor Falken, and he casually hacked into the military’s computer with Jennifer sitting beside him. The fact that David didn’t realize the game was in fact a real war at first was crazy, and shows that despite David being extremely intelligent and capable, he still doesn’t recognize the sheer impact of his hacking skills. I also thought that it was ironic that the name of the first game he played was “Global Thermonuclear War.”

CitizenFour/Snowden: I was very impressed by Snowden’s intelligence and hacking capabilities depicted in the live-action movie. I also found the theme of prioritizing security over freedom very applicable to our lives today. I know that protecting our privacy is important, and it’s becoming increasingly more difficult to do so, but this movie showed that cell phones really are being tracked and agencies like the NSA have access to so much more information than we may suspect. Snowden dedicated a large portion of his life to leaking this classified information to show us how easy it is to learn about others and spy on them in our interconnected, highly technological world.

Zero Days - Security Leaks for Sale: I liked the part of the documentary where they introduced Stuxnet, and Hans Folmer discussed how malware softwares can harm systems and disrupt them in specific ways based on the vulnerability you use. I think that it is very interesting how the Dutch army is training ‘cyber soldiers’ because we see that code really is powerful, and will most likely be a source of conflict in the future. Having a powerful army of cyber soldiers will help the Dutch protect themselves and increase their defensive capabilities and military operations. I felt that this connected slightly with the Snowden live action movie because it showed that protecting digital assets is vital in the realm of cyber warfare.

[taylordaetz]

Mr. Robot: One of my favorite parts about Mr. Robot was when Elliot recalls how he manipulated websites when he first learned to code by using the inspect element and altering the html. It was cool to understand exactly what he was talking about and follow his development to a serious hacker.

War Games: My favorite part of Wargames was when David discovers the correct user information to gain access to new ‘videogames.’ At that point, David and Jennifer had no idea they would be simulating an attack. The answer to gaining access was so trivial and reminded me of the importance of making complicated passwords and changing them frequently to prevent getting hacked.

CitizenFour: I found it disturbing when Snowden discloses how some positions in the NSA allow officials to have a kind of all access pass (priv-acc) to any information they might need, regardless if it is relevant to their goals. It’s a harsh truth that people in power - governments especially - can take advantage of citizens and the general lack of knowledge on internet surveillance and cybersecurity.

Zero Days: Zero Days definitely shed light on the power of hacking and the networks - energy, water, industrial - that are vulnerable to being hacked since each network has its own IP address. I found the interviews with hackers to be really interesting, specifically tackling topics about moral and political implications of finding Zero Days and selling bugs.

[JackPotter7]

Mr. Robot: My favorite part of mr. robot was when we figured out that the visions of “mr. robot” weren’t real and that “mr. robot” was actually his dad. I thought it was really interesting to reveal something like this very late in the season.

War games: This is pretty funny, but my favorite part of the movie was when I figured out it was taking place in Seattle (my home city). I thought the image of the space needle and the city on a sunny day was just perfect. I also liked the part where they got picked up in a helicopter towards the end of the movie.

Citizenfour: I love documentaries, especially ones that make me think, “wow, this actually happened!” I really liked when Snowden said “it’s not science fiction, this stuff is happening right now.” I was particularly intrigued by the part when Snowden was describing the scale at which information was able to be collect, and how they have ramped up since then. I mean 1 billion devices simultaneously per device? That is unbelievable.

Zero Days - Security Leaks for Sale: Another mind boggling documentary. The underworld of the web is really like the Wild West like they mention. I thought it was really interesting when Stan Hegt was talking about the dilemma hackers face when they find an exploit. It really makes me wonder how close “bad hackers” where to making good decisions in regards to what to do with this new information.

[PArellano02]

Zero Days The seventeen year old makes it sound so easy and I think that is crazy, but I guess that is the power of going over the documentation of stuff. Other than that I really hope that we have figured these markets a little bit more than in 2014 and that we have more white hats. Inspiring in the sense that you realize that if you put in the work you can do some really powerful stuff, discouraging to know tat bad actors can do some really powerful stuff. Thank god some stem programs require ethics in their curriculums.

