Two major initiatives to exploit the virtual machine concept on secure cores were undertaken first by National Westminster Bank in the development of their Multos System and then by Schlumberger in the development of Java Card. We rather fully recounted the story of the development of Java Card back in Chapter 2, but to reiterate, Java Card is a subset of Java that is suitable for implementation and use on secure cores. It is particularly useful in that it provides a good means for adding software onto a secure core even after it has been placed in operational use. Java Card has security characteristics that allow code to be deployed on secure cores in a trustworthy fashion. The Multos System actually predated Java Card. Multos was based on a virtual machine definition that is different from Java, but it addresses essentially the same set of goals and implementation constraints. The full Multos System encompasses the complete infrastructure for developing and deploying software on secure core platforms.

Memories of the Way We Were

Merlin Donald is a leading influence in the understanding of the evolution of human cognition. In Origins of the Modern Mind, he paints a clear and concise picture of Homo sapiens’ development of cognitive abilities far beyond those of other primates. Donald has suggested that the evolution of human cognitive abilities extended beyond that of earlier primates as the result of three distinct transitions of representational systems available to the human mind, representational systems that encompass distinct forms of information storage. There are interesting parallels between these information processing and memory systems and the processing and memory mechanisms found in general purpose-computer systems. In regards to human cognitive systems, the following sections draw from the work of Donald, completed by Steven Mithen’s The Prehistory of the Mind.

From our perspective, the human search for enlightenment follows the progression of needs identified by Maslow. The ability of the species to ascend this ladder of interaction stimuli has derived from the expanding brain and its subsequent support of the maturing mind. Structurally, the brain can be viewed as having developed as a construct of three major subsystems that MacLean denominated the triune brain. Donald then suggests an augmentation to this structure through the development of organizational characteristics of the mind. From our perspective, these two views are orthogonal; the organizational characteristics rather naturally layer upon the structural form. Indeed, it seems to us that the composite of these two facilities blends quite well to facilitate the emergence of the needs hierarchy.

The blending of structural and organizational facilities offers a potential mechanism through which the needs hierarchy becomes a part of human design. DNA provides the conveyance of structure from one generation to the next. The organizational characteristics of the resulting brain then produce requirements on the necessary and appropriate provisioning of the mind of the new generation. In response to continuous sensory input, these requirements manifest as stimuli that map to the hierarchy of needs. We are not born with minds intact; they must be appropriately provisioned within the brain. The focus of the relevant needs progresses with the successive fulfillment of the necessary provisioning. Essentially, as we grow and mature we surface appetites that reflect the sustenance that our particular stage of provisioning requires. That we do this in a consistent manner, across generations and across collections of individual humans was the epiphany of Jean Piaget. We will get to that in a bit. First, let us consider in somewhat more detail the organizational characteristics themselves.

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