SECTION 5HIGHER-ORDER DIMENSIONS:WHERE HUMAN FACTORS CAN ECLIPSE COMPUTING WIZARDRY
While the cosmic big bang and subsequent evolution of life provoke unanswerable questions about the creator, creation, and the origin and purpose of the universe, we know exactly how the Internet was created, by whom, and for what purpose. The science of the digital big bang and the cybersecurity fundamentals cannot ignore the role and needs of its creator and operator: humans. From the dawn of humankind to the age of enlightenment, through the industrial revolution, the digital revolution, and the pending age of cyber-physical convergence, the higher orders of human knowledge and invention have shaped the trajectory of human existence. Nonetheless, we see that the power of innovation is never entirely free from the gravitational pull of our human nature.
That human nature includes unstable “free radicals” in our cybersecurity petri dish that consistently prevent this primordial soup from evolving into a thriving organism. In addition to the technical elements discussed so far, we must acknowledge the fundamental roles of human frailty, privacy, and complexity. People get tired. They make mistakes. They are poorly trained. People will continue to undermine the security of our systems, so we must actively and intelligently use machines to compensate for human limitations. Additionally, it's ...