Mr Robot Soooo trippy! This show stressed me out almost as much as black mirror, with the hacking, the mental distress, the addictions, the lawsuits. Episode 9 absolutely blew my mind! I dont think this is very representative of anything in the real world (if it is I feel so bad for those individuals). Oh I almost forgot… Why was the murder even necessary, that guy is literally the worse. He literally paid off a homeless person just to beat them up. Like… gym subscriptions exist for a reason, dawg and also therapists. (Therapy is great)

Citizen 4: The snowden documentary was kinda epic and very scary. As I am watching this I wonder if the government is tracking this and whether they can tell that I lowkey admire the guy because you gotta be brave to come against the U.S as an individual. Fun note, I could understand most of the portuguese and I did not know that I could do this. But yeah I definitely do feel a lot more exposed than before and I wonder how much the laws have changed since then since it doesn't seem that there is a strong movement regarding this.

Wargames Very funny movie. It would have been very ironic if the world just ended because a teenage kid was bored even though he has failing his classes. I also liked the “he is smart but underachieving. He fits the profile for soviet recruitment.” quote. I think that would include a lot of people. Really made coding seem a lot simpler than all the others despite more explicitly including A.I.

[davidhlee625]

Wargames (1983): This movie’s a classic and I watched it with my dad a few years ago. One of my favorite parts is when David brings Jennifer to his room and we see his setup, surrounded by older computers and technology (the floppy disks, large bulky monitors, IMSAI). That aspect of Wargames definitely fascinated me especially considering how tech is now.

Snowden (live action): It’s fascinating watching how Snowden was initially so driven to join the CIA to serve his country and help in any capacity after being discharged from the military. He refuses to sign petitions since it's “bashing his country.” Watching his development and transformation as he becomes more disillusioned especially through the XKeyscore program and seeing how it impacts Marwan is crazy.

Lex Fridman Guido Van Rossum: I really liked the segment when Guido was discussing the best IDE for Python. I’ve pretty much only used VSCode during my coding career, yet hearing Guido and Fridman discuss the nuances of features (package ecosystems, open-source nature) between these IDEs and platforms was definitely fascinating.

Zero Days: Security Leaks for sale: First thing that really caught my attention was just how lucrative this practice is, with the government paying 50 to 80,000 dollars for bugs. Furthermore, the interview as the Dutch hacker was explaining how as a result of the dynamic nature of the Internet, it’s impossible to ensure everything is 100% secure. In the early Internet days, they worked to chart everything properly and and run tests, but this has become impossible with the current state of the Internet, driving questions about the necessity of absolute security.

[JustinOngchin]

Season 1 of Mr. Robot: I have many favorite moments in Season 1 of Mr. Robot, but one of the most thrilling moments is when Elliot and fsociety successfully carry out their plan to destroy E Corp's data. The scene is intense and suspenseful, as the viewer is not sure if the plan will succeed or if Elliot and the other members of fsociety will be caught. The moment is made even more exciting by the fact that Elliot experiences a mental breakdown just as the plan is being carried out, adding an extra layer of tension to the scene.

Wargames: I really liked the scene near the end, when the military's computer system, known as the "WOPR," has begun launching nuclear missiles at the Soviet Union. David manages to gain access to the WOPR and enters a game of tic-tac-toe, which the computer is unable to win. The computer then concludes that global thermonuclear war is "a strange game," and halts the missile launch. This is a really cool moment that demonstrates the power of human ingenuity and the ability to outsmart even the most advanced technology.

Snowden: One of the most memorable moments in the movie Snowden occurs near the end, when Edward Snowden, is in hiding in Hong Kong and decides to go public with the classified information he has leaked. This moment highlights the bravery and sacrifice involved in standing up for one's beliefs, even in the face of overwhelming opposition. This moment is cool because it showcases Snowden's courage and conviction, and shows how just one person can make a profound impact on the world.

Zero days: I really enjoyed learning about the secrecy surrounding the issue of cyber warfare and the impact this has on citizens and their governments. It was interesting to learn how even those in high-ranking positions within the government believe that certain policies have gone too far and actually increase the risks of cyber warfare.

Lex Fridman + Guido: I liked learning about Guido's take on Github Copilot and while not perfect, is still incredibly useful for streamlining processes: if a function is named correctly, it can write a 5 to 10-line function. It is far superior to other past forms of autofill and suggestions.

