Neil deGrasse Tyson, the celebrity astrophysicist, media personality, and Twitter humorist, has struck again. In a Friday tweet, Tyson stumbled upon the perfect solution to preventing a reoccurrence of the Sony hack that has occupied the news in recent weeks. He tweeted, “Obama authorized North Korea sanctions over cyber hacking. Solution there, it seems to me, is to create unhackable systems.” Cyber security analysts the world over were seen smacking their foreheads with their palms and crying out, “Of course! It was right in front of us all along!”
The response on Twitter has been merciless. According to Twitchy, David Burge, who works as a humorist as his first job under the handle Iowahawk, opined, “Also, how about a new type of dog that poops money? Hey, I'm just an idea guy, you scientist work out the details.” Indeed, Tyson’s inspiration wrought a lot of other ideas.
“Popehat” suggested genetically engineering cancer proof people. He went on to suggest that Carl Sagan be cloned so that he could produce a remake of “Cosmos” that would be both entertaining and enlightening, i.e. unlike the one Tyson did last year. Todd Lemon has a more entertaining idea, consisting of pigs that could fly and butcher themselves so that no one could ever want for bacon. Brian P. Hickey added that fewer people would die if crash-proof cars could become a reality.
Tyson’s critics may be jumping a little too soon. He has proposed an idea that, on the face of it, seems impossible. However, what would an “unhackable” system look like? Are there tradeoffs and unexpected side effects? Perhaps those people who are laughing at Tyson have not thought things through. All fun aside, Tyson may be on to something. Pursuing the idea might just be worth a thought experiment.
