Topics Discussion | interstellar-soc-imp

Computer Security

The representation of computer security in Interstellar is affected by the collaborative nature of space missions. Many systems that would be under tight lock and key in an earthly vessel are left open for remote administration because of the danger of space. In the scene where Dr. Mann has stolen a ship and is attempting to dock with the larger ship, the Endurance, Cooper and Amelia are able to remotely disable auto-docking and override the speaker mute on Mann’s ship. In an adversarial situation, allowing remote access to these systems would be dangerous and should not be allowed. However, during a long space mission, the ability to remotely control aspects of the other ships on the mission could be incredibly helpful if a crew member were out of reach of the ship. There should also be no worry of an adversary maliciously controlling your ship as no one else should be in the vicinity.

The last depiction of relaxed security rules comes from the last scene in the movie where Cooper takes TARS and a ship from the hanger of Cooper station to meet up with Amelia. There was no indication in the film that Cooper was cleared to take the ship so his ability to walk in and take a ship shows that the station did not securely track the ignition or departure of their ships. This again was likely due to an implicit trust between the management of Cooper station and the residents. Another possibility is that the area was only accessible by piolets and Cooper happened to be registered as one even though he had not been on the station before.

Information Privacy/ Privacy and the Government

Although not as prevalent as the other themes, information privacy was not an immediate problem in the movie because the setting takes place in an age without the need for computers. Located in a Midwestern farm, the use of technology for activities other than farming was rare. The audience was left to assume that all public records and documents were kept as physical copies. At least for the main protagonist’s farm, its inhabitants enjoyed the luxury of privacy from the government and neighbors. Similarly, in colonial America, solitude and privacy was readily available where the expanse of unclaimed land provided significantly more space and distance from other people [3]. Privacy is, therefore, a nonexistent issue in this movie.

The only violation of privacy would have probably taken place in the spacecraft. Astronauts must become accustomed to their colleagues in a confined space. Without the interference from other stress factors, interpersonal relations are “already difficult to maintain due to long coexistence in a confined and dangerous environment” [4]. This long coexistence in a small space also contributes to privacy issues among crew members; in the movie, the only means of privacy can be found in the coffin-like hibernation chambers and their own minds.

In terms of government collection of data, we assume information gathering occurs in the form of censuses. With the focus on producing a sufficient amount of food, there is no immediate need to monitor its citizens.

Freedom of Speech

The setting of the movie takes place in post-truth society where factual information is ignored and information can be modified to appeal to emotional persuasion. Such factual manipulation occurred during Murhpy’s parent-teacher conference. In this scene, the young teacher reprimands Cooper for telling his daughter that humans landed on the moon; the approved textbooks in that society stated that humans failed to do so and any textbooks saying otherwise were from a previous fictional era.

Networked Communication

Civilization has leaped forward every time a new communication technology has been adopted. Telegrams, the phone, and most recently, the internet have heralded unprecedented growth in economies and scientific progress [5]. In Interstellar, the main method of communications between earth and the distant spaceship is radio. Even once through the wormhole, the radio communications are maintained.

A new downside to using radio communications during interstellar travel is that the travel-time of light becomes relevant. While on earth, the distance between any two points still on the surface of the earth are close enough that the flight-time of any message is barely perceivable. In fact, a photon can travel around the earth 7.5 times in one second. However, once moving beyond our immediate solar system, the flight-time becomes long enough that it must be considered when sending mission-critical information. If humanity were split between earth and an interstellar craft at least 50 light years away, the societal implications are very large. The communication situation would be the same or worse than when we could, at best, send a letter on horseback over the course of days if not weeks. A 50-year difference would mean that any scientific breakthrough from one half of humanity would take almost a full generation to reach the other half. In that time, the second colony may have already discovered the breakthrough, eliminating any saved work that may have occurred. Another type of communication that occurs in the movie is the manipulation of gravity waves. However, information can still only be propagated at the speed of light meaning the above issues with flight-times stand. It is currently predicted that there cannot be any form of communication that is superluminal, able to transmit information faster than light, affixing the communication delay as an issue with interstellar travel forever [6].

The time lag between us and mars is 20 minutes on average which already presents problems with robotic exploration as it forces a high level of autonomy [7].

Computer Reliability

In the movie, there is a scene that involves the topic of Computer Reliability. When Cooper and his crew reach Dr.Mann's planet, they find Mann's robot, KIPP, and try to boot it up. They find contradictory data that goes against everything that Dr.Mann has said about the planet. Seconds later, the KIPP robot self-destructs, which results in the death of Romilly. We later learn that Dr.Mann, who after years of solidarity on the planet, lied about everything and triggered his beacon in order to be rescued. He programmed KIPP to self-destruct when a human scanned their finger, so that Dr.Mann could kill any people who came to rescue him so that he could steal their ships.

This scene has a lot to do with Computer Reliability. Robotic technology will become prevalent as time moves forward, and humans need to be able to trust the robots around them. Because robot's are controlled by software, there needs to be safety measures and hardware blocks that ensure that the robot will perform in a reliable manner that does not endanger the humans around them. Robotic technology, especially technology that is as sentient as the robots in the movie, should not be so easily reprogrammed because then anyone with access to the robot could take control and cause problems.

Intellectual Property

Basically all the equations and formulas once been used to solve “the equation” in the movie. Actually they are all intellectual properties of our predecessors.

NASA is involved in Interstellar, we can focus on the relevant terms of intellectual properties which can be found on NASA’s official websites[1].

These includes:

Intellectual properties and data rights
Patents and invention rights
Rights in data
Rights in resulting data
Handling of data
Release of general information to the public
Patent and copyright use - authorization, consent, and indemnification
Part of the NASA’s intellectual properties:

e.g. top 100 used in public[2]:

High-Temperature, Low-Melt Resins for Liquid Molding
Smart Coating for Corrosion Detection and Protection
Layered Composite Insulation

One concerning: For public on the Earth, Murphy Cooper with the help of her father is able to solve the formula. She is the person entitled with rescuing all humans. While in fact, she was told the quantum data by Joseph Cooper. However, Coop got these data from TARS, an AI-system robot. Who owns the intellectual property rights if in the future ideas can generates from artificial intelligence.

Sources

[1] https://www.nasa.gov/offices/ogc/ip/1210.html

[2] https://technology.nasa.gov/hot100/

{3} Solove, D. J. (2006). A brief history of information privacy law.

{4} Geuna, S., Brunelli, F., & Perino, M. A. (1995). Stressors, stress and stress consequences during long-duration manned space missions: a descriptive model. Acta Astronautica, 36(6), 347-356.

[6] Eberhard, Phillippe H.; Ross, Ronald R. (1989), "Quantum field theory cannot provide faster than light communication", Foundations of Physics Letters, 2 (2): 127–149, doi:10.1007/BF00696109

[7] https://mars.nasa.gov/mer/mission/tl_surface_nav.html