facilities. For the transcendent personal device we have identified a number of enhancements derived from the higher levels of the needs hierarchy. It is given that the device should only seek to sate the appetites derived from those needs if it can at the same time attend to its own needs of safety and security and those of its bearer. All of these higher level needs will in turn place requirements on its physiological basis. The two basic functions of the transcendent personal device are first to protect itself from compromise and second to improve the abilities of its human bearer to guard directly against threats that might arise in that person’s physical and social ecosystems. In addition, by functioning as an extension of its human bearer into cyberspace, the transcendent personal device should bring these safety and security characteristics into the computer networking world that is the foundation of this cyberspace.

The pretergenesis model that we considered in Chapter 5 suggests a series of stages through which the safety and security needs of humans were addressed in successive levels of social ecosystems; stages that ranged from tools to administration. These levels, which are discerned when one considers the phylogenetic development of grouping mechanism, are also indicative of how safety and security needs are actually addressed in various ways throughout the ontogenetically derived needs hierarchy. This spectrum of stages is actually rather illustrative of the current state of the art of security within computer networks; a spectrum that, identified as a single concept, is termed security in depth. Rather than a single point of protection, a castle wall if you will, security in depth suggests a layered approach to security, including taking architectural and organizational steps to ameliorate anticipated threats. Consider a couple of examples that illustrate foundational aspects of this concept.

At a purely physiological level, when immediate threats are identified, they are dealt with through autonomic reaction. The tactile sensation of hot, searing pain is felt within a finger when it touches a hot iron and a rapid motor response to jerk the finger away from the iron is evoked. Cognitive processes subsequently program the emotional response system regarding reaction to burning. Direct fire or hot, burning material is avoided if it is close enough to evoke an emotional response of fear. Fire is also recognized as a necessity for keeping warm, preparing food and in some instances, a source of aesthetic pleasure. However, higher needs based stimuli elicit anticipatory actions to mitigate the danger of fire; insulated stoves for cooking, fire alarms to warn against unwanted outbreaks, and stone fireplaces or perhaps candles for aesthetic pleasure. Thus, we see that within the individual, the concern for safety and security based on the threat or danger from fire is addressed through the full range of needs. From a social ecosystem standpoint, our development of grouping mechanisms has finally brought us to support fire departments. In fact, the social conditioning relative to such institutions can evoke extreme altruistic behavior on the part of firefighters.

Assuming the two component architecture of the transcendent personal device, an obvious architectural approach to total system security is to orient the body, in response to lower level needs, towards defensive postures, and to orient the trusted core agent, in response to higher level needs, towards proactive anticipation of known and as yet unknown threats. Basic sensory input derives from physiological capabilities. Various aspects of cognitive based motor responses build upon successive levels of the needs hierarchy stimuli.

Ron Rivest, one of the inventors of the field of study known as public key cryptography, has suggested (for example in http://theory.lcs.mit.edu/~rivest/ducttape.txt) that cryptography in general is about “communication in the presence of adversaries.” The capability to perform cryptographic operations in a fast, efficient manner is central to the provision of safety and security to any computer. Indeed, the various characteristics of security that we discussed in

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