[xutimon]

Lex Friedman Podcast I really enjoyed the podcast and it was very interesting to hear Guido talk about the design philosophies behind Python and why he chose to do things differently than other languages. I think one of the most interesting discussion points was actually brought up by Friedman when he talked about the difficulty of switching coding languages. Specifically, he mentioned how he was sucked into the “rabbit hole” of C++ because that was his expertise. However it is easy to get sucked into a dying language, and thus he mentioned the importance of taking a step back and making an objective decision with regard to what language is making your life easier and your work more efficient. Furthermore, I also appreciated the discussion surrounding the viability of new coding languages (is the language a fad or something truly groundbreaking), which was something I never thought about but makes a lot of sense from a coder's perspective.

Zero-Days I found it interesting when Katie Moussouris mentioned that only around 1000 hackers worldwide were capable of bypassing platform-wide shields on modern operating systems. It was honestly frightening when she said that less than half of those people were willing to work “with the good guys”, which implies that over 50% of the most talented hackers in the world were using their talents for nefarious and criminal purposes. This to me shows that governments and vendors must implement some sort of structural reforms to attract talent, and have incentive structures in place to prevent hackers from resorting to criminal activities, especially when they obviously have so much to offer.

War Games This was a great movie to watch and a great experience as I don’t usually watch older movies. One moment that really stood out to me was the general vulnerabilities of computer systems back in the day. Of course, David being able to hack into a nuclear defense system is indicative of that, but another detail that was memorable was when David was showing Jennifer what he can manipulate when he hacks. It was eye-opening to see that systems were so vulnerable that they could even remotely inject reservations for flights. Such abilities would lead to losses that would be incalculable today, and to me showed how far technology and cybersecurity have come. On a more minor note, I thought the product placement for Tab Cola was also a nice little touch of nostalgia. I distinctly remember reading an article about its discontinuation a few years ago, so it was cool to see that it was a “mainstream” drink back in the day.

Citizen Four This was a profoundly impactful documentary for me. A detail that stood out to me was when Snowden was in the hotel room, and he mentioned that essentially every electronic device in his hotel room could be bugged in some way, including his hotel phone. Given that this occurred nearly a decade ago, it made me think about the technological leap (along with the potential for privacy violations) society has made over that time period, especially with the emergence of smart home devices like Alexa that literally picks up voice commands. Furthermore, it was also interesting to hear the discussions by the lawyers with regard to Snowden’s case. It was baffling to hear that the Espionage Act is so broad that it makes zero differentiation between spying for personal gain vs. whistleblowers, thereby giving the US government a free hand in prosecuting anybody who leaks any kind of information, even if the actions of the US government was inherently unconstitutional.

[justin-is-away]

Mr. Robot Overall, I really liked how the show plays with the audience's perception of reality. I got so faked out as the show progressed, and only later realized how unreliable Elliot was as the main character. I also liked how whenever there was "hacker" moments, I could see the terminal type in commands that looked pretty legit (as far as my hacking knowledge goes). I saw multiple .py files executed, some ls and cd commands, etc. It was cool to see. Also, I thought it was funny that Tyrell was basically portrayed as a Swedish Patrick Bateman over the first couple episodes.

The Lex Friedman Podcast I thought a few points were really interesting, such as the discussion on including indenting for Python, the discussion on how Python became the go-to language for machine learning, and how the recent developments of technology like Github Copilot affects programmers today. There were also a couple passingby points comparing code to biological systems which was an interesting intersection that I wished they could have expanded upon.

War Games I thought WOPR's line of "nuclear war is a strange game" was a neat statement and I liked how it wrapped up the movie. It's fascinating to think that the human species could have been wiped out 100 times over if not for the fact that we are, at large, rational agents acting in self-interest, and as a result, stuck in a funny prisoner's dilemma where no one can win. And also, to make sure we never lose, we have to keep investing in the military so we are never out-weaponized.

Citizen Four I enjoyed hearing Edward Snowden's story in more detail. As others have pointed out in this thread, the scene where he was in the hotel room was really telling about the power of technology and security. It's crazy to think that bugging efforts and privacy concerns only increase over time (and continue to). It makes me wonder what peril lies for us moving forwards. Somewhat relatedly, this documentary reminded me of the late Aaron Swartz and his efforts to publicize academic journals. It does feel like a shame that that high level knowledge is rigourously gatekept and inaccessible for a lot of people.

