She has the knowledge but is blocked from the technology by Veronica Silver. She can give Max the information for him to send to Veronica to allow her to initiate the shut down.
" Decimus is the only one who can shut down the contingencies. "
I find it a bit difficult to believe that it is quite impossible for any person or group of people to circumvent the contingencies, no matter their genius or natural abilities. How can any machine, doomsday or not, be that perfect? A massively complex failsafe that has absolutely zero weakness or fault? Something dreamed up by the insane Prince, no less? Humans are imperfect and I thought most machines crafted my man are imperfect to some degree, if you look at them close enough.
The effectiveness of encryption is largely limited by the genius of the system (and those trying to crack it) and the speed/power of the computer or network trying to decode it, right? If something is considered hacker-proof today, someone will eventually find a way around it. The thing about technology is that it is always progressing. Before you know it, something becomes obsolete.
If nothing else, I would imagine a technomancer like Dr. Silver (or someone even more powerful) would have at least a chance. For that matter, what is the sum-total computing power of a god-machine like Aeneas, if all available resources are devoted to solving a singular problem?
Let me clarify: Decimus is the only one with the proper codes, access, and so on to shut down the contingencies via what one might consider "normal" channels. No one else possesses the knowledge to do so. This doesn't mean the system is utterly unhackable/foolproof, but rather that it's got very tight security and the access codes are not written on a Post-It note stuck to the Prince's bathroom mirror, or something of that nature. :)
"Decimus is the only one who can shut down the contingencies."
I do not see why people seem to have such a problem with this as a plot dynamic, the Ladies aren't without firm real life historical and psychological precedent for it. For instance in the last century alone....
Mao screwed up and damned near destroyed China's entire economy and killed as many as 35-45 million people with the Great Leap Forward alone, and was being "eased" out by the Party. Not willing to give up the 12 and 14-years-olds of his private 'opera troupe,' and other perks or possibly face the wrath usually reserved for a deposed revolutionary leaders, he gave his 'Notification' of 16 May ('66) which lead to the Red Guard and the unleashing of the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution later that year (the 16 Points and a bit later the 'Four Olds'). Over 36 million additional people suffered persecution, beating, torture, imprisonment, internal exile, labor camps (all the usual things that can't happen in a proletarian paradise), etc, with between 750k to 1.5M known dead and about the same number permanently disabled. All orchestrated so the old revanchist could reconsolidate an iron grasp on power from his more 'liberal' political adversaries.
There's also Hitler, who took Germany down with him rather than negotiate, seeing the total annihilation of the German people and the laying to waste of Germany itself as a totally appropriate punishment for failing to fulfill his dreams.
Given Dec's megalomania and extreme narcissism, I can easily see him implementing an 'If I can't rule the world, nobody ever will' doomsday system to turn everything in it into his very own pretty funeral pyre. After all, it's only appropriate that no one should live after his glorious reign. He will decently spare them having to suffer the grief of his passage from the world.
As for why would people follow such orders? Well, consider what it is to live under an despotic regime where the psychopath-in-chief makes the rules as he goes, maybe not purely Lex Rex (King's Word is Law) but close enough.
First there are the true believers... usually about 10-15% (or more) of a given population - e.g. the SS or the Red Guards Cohorts. The WILL OBEY and will kill or otherwise terrorize the rest of the population into carrying out orders no matter how logically whacked or (self)destructive! Remember, even as Germany fell and teens and children fought on the front lines, major military reserves and assets including fuel, POLs, spare parts and ammunition, etc., were diverted from defense of the Fatherland to the SS-TV to keep the trains flowing to the camps and keep the camps working 24/7 even as the Allies closed in from the East and the West. One of the first results of the news of Hitler's death was a wave of suicides, both civilian and military, across Germany.
As for the rest, lots of folks have followed very crazy orders from innumerable dictators since the dawn of time and do so to this day (sometimes in the hopes of living 'just one more day'). Ask the North Koreans.
Dictators cannot stay in place without a WHOLE LOT OF HELP from underlings and other folks, most of whom have a very vested interest in preserving the rule of said dictator and the system which keeps him/her in place; even without something like Dec's Doomsday Device.
