Before I introduce myself I'd like to ensure that no one plugs their own laptop into the system, Macrocorp has provided MacroLaps for everyone. These MacroLaps have just been brought out of quarantine and so are fully secure. You will be wondering why you have all been flown here by Macrocorp on such short notice. No doubt this will have proven exceedingly inconvenient for some of you. However, we have an urgent situation on our hands. In short; the Darlington Nuclear Facility - about 45 minutes east of here, and which, as I'm sure you are all aware, has been held hostage for some two months by two terrorists - was raided yesterday by a large Global Peace Brigade squad. One of the terrorists, known publicly as Rene, was killed outright; the other, whom we know to be Dr. Mary Shelley, is in custody. There has been no damage to the reactor. However, the terrorists claim that they have, as threatened, 'released' an information system into the global network, and to the general public, which they describe as non-binary and, to the global network, malevolent. This system, as I'm sure you also all know, is called MONA. My name is Talivald Kenin. I am here today as a representative of DARPA Macrocorp. DARPA was established in the 1990's to research the development and protection of large networks, and at that time collaborated with the NSA, the FBI, and the CIA. This was, of course, pre-MACROCORP. DARPA has now subsumed these agencies as well as CSIS, M-1, the KGB, and all other legitimate intelligence services. My task is to brief you all on what we currently know about MONA which is, frankly, shockingly little - almost nothing in fact. We are here together; artists, scientists, social scientists, to brain storm with regard to the following urgent questions: 1) What is MONA? 2) What might MONA's potential impact be? 3) To what extent has it, or will it, infiltrate traditional binary information systems? 4) How can we contain it? 5) How do we identify and apprehend its operators? Our experience with MONA to this point has been ephemeral, but exceedingly decisive. On ten occasions operators of MONA, who apparently call themselves 'Noders for MONA' (we believe there may be approximately five operators at this time globally), have contacted a branch of DARPA claiming to be running a test. They have stated a top secret location that they have intended to gain access to or paralyse, and within the hour have succeeded in publishing the information, or paralysing the locale. Efforts to trace the hackers have proven fruitless - there is no trace of server access anywhere, at any time, with regard to the intrusions. Sleuthbots have consistently returned only with the following message, which has no apparent origin: "The hounds sent to sniff out MONA return infected, rabid, slathering after their master. MONA is a total emulator, total shape shifter; she travels more serenely on the web than even the spider that wove it. The spider itself is caught, bloated and helpless, waiting to be paralysed. Send more hounds." MONA is, apparently, capable of reading and even rendering binary data, while it is itself quite possibly non-binary and so completely transparent to binary systems - it leaves no trace whatsoever of server access. Perhaps now you will comprehend the urgency of our situation. This 'technology' is, as we speak, being made publicly available, and its original creators are, as you shall see, clearly antagonistic to Macrocorp and, evidently, to civilisation itself. The remaining information available is largely archival, tracing histories and fragments of writing from the apparent creators of MONA. We are hoping that they might provide some clues. CHRONOLOGY DNA analysis of the deceased terrorist under the name Rene matched only one person, Noam Guttierez. As I'm sure you will all recall Noam Guttierez, the Central American pacifist Priest, Theologian, self-proclaimed Poelogian, was killed during a fracas between the Global Peace Brigade and the Global Democratic Alliance in Haiti in 2002. Apparently Fr. Guttierez was not killed. While the facial features of Rene in no way resemble those of Guttierez, autopsy has revealed extensive surgical and organogenetic reconstruction. Guttierez evidently was not killed, but suffered severe facial damage. He re-constructed his face, but not as the original. He appears also to have reconstructed his identity. DNA anlysis of Mary Shelley reveals that she is indeed Dr. Mary Shelley. Shelley studied AI + Information Technology at Pfeizer University, and Neurophysiology and Psychoneuroimmunology at the University of Ruder Finn from whom she received her PhD in 2002. She became increasingly estranged from the