[Kevinl0378]

Mr. Robot I really enjoyed watching this show! I had so many favorite moments. One, in particular, was the infiltration of Steel Mountain in episode 5, which had so many elements of a heist (the earpiece, the directions from a parked van, running into the “enemy” and getting sidetracked). I also enjoyed the scene where Elliot defends Evil Corp from the hack in episode 1; all of sudden, it felt like his entire demeanor changed for a short period because he was doing something that he is so good at. In general, I was captivated by the plot twists and suspense throughout the season. I will definitely continue watching during the break!

War Games My favorite part came at the end of the movie, when WOPR was cycling through its strategies for a nuclear war at an accelerating pace. The flashing lights and suspenseful music definitely added to the intensity of the scene. All of a sudden, the screens went black and WOPR printed that the only winning move is not to play. I believe that this was one of the lessons that the movie was trying to teach its audience: there is no winner in a nuclear war. Although this movie was released in 1983, this lesson is still just as relevant today.

Citizen Four My favorite part of this documentary was when Edward Snowden covered himself up with his “magic mantle of power” when accessing a computer in order to prevent “visual collection”. This was one of several small incidents/occurrences that really exemplified not only Snowden’s attention to detail, but also how powerful and capable intelligence agencies are and the lengths they will go to collect information.

Zero Days The part that really scared me was the interview with Eric Rabe toward the end of the video. When he said that it is possible to turn on a computer’s camera and microphone and hear and see what’s going on in front of the computer without the person knowing, he confirmed one of my fears. Upon hearing this, I immediately remembered seeing a photo of Mark Zuckerberg in which a piece of tape could be seen covering his laptop’s camera. It made me want to tape over my computer’s camera as well.

[Raymond6688]

I read the book Harry Potter and the Methods of Rationality. I feel the most natural explanation of the dojo incident is Quirrell/Voldemort pulled a Verbal Kint. The setup is just too similar to be accidental. I'll be really disappointed if Eliezer's eventual explanation isn't as good as this one. My understanding is that the story was true as stated: Voldemort showed up, destroyed the place, then calmed down and realized Quirrell now had the only remaining copy of the information he was looking for.

[jacksonaldrich]

Season 1 of Mr. Robot: Although not my favorite moment, it is fascinating how the “e-corp” logo looks very similar to the ENRON logo! I believe this was intentional, too. It’s also fun how the fish is named QWERTY, a reference to the first 6 letters on a keyboard.

My favorite moment is from Episode 1 when Elliot went back to see Mr. Robot and they went on the ferris wheel. They talked about potentially hacking into e corp in order to erase all debts. Thought this was super cool since it was an example of clearly illegal hacking, but for the public “good” and against corporate greed. The symbolism of the other carts coming close to hitting them kept making this scene unnerving and a great set up for the rest of the episodes! Thoroughly enjoyed this season, and plan to watch the other seasons soon, too.

War Games: My favorite moment of this movie was when David and Ally found out the login to the WOPR program, and it asks the iconic line “Do you want to play a game?” It reminded me of when we ran the password cracker program and found out the secret document after finding the password from the Ashley Madison files. But this time, the passcode was his own son’s name, Joshua, which Ally helped discover. It seems a bit unwise to have the power to run a nuclear test if you can find one passcode! Also, was it truly that easy to “dial up” other computers and see what data they had? I also liked the moment when David uses the tape recorder to escape the holding room!

CitizenFour: Although this part was closer to the beginning, my favorite part of the documentary was when Jacob Appelbaum was discussing how linking and link-ability works. He explains how a metro card, when linked to a debit card, can be used to track everything you do (even who you talk to!). This leads to metadata when linked with cellphone and other information. Quite scary, and it is making me question how much information of mine is truly being tracked right now on my “digital trail”. As a side note, it is crazy how even the telephones in the hotels can be hot-wired and listened to / monitored. It was also pretty tense when there were many calls to Snowden’s hotel room - I thought someone could bust down the door any second (especially when the fire alarm went off). I do have a quick question. When The Guardian was forced to destroy Snowdens’s hard drives, was that information already copied and released somewhere else, or was that information lost forever? Also, what was the reason for having to write down the information in the last scene of the movie, and then ripping it up?