Reading the debate, the posts you seem to be replying to don't seem to have any issue with the psychology of it, the problem is the technology. Now that I think of it, they might have a point.
1) The system can't be totally isolated otherwise:
a) It won't be able to do what it's programmed to do and
b) I don't see Decimus accepting a system that he needs to visit to enter his codes. After all what if he needs to enter the codes close in time to showing his population how brilliant he is?
2) Due to the isolation, New Rome is technologically backwards.
3) Both Ceci and Dr Silver's drones took seconds or less to hack into New Rome's systems (including military ones in the case of the drones).
4) Tokyo Rose has had agents in New Rome for years. That's a lot of time to work on the problem.
Then we have the real life examples:
1) Bletchley Park was able to crack both the Enigma and Lorenz cyphers (the German's thought them uncrackable) and cracked those of other countries.
2) Recently, a security expert said somthing to the effect of:
There are two types of businesses: Those who have been hacked and those who don't know that they've been hacked.
So the question isn't "Why would Decimus do that?" It's "How come none of his enemies have been able to disable them yet?"
Can't they just replace everyone in the palace with actors?
Acantha can go live anywhere other than the Palace (which she is on track for doing anyway), we let our little tyrant think he killed Maxus because he'll be busy running the city and doesn't have time to deal with him. The attack on the palace can be blamed on New Troy, and while it will give Centcom a headache to pretend she can't instantly crush him she can probably simulate an entire campaign's worth of details to flood him with.
Then once the Prince's murder machine has been switched off we replace the door to his room with prison bars while he sleeps. Mission accomplished.
Also, random: If Acantha wants to go to school with Lynn, she'll need a badass bodyguard that can also pass for a 17 year old girl. Who wants to tell TeeDee? I'm sure she'll love it...
Only one problem, Pirtnac. TeeDee does NOT want to appear small and harmless. She wants a set of what Maxus is wearing. In a larger size (more weapon capacity, since she is smaller than he is). :-D
Actually I don't think she would want it, or not without being updated with New Troy toys and given a noticeable movement and agility upgrade. That is some clunky '80 style cartoon armor.
I figured as much when Noctis received her 'escape clause' in her carefully constructed 'orders' from Prince Douchebag. Between his paranoia and his ego, he was as easy to manipulate as modeling clay and she did it to perfection. She's not being disingenuous and I think she can be trusted. Maxus does too. Now all that remains is to deactivate the Doomsday Machines and hang Douchebag by his nuts from a flagpole.
Given her conversations earlier with Malati, and Dolly and Ceci, I think that we can. After all New Rome is likely to fall if Decimus remains in charge.
Is Malati actually alive? On the previous panel her eyes were clearly wide open. On this panel her eyes are shut. Does it mean she just injured herself so she cannot move, but is still reparable?
As much as we all hate to say it out loud, Malati is gone, regardless of what she looks like on the screen. She's passed on, rests in peace, pushing up the daisies. Her digital metabolic processes are now history. Off the twig, kicked the bucket, shuffled off the mortal coil, run down the curtain and joined the choir invisible.
Noctis had her hand on Malatti's face in the second panel of the previous strip. Kind of hard to tell, because it is just a white blob between the bright red of Malatti's blade and the deeper red of the background, but I'm pretty sure Noctis is closing her eyes in that scene.
THIS is why I have always loved Noctis. Aside from her appearance, of course... lol
Speaking of which, the whole "hands behind your head" thing definitely adds a certain, "je ne sais quoi" to her frame...
EDIT: I forgot to mention that I absolutely love the detailing on Noctis' sword. Is it just me, or does it look semi-transparent? The reflections on the blade are really impressive...
Ben is doing okay at this time; he hasn't even needed more than a couple doses of the new pain medication. His appointment with the oncologist is coming up on Wednesday. Thanks for asking. :)
Good call Visvires. Douchimus does seem to have ordered his own demise.
I find it a bit difficult to believe that it is quite impossible for any person or group of people to circumvent the contingencies, no matter their genius or natural abilities. How can any machine, doomsday or not, be that perfect? A massively complex failsafe that has absolutely zero weakness or fault? Something dreamed up by the insane Prince, no less? Humans are imperfect and I thought most machines crafted my man are imperfect to some degree, if you look at them close enough.
