The man-machine integration era

  Information Systems, Norwich University, Northfield, Vermont, USA
DOI
10.7287/peerj.preprints.2402v1
Published
Accepted
Subject Areas
Human-Computer Interaction, Artificial Intelligence, Autonomous Systems, Social Computing
Keywords
Distributed Systems, Moving Target Defenses, Education, Security Science, Invariants, China, Optimization
Copyright
© 2016 Bilar
Licence
This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, reproduction and adaptation in any medium and for any purpose provided that it is properly attributed. For attribution, the original author(s), title, publication source (PeerJ Preprints) and either DOI or URL of the article must be cited.
Cite this article
Bilar D. 2016. The man-machine integration era. PeerJ Preprints 4:e2402v1

Abstract

Through sensor ubiquity, the man-machine integration era is upon us. This integration is taking place in distributed, continuously changing, optimizing/learning, finite precision feedback systems. Security challenges of such systems abound, also due to constantly co-evolving threat actors and changing environments. Are we adequately preparing to defend such systems, and more importantly: how do we ensure they are worth defending?

This position paper posits we are ill-prepared, due to perverse incentives affecting methodology, results and foundational corpuses. With respect to the first question, we will corroborate this ill-preparedness in the context of a basic requirement – situational awareness – for so-called Moving Target Defenses. We’ll argue that the second question hinges on a deceptively straightforward permanence invariant: The ability to robustly encode the infinite value of a human being in finite precision systems. Here too, we are failing to develop needed toolsets and skills.

Successfully tackling both questions may determine the future winning model of the man-machine integration era; whether we’ll lose the Republic of the People to the People’s Republic.

Author Comment

This is a preprint submission to PeerJ Preprints. It was originally written for the CFP CyConUS 2016 http://aci.cvent.com/events/cycon-u-s-2016-conference-on-cyber-conflict/custom-19-1aa58c3dbbcc42259274a3c8d61e5598.aspx and submitted July 15, 2016. The submission was rejected August 18, 2016.