Zero Days - Security Leaks for Sale: My favorite part from this documentary was learning that the governments themselves (especially western governments) developed and used malware and against other, friendly western governments (from Mikko Hypponen’s talk). This sounds like science fiction and is crazy. Also, right after this part, it was really interesting to learn about Stuxnet and how it can be used to cripple nuclear plants in Iran by shutting down the centrifuges. I also don’t understand how the black hat market for exploits and malware is legal! I understand that white hat is legal as it is helping protect people and data, but black hat hacking seems illegal to sell.

[Stephanie-Espinoza]

War Games I found it really interesting to see how computer systems have evolved, especially comparing it to what we saw in some of the other media we watched for the caveat tasks. My favorite scene was when Davis asked if it was a game or if it was real life and the response was “what’s the difference?”. I found it funny but also mind blowing to see how accurate that was and how it played out in the film.

Zero Days I found it really interesting to see how connected coding can be to geopolitical factors. It was also interesting to see how important it was to connect with journalists and people in other fields to try to paint a full picture. I don’t think I really understood how powerful cyber warfare can be before this documentary so that itself was very mind-blowing. I also didn’t realize how long it takes to figure out details of the attack so I think the documentary framed it really well going step by step in what they did.

Mr. Robot Seeing how differently the F Society and the Dark Army were from E Corporation in terms of intentions and care for people really showed how easy it is to use the power of hacking for good or bad. At the same time, however they both thought they were doing what was best which brings in many moral and ethical questions for big corporations. The show just had so many plot twists throughout the season that it was very interesting to watch.

Citizen Four This film really made me really question where the line should be drawn between security and privacy. Giving NSA officials unlimited access to any and all information is mind baffling and itself concerning. I think the film depicted really well how scary it is, especially when you are aware of the far extents that surveillance can go.

[adamzterenyi]

Mr. Robot: My favorite part from season 1 was its commentary on violent social or revolutionary movements. While the show is told from Elliot’s perspective, I found that he reflected much of the same characteristics displayed by ECorp’s leaders. For example, though his father, Edward, is a reflection of Elliot’s schizophrenia and childhood trauma, much of his own bad traits are manifest in Edward – it is this apparition of Edward who convinces Elliot to commit some despicable acts, after all. This is not to say Elliot isn’t aware of his bad traits, nor that his vigilantism didn’t have positive consequences, but instead to assert that those entranced by revolutionary thought often employ the same tactics used by their oppressors. I liked the show. Watching it was emotionally demanding. I also found a parallel between this and the newly released Star Wars show, Andor, where Cassian Andor and fellow “revolutionaries” display significant character flaws despite their heroism in the face of the Republic.

War Games: My favorite part from this movie was the ending. Even though I already saw it once, its discussion of game theory really comes to a head in the end with the tic-tac-toe match played with WOPR. This scene proves to the computer that death is also a loss; shooting ICBMS assures mutual destruction. The other part of the movie I enjoy is how thrilling it is to watch, it showcases the grave dangers we face as we enter a world molded more and more by artificial intelligence. I say this as ChatGPT is being used by middle schoolers across the world to write regurgitation-based essays to great effect.

Citizen Four: I think someone else mentioned this already, but my favorite/most bone-chilling part of the documentary was with Snowden’s assertion that everything in his room could have been bugged. It reminded me of two things. First, I remembered Winston’s apartment in 1984 and the great lengths he had to go to not even let thoughts escape as he silently and later not-so-silently dissented. As we approach greater dependence on technology, I find I grow more afraid of this. A year back, I was reading Kazuo Ishiguro’s newest novel, Klara and the Sun, where a sentient, artificially intelligent playmate, Klara, explores the world around her. Klara is bought as a companion for a sick girl. This girl’s mother sees Klara as a vessel that can imitate her daughter. As the girl grows sick, she places greater pressure on Klara to imitate her daughter better. With Klara’s skills only being primitive, I can only fear what a more skillful AI and AI-robot could do in the real world today and in the future. It is scary to think of AI as companions, and the question of whether they erode our humanity through their existence is something I want to ponder further. I feel they only change the way we are human, instead of eroding our humanity. These types of documentaries often lead me to these weird chains of thought. Apologies for the "stream-of-consciousness" writing.