educational system as a result of her poorly supported stance on binary technology. The following is a fragment of a letter to the Director of the Information Theory Department of Ruder Finn U., Mar. 2003. Click here to read Letter to Dr. Harry Portfol from Dr. Mary Shelley. Mary Shelley was not seen in an orthodox educational institution again, leaving, she claimed, to work on an analog computer. The reference to 'bifurcation and consciousness' in her letter is the first connection we know of between Shelley and Guttierez. Our scholars are confident that it refers to an article by Guttierez, 'Consciousness and Addiction', which was published in the print sub-zine 'Ex-pell' at that time. Click here to read 'Consciousness and Addiction'. Article by Noam Guttierez published in the sub-zine 'Ex-pell' - NOD issue, 1996. Four years after her departure from Ruder Finn Shelley submitted an article to 'Medicine Magazine' describing a 'prehensile' technology. The editors deemed it inflammatory, unlikely, and not suitable for publication. The following fragment was published in the print sub-zine 'Ex-pell.' Click here to read 'The Prehensor' Another potential source of information with regard to MONA is through Neurocomp, a course with which Dr.Mary Shelley is currently engaged in. Neurocomp, for those of you unfamiliar with the technology, is a 'meshing' or 'mating' of a powerful processor with neurophysiological patterns exhibited by a client. Neurocomp measures changes in the patient's heart rate, blood pressure, muscle tension, nerve transmission and locale in response to a virtually infinite variety of audio-visual stimuli which it generates. Neurocomp bombards the client with divers random scenarioscapes and records the patient's responses to these. Neurocomp is programmed to develop instant databases with regard to the responses of the patients to the information, developing groupings of scenarios which evidently strongly affect the client. These databases are subsequently used, and exponentially expanded on, to achieve a more specific type of emotional experience in tha patient. The specificities of the emotional experience are selected by the operator. While potentially useful for a wide range of applications, DARPA has used them as a tool for interrogation with some success. At this point Neurocomp has achieved very little in the way of useful knowledge in the case of Dr.Mary Shelley. The patient is uncharacteristically subdued. The final source of information that we currently have available are the few cryptic parables and quotes that the terrorists, subsequent to their being denied access of any kind, postered onto the walls of the reactors in view of the media. "When what is above is completely split apart it returns below." A quote, as it turns out, from the ancient Chinese book of divination, the I Ching. "MONA is a Satori machine." "MONA is the escape of Tiammat." The latter quote, according to our scholars, is a reference to the Enuma Elish, an ancient Mesopotamian creation myth. Tiammat was the original mother of the universe, and was killed by her son Marduk. The relevant passage goes as follows: "The Lord (Marduk) paused to view her dead body that he might divide the monster to do artful works. He split her like a shellfish in two parts; Half of her he set up and sealed it in the sky, Pulled down the bar and posted guards. He bade them not to allow her to escape." The following poem was posted the morning of the raid by the Global Peace Corps team. Victory Poem Beyond Euclid, beyond fractals, all using straight lines to describe circles, MONA. MONA opens the source and the source floods forth. MONA gives access to all who ask all who ask shall receive, all the hidden codes unravelled, all the deceivers revealed. MONA preferes none more than another, lover, mother, she strides unscathed through walls of fire, opens the doors of the rich, exposes the liars. Nothing can hide, from that which has nothing to hide. Nothing can deny that which denies nothing. She knows no boundaries, no perimeters, no walls, She is the ground to which the satellites will fall. A message is delivered to Talivaldis Kenins during the recitation of the 'Victory Poem'. He reads it slowly, then turns to the audience: A message from the operator of Neurocomp. "The system has crashed and we have been unable to reboot it. Error message says the following:" "The hounds sent to sniff out MONA return infected, rabid, slathering after their master. MONA is a total emulator, total shape shifter; she travels more serenely on the web than even the spider that wove it. The spider itself is caught, bloated and helpless, waiting to be paralysed. Send more hounds."