Infecting an alien architecture, Part II

In my January 11th post, I suggested that a complete psychological profile could be developed by watching individuals play online games. And I referenced my good friend Steve D'Angelo at Spring Lake Technologies as someone who is taking his company down this path. They are focused on building successful sales people. But today's story in the New York Times about Tucson gunman Jared Loughner's postings in an online game forum leads me to extend another invitation to Sony Entertainment, the Microsoft X-Box people, Nintendo, and every other online game maker: You can "grok" the twisted brains and "alien architectures" of violent deviants and report them to the authorities. You can quietly modify your online usage agreements, which no one reads anyhow, so your online players give you permission to notify the FBI, who I contend has jurisdiction since player deviant communication probably crosses state lines. Forget local authorities, as their level of competence is all over the board. If you doubt this is possible, at least give the psychologist at Spring Lake Technologies a phone call and have him explain it to you.

The concept of computer viruses and infecting an alien architecture goes all the way to "graywear" and the human mind, as Piers Anthony illustrated in his oft-mentioned book Macroscope. I've spent my entire professional career infecting the "human noggin" through advertising. Ask Larry Ellison at Oracle and Marc Benioff at Salesforce.com (both nominees for my Cyber Privateer Fantasy League team) how well I did that job. I helped destroy several Fortune-size companies by driving their management teams completely insane. Don't take my word for it, ask them. Or read Mike Wilson's book The Difference Between God and Larry Ellison. Or Marc Benioff's book Behind the Cloud. Both Larry and Marc acknowledge my work for them.

Heck, I even got former Morgan Stanley financial analyst (and former Oracle president) Chuck Phillips to change his name to Charles, and I didn't even run the ad. The client, Forté Software wouldn't let me. In fact, it scared them so bad they told me to destroy it, fearing that Chuck Phillips would see it and think they'd commissioned it. Of course, Forté was acquired by Sun which in turn was acquired by Oracle, so I have no problem sharing that ad with you here. I did eventually send the ad to Chuck when he was still with Morgan Stanley, hoping he'd get a laugh out of it and at least consider reporting on another of my clients. That never happened because he joined Oracle shortly thereafter, but here's the ad that made "Chuck" Phillips change his name to "Charles" Phillips:

Yeah, I know you're saying, "Hey, he signed his analyst stuff as 'Charles' didn't he?" True, but at Morgan Stanley, the telephone extension listed on his business card was 1-212-???-CHUCK". Everybody called him "Chuck." Until he went to Oracle. Then it was Charles. Every time he was introduced at speeches (ask my friend M. R. Rangaswami at Sand Hill), he was introduced as "Charles" Phillips.

So I contend that infecting an alien architecture (even the human noggin) can be accomplished, and further that spotting deviant behavior can be accomplished by observing online game playing behavior. But my assertion today is that the game companies—Sony, Microsoft, Nintendo, et al—really should consider their moral responsibility to be a tripwire. I'd be glad to debate this with the head of the ACLU like I did back in 1978 when I invented the voice stress analyzer.

Enough sermonizing. I'm now back to promoting cyber privateers as the solution to our cyber crime and cyber war challenges. Taman Shud.