Zero Days: I found this documentary a good reminder of the danger great power competition plays in our lives. I didn’t realize that western governments attack each other so often, such as with the UK’s spying in Belgium. I also remember researching cyberwarfare and the NSA+Israel StuxNet attack on Iran for a summer college course, as well--this memory made this documentary even more interesting. Regardless of the StuxNet attack’s benefits in bringing a setback to Iranian nuclear proliferation by shutting down centrifuges, I agree that there are many more risks from attacks like these for civilian safety. I also wonder what attacks are currently continuing undetected.

[buffeinstein]

Mr. Robot: I liked that the show depicts Elliot as slightly socially inept - he carries a sense of paranoia. Maybe it's just Malek's huge eyes. But it also highlights that the more you understand the ability of technology, both good and bad, the more paranoid you may get. I thought it was really interesting that he led his speech to the pedophile that he believed the wifi network was too good to be just a perk of the coffee shop. "I mean, you're one of the few spots that has a fiber connection with gigabit speed... it scratched that part of my mind that doesn't allow good to exist without conditions" The more free a technology gets, the more its concealing. Often, this means companies collecting information on you, data to sell to advertising companies, but this part of the show showed how much worse it can get.

WarGames: Cliche, but I loved the ending - "the only way to win is to not play." Of course, this has a philosophical meaning about war, but it also questions whether the creation of the computer to come up with that solution was necessary. This can be compared to when Jennifer didn't let David change her grade from an F to a C, even though it would make her avoid summer school. She had some type of intuitive rejection of cheating, and this rejection often is the conclusion of creating very advanced technologies is, whether its nuclear bombs or Youtube's algorithm which promotes extremist political ideas. That's sort of a childish, black/white perspective on morality, though. It comes back to the question we ask over and over again when it comes to technology - just because you can, should you?

Citizen Four: I found the interview from William Binney to be interesting. He starts off with talking about how fun it was to be solving puzzles all day in his work, and that he as the only one working on automating data analysis. He then talked about how his work changed after 9/11 - spying on everyone. He was then raided to be kept quiet. The interview with Snowdens was also interesting, because he talked about having to cut off his family to protect them. I also thought it was interesting that he was trying to convince the interviewers that encrypting the files seemed hard, but was easy - I wonder if that is still true.

Zero Days: I liked that the movie mentioned how Snowden's message has impacted the public's view of technology, and the shift in attitude in hacking that resulted. I also thought it was interesting how they talked about how "harmless nerds" now have the ability to control large parts of the world - which connected to the messages in WarGames. When Hyppönen mentioned that hackers started understanding their power when money-making malware was created, I also reflected on what motivates many people major in CS/DS. It's also interesting that the black market was acknowledged to be the highest paid, and that they were accepted within the conference as well. I think that CS/tech fields are some of the more honest fields that doesn't try to sugar-coat how much money is a driving factor, which is what enables it to exploit that desire in legal ways.

[chasekeir]

Snowden- My favorite part of Snowden was when Edward Snowden uses the rubix cube to get the stolen files safely out to share them with the world. It shows his ingenuity, and how he took advantage of a weakness in the security system designed to keep information and other things inside the NSA base. His leaking of government information went a long way to inform the public of what the government was willing to do and what it was capable of doing.

Zero Days–I found the use of hacking to try and disrupt the Iranian nuclear centrifuges through Stuxnet was very interesting. Knowing that it was underlying and systems were still seen to be running perfectly fine is a scary thought that the people in charge of these attacks are very intelligent and that there could be cyber attacks that could affect our physical lives in the near future. The rapid expansion of technology and the internet puts many things at risk for hacking, putting us at the willpower of malicious hackers.

Wargames- I think it's really interesting the idea of futility and Falker not teaching it to Joshua (the computer). When the computer finally learns it, and decides that the best way to win is to not play the game, it shows a lesson for nuclear powers that mutually assured destruction will result in a loss for all who participate.

