cognitive support of complex policy for the individual for whom it provides a societal prosthetic extension into the policy infrastructures of modern life.

During the course of this book, in anticipation of this need, we have alluded to a large contingent of computers, computer related devices or system components that exhibit a nascent image of this new variant of computer. Among these examples is the full range of personal electronic devices, particularly those that encompass secure cores. The secure core, perhaps more than any other current computer component, is grounded in the concept of trust. Its raison d’être is to provide a trusted vehicle for storing information and a trusted platform for performing computational procedures directly in support of its containing superstructure and thereby in support of an individual person. It is positioned in the marketplace to be the ubiquitous device of and for the person; always conveyed by the person and owing its allegiance to the person that carries it. From an operational viewpoint, the secure core takes the first small steps toward enabling a projection of the person’s physical and social being beyond their direct, physical presence; a projection to support interactions with other people at a distance, a projection to support interactions with other computer systems across both distance and time as well as combinations of the two. Difficulties arise, however, in the coherent integration of these facilities into the full range of human needs based physical and social ecosystems. In such situations, computers, even personal electronic devices with secure cores, seem akin to clubs and spears, while in fact a more modern weapons system is called for.

While the architecture of secure cores is indeed grounded in trust, the relevant physiology of current personal electronic devices leaves a number of gaps in their social ecosystem support. The linkage of the personal electronic device to the individual person that carries it is tenuous, and the dependence of the secure core for power and sensory input from the very system that it must engage on behalf of its bearer places it in a position of inferiority as it engages the adversary. This results in subsequent policy machinations that involve a greater degree of risk than is desirable or necessary and woefully deficient capabilities with regards to effecting complex policy based interactions. Moreover, its defensive mechanisms, while formidable, can certainly benefit from enhancement. In short, the current secure cores do not represent a nearly sufficient enough instance of a trusted agent. To meet the desired goals, some might suggest the use of secure computing boxes that are located in locked rooms with dedicated power sources that are monitored by trained security and operational personnel; boxes that, save for excessive size, cost, complexity and immobility have some of the characteristics that we seek. At least, the secure core of the personal electronic device does represent a major stride away from such systems in the direction of portability and security versus cost. So, the goal is to further improve its social ecosystem facilities without sacrificing its current advantages. How to do this? Perhaps the answer is to use the same phylogenetically derived facilities that worked for the human species. These are facilities that derive directly from the needs hierarchy and that engender action stimuli on the part of the individual members of the species.

Let us speculate on at least some of the mutational changes that can significantly enhance the characteristic of this new species of computer to involve itself effectively and securely in the complex policy environment of a person. First, it may help to set the tone if we begin to speak of the trusted core agent rather than the secure core. Physical appearance, better known as form factor in the world of computers, will likely need to shift from that of today to support additional and different physical interactions. In this chapter we will look at the improved capability set for a new species of computer, of which today’s secure core is but a precursor. In the following chapter, we’ll consider the enhancements in cognitive facilities within this new species of computer that is required to fully exploit these capabilities.

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