When Merlin leads the Charge into Zion....

So, you would not trust Alan Turing to out-Turing a Turing machine?

Expert snuggler wrote:I would want someone who had grown up with computers doing that job.

Expert snuggler wrote:I would want someone who had grown up with computers doing that job.

Even if Pater Wylsynn turned out to be a natural computer genius?

"Growing up with computers" doesn't mean squat about knowing how computers work; it just means you probably know how to perform common tasks on a computer.

Expert snuggler wrote:What if Maigwair has a Key, passed down through generations of Temple Guard for last-resort defense of the Temple? Sheer speculation without a trace of textev but it would make sense.

Really? A key that has been passed down through the Temple Hierarchy for hundreds of years that the Inquisition knows nothing about? (If Clyntahn knew about it Maigwair would no longer have it, given the grand Inquisitor's view of the Captain General's competence and reliability.)

Weird Harold wrote:

n7axw wrote:It has been suggested that there should be more information gathered. True. I'm all for that. But how is it done? Merlin and Nimue are the only individuals with any background with computers and they don't don't dare get their power supplies near the Temple defenses.

The bold text is not quite true. OWL and Nahrmann are both quite capable of teaching Pater Wylsynn everything he might need to know about computers and providing him with a super-huge-capacity thumb-drive to download whatever OWL and Nahrmann might need to crack the Key files and/or hack into the Temple Basement Computer as necessary.

The only fly in the ointment is getting Pater Wylsynn into and back out of the Temple with the necessary Intel.

Owl, perhaps. I wouldn't be so sure about Nahrman. There is a difference between being able to run a computer and being able to diagnose and program. Bear in mind also that Owl and Nahrman already have the key and deemed it neccesary to back off because the thing was too dangerous to Owl.

Don

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n7axw wrote:Owl, perhaps. I wouldn't be so sure about Nahrman. There is a difference between being able to run a computer and being able to diagnose and program. Bear in mind also that Owl and Nahrman already have the key and deemed it neccesary to back off because the thing was too dangerous to Owl.

Nahrman has had several centuries of virtual time to study computers since he died. In order to decrypt the Key he and OWL need more information about what the Key is supposed to interface with and the only way they can get that is to train a Safehold native to get the information for them.

It doesn't have to be Pater Wylsynn, but it can't be Merlin or Nimue. Who else would you suggest infiltrate the Temple?

The obvious answer would be a Nynian agent, with the problems being obvious.

If there's an Alan Turing on Safehold, he's probably unknown and doing badly in school.

Nahrmann might be wonderful for the job if TF AIs are sufficiently human-like that the way to subvert them is psychological manipulation rather than buffer overflows.

Expert snuggler wrote:Nahrmann might be wonderful for the job if TF AIs are sufficiently human-like that the way to subvert them is psychological manipulation rather than buffer overflows.

I don't know that anyone has suggested that Nahrman should infiltrate the Temple basement; I certainly haven't. There would be many multiples of problems and obstacles to Nahrman just getting to the Temple, let alone inside; he has basically the same problem in that respect that Merlin and Nimue have -- they can't exist without TF technology.

What I've suggested is that OWL and Nahrman should be more than capable of training almost any Safhold native into a "computer wizard" competent to do whatever reconnaissance OWL and Nahrman might need to crack the Key Files.

That would be like learning a language as an adult and trying to fool a native speaker.

Weird Harold wrote:

n7axw wrote:Owl, perhaps. I wouldn't be so sure about Nahrman. There is a difference between being able to run a computer and being able to diagnose and program. Bear in mind also that Owl and Nahrman already have the key and deemed it neccesary to back off because the thing was too dangerous to Owl.

Nahrman has had several centuries of virtual time to study computers since he died. In order to decrypt the Key he and OWL need more information about what the Key is supposed to interface with and the only way they can get that is to train a Safehold native to get the information for them.

It doesn't have to be Pater Wylsynn, but it can't be Merlin or Nimue. Who else would you suggest infiltrate the Temple?

That is presuming that getting acquainted with computers is what he did with that time. As you may recall, it was Owl, not Nahrman who was doing the analysis of the key. Nahrman was a spectator.

Don

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n7axw wrote:That is presuming that getting acquainted with computers is what he did with that time.

It is certainly what he's done with a portion of that time. Nahrman lives in virtual time and has had sufficient time at machine time rates since his death to earn a PHD-equivalent in a dozen unrelated disciplines.

Boredom and lack of a challenge is given as a cause for long-term virtual personalities going insane. Nahrman has to do something with his time beyond supervising SNARCs.