Mr. Robot- The thing I found interesting was an overlap between two classes. I took psychological disorders this semester, and seeing a mix of coding, as well as when Elliot meets with his psychologist and discusses his delusions of the men in black was really interesting. While being very accurate about coding, as seen in the show, they are also accurate when it comes to mental illness and disorders as we see through Elliot’s eyes. His social anxiety was one that really stuck out to me.

[kpark1226]

Mr. Robot: My favorite part of the first season in Mr. Robot is when they were planning on taking down the biggest corporation. On top of this, it is just amazing how coders are able to easily find various information on people so quickly. It is also just really amazing how the protagonist uses his skill to hack to help better the people around him and use that leverage in clever ways.

Wargames: The general weaknesses of computer systems back then was one instance that really stuck out to me. Of course, the fact that David was able to hack into a nuclear defense system is evidence of it, but another particular that stands out is the moment when David was demonstrating to Jennifer what he could control when hacking. It was startling to see that systems were so weak that hackers could remotely inject flight reservations. Such capabilities demonstrated to me how far technology and cybersecurity have progressed and would result in losses that are currently unimaginable.

Snowden: The live-action movie's depiction of Snowden's intelligence and hacking skills left me feeling really impressed. The idea of valuing security over freedom, in my opinion, is also highly relevant to modern life. I am aware of the importance of maintaining our privacy and the increasing difficulty in doing so, but this film demonstrated the reality of cell phone tracking and the extent to which organizations like the NSA have access to much more data than we may realize. In order to demonstrate to us how simple it is to find out information about people and spy on them in our linked, highly computerized society, Snowden has devoted a significant amount of his life to disclosing this sensitive material.

Zero days: It was interesting to learn that there are lots of ways to find vulnerabilities in software. The easiest way is "fuzzing", and the program says the input is invalid and if there is a lot of input that is invalid, it finds something once in a while. I also found interesting the demand for hackers who are capable of finding zero-days and how they can provide their services to the white, black, and grey market.

[cyrusg645]

WarGames: My favorite part about the movie was watching WOPR continuously play tic-tac toe against itself because it didn't want to stop until it found a scenario where it won. Watching it learn that the path it went down would lead to total destruction where no one would win was quite interesting. Even though the ending was positive as no mass missile launch ensued, it did make me think about the direction of technological development and if we as a society will be able to continuously find ways to translate any sort of morals and ethical standards into code. To me, this idea seems near impossible but I'm curious to see how this develops over time as it will be a crucial part of our society.

Snowden: My favorite part of the movie was watching him try to get the microSD card through security with a rubix cube. He had just realized the scale of operations he was a part of, and watching him stress and figuring what he is going to do after learning the true about Epic Shelter was quite interesting. Everyone was on edge as he was leaving the building, and I thought it was so smart of him to act very casual with the rubix cube and throw it to the security guard before entering the scanner check.

Mr. Robot: A scene that stood out to me was from Episode 6 was when Vera approached Elliot after breaking out of prison. Elliot was so optimistic that Shayla was going to stay alive but after he disabled the system and let him get out, Vera informed him that she had been in his car the entire time, leading Elliot to open the trunk and find her body. Elliot put Vera in prison in the first place and seeing him escape and finally inform him that someone Elliot deeply cared about had been dead for a long time was an intense scene. Overall, it was interesting to see how Elliot manages all the chaos in his world, and is so capable and aware of the technology world that he has a very tight grip around. However, this comes at the cost of other people.

Zero Days: The scariest part to me about Zero Days is how destructive computer viruses like Stuxnet can be. With leaders like Bush trying to avoid the potential threat of nuclear warfare between Iran and Israel, this opened the door for cyber warfare attacks, which eventually resulted in US and Israel working together to the malware known as Olympic Games. One of the effects of Stuxnet was that it had the ability to explode centrifuges in nuclear plants. The scariest thing I took away from the film was that what was covered was only a sliver of the truth around powerful computer viruses like Stuxnet. The film did a great job highlighting the secrecy around these issues and how our current governmental policies regarding people like whistleblowers may be a lot more harmful than we think.

[jasminextan]

Zero Days: I started with this one, and 12:55 was incredibly eye opening for me; I suppose I’ve always heard about the consequences of data breaches and “hacking”/cracking, but I never realized that in such a digital world, things like nuclear power plants and waste disposals, things that could absolutely devastated a country, could be at risk. I’ve seen a lot of reports that nuclear storage facilities are often poorly managed, and I wonder if their code is in a similar state?

Season 1 of Mr. Robot: I’m not a huge fan of TV shows, but I quite liked this one, actually. I especially liked the little details like the way that they have their episode names start at 0 (1. eps1.0_hellofriend.mov). I really loved the sequence in Times Square (I think it’s episode 10), the ambiance of everyone chanting and marching, the passion and emotion and intensity of that whole scene stuck with me as such amazing filmmaking.

War Games: My favorite part of War Games is the premise. The inciting incident of two high school students accidentally hacking into the US military is just perfectly ridiculous enough to be amazing. I especially liked watching the little ascii map versions of the US and the Soviet Union load into the screens; I was wondering if some intern spent a bunch of hours trying to make the maps out of dots and slashes, ha!

CitizenFour: Honestly, the biggest takeaway, and maybe my favorite part of CitizenFour is how it exposes how dangerous the internet, and data, can be to the public (similar to Zero Days). I think many people don’t understand how much is collected on a day to day basis, and to think that so many people are tracked in so many ways, that’s so crazy. It’s kind of scary. I think that it really forces the audience to ask themselves if they value security or freedom/privacy more, and I think the best pieces of media will always ask audiences to reconsider their own values.

[dwalker25]

Lex Fridman and Guido van Rossum podcast: I was immediately drawn in by Fridman’s challenge to Guido to speak to every possible audience about very technical coding concepts. However, as I watched, I was blown away by both speakers’ analogies to explain these concepts, varying from cookbook recipes to organizational structures – I was most interested when van Rossum explained why he had stepped down from the position of BDFL. This podcast enabled me to make new connections in patterns that I hadn’t realized before regarding the structures of programming.

CitizenFour: As a Government major interested in data science, I was fascinated by the structural complexity that this documentary reveals within the government. About ⅔ through the movie, a 3D diagram is shown, trying to demonstrate relationships between different departments into which Snowden infiltrated. The documentary also demonstrates the ways in which the government and law has not kept up with new technologies, such as the Espionage Act’s ambiguous definition of which secrets matter to be revealed, and to what audience.

Zero days - Security leaks for sale: The coolest part of this vpro documentary is definitely the almost comical dichotomy in programming that it reveals: a teenager who picked up programming “like any other language” (in his words) hacked into one of the biggest tech corporations, Yahoo, in order to help them fix a bug. It sounds like a new Disney movie where a “friendly neighbor-hood” white-hat hacker is helping the Avengers.

War Games: I like that this movie portrays the idea that most people have no idea about the capabilities of technology that we use every day – in this case, David didn’t understand the power of playing a simple video game. That is one theme that I began to consider during this movie as relevant to all of these caveat tasks – there is both enormous potential for good and evil in the technology we build, yet many people have no idea about either.

[chlol3912]

Mr. Robot: Although I had many favorite parts of this season of Mr. Robot, the one that still stands out the most to me is when Elliot found out that his dad was in fact Mr. Robot. In general, I really enjoyed how this show portrayed elements of both cyber security as well as mental health. I was surprised about how much I did enjoy this show and am planning on watching season 2. This show also has opened up my interest in exploring more shows that highlight the power of hacking.

War Games: I also really enjoyed this film, partially because of the psychological thrill that it brought, but also because of how it hints at lessons about game strategies. This movie also made me realize how the cyber security issues that are highlighted in the movie are still very much a possibility in our day-to-day lives and how important it is that we do everything we can to prevent these potential hacks.

CitizenFour: My favorite part about the Snowden documentary was how eye-opening it was for me and how it allowed me to learn more about complex issues like government surveillance and privacy. Although I did enjoy this documentary, it has made me scared about how much information these government agencies really do have on us. Regardless, I am still thankful that Snowden leaked this classified info and showed everyone the reality of privacy and security issues.

Zero Days: This final documentary was also really insightful, especially in helping connect all the things we have learned in this course and see how they apply in the real world. Specifically, I really enjoyed the part when Katie Moussouris talks about the importance of finding and fixing vulnerabilities before they can be exploited. After watching this documentary, I am now curious to explore more about ethical and policy considerations surrounding zero days.