The effectiveness of encryption is largely limited by the genius of the system (and those trying to crack it) and the speed/power of the computer or network trying to decode it, right? If something is considered hacker-proof today, someone will eventually find a way around it. The thing about technology is that it is always progressing. Before you know it, something becomes obsolete.
If nothing else, I would imagine a technomancer like Dr. Silver (or someone even more powerful) would have at least a chance. For that matter, what is the sum-total computing power of a god-machine like Aeneas, if all available resources are devoted to solving a singular problem?
Oh, wait, that was "shut down"... I see.
Let me clarify: Decimus is the only one with the proper codes, access, and so on to shut down the contingencies via what one might consider "normal" channels. No one else possesses the knowledge to do so. This doesn't mean the system is utterly unhackable/foolproof, but rather that it's got very tight security and the access codes are not written on a Post-It note stuck to the Prince's bathroom mirror, or something of that nature. :)
I do not see why people seem to have such a problem with this as a plot dynamic, the Ladies aren't without firm real life historical and psychological precedent for it. For instance in the last century alone....
Mao screwed up and damned near destroyed China's entire economy and killed as many as 35-45 million people with the Great Leap Forward alone, and was being "eased" out by the Party. Not willing to give up the 12 and 14-years-olds of his private 'opera troupe,' and other perks or possibly face the wrath usually reserved for a deposed revolutionary leaders, he gave his 'Notification' of 16 May ('66) which lead to the Red Guard and the unleashing of the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution later that year (the 16 Points and a bit later the 'Four Olds'). Over 36 million additional people suffered persecution, beating, torture, imprisonment, internal exile, labor camps (all the usual things that can't happen in a proletarian paradise), etc, with between 750k to 1.5M known dead and about the same number permanently disabled. All orchestrated so the old revanchist could reconsolidate an iron grasp on power from his more 'liberal' political adversaries.
There's also Hitler, who took Germany down with him rather than negotiate, seeing the total annihilation of the German people and the laying to waste of Germany itself as a totally appropriate punishment for failing to fulfill his dreams.
Given Dec's megalomania and extreme narcissism, I can easily see him implementing an 'If I can't rule the world, nobody ever will' doomsday system to turn everything in it into his very own pretty funeral pyre. After all, it's only appropriate that no one should live after his glorious reign. He will decently spare them having to suffer the grief of his passage from the world.
As for why would people follow such orders? Well, consider what it is to live under an despotic regime where the psychopath-in-chief makes the rules as he goes, maybe not purely Lex Rex (King's Word is Law) but close enough.
First there are the true believers... usually about 10-15% (or more) of a given population - e.g. the SS or the Red Guards Cohorts. The WILL OBEY and will kill or otherwise terrorize the rest of the population into carrying out orders no matter how logically whacked or (self)destructive! Remember, even as Germany fell and teens and children fought on the front lines, major military reserves and assets including fuel, POLs, spare parts and ammunition, etc., were diverted from defense of the Fatherland to the SS-TV to keep the trains flowing to the camps and keep the camps working 24/7 even as the Allies closed in from the East and the West. One of the first results of the news of Hitler's death was a wave of suicides, both civilian and military, across Germany.
As for the rest, lots of folks have followed very crazy orders from innumerable dictators since the dawn of time and do so to this day (sometimes in the hopes of living 'just one more day'). Ask the North Koreans.
Dictators cannot stay in place without a WHOLE LOT OF HELP from underlings and other folks, most of whom have a very vested interest in preserving the rule of said dictator and the system which keeps him/her in place; even without something like Dec's Doomsday Device.
1) The system can't be totally isolated otherwise:
a) It won't be able to do what it's programmed to do and
b) I don't see Decimus accepting a system that he needs to visit to enter his codes. After all what if he needs to enter the codes close in time to showing his population how brilliant he is?
2) Due to the isolation, New Rome is technologically backwards.
3) Both Ceci and Dr Silver's drones took seconds or less to hack into New Rome's systems (including military ones in the case of the drones).
4) Tokyo Rose has had agents in New Rome for years. That's a lot of time to work on the problem.
Then we have the real life examples:
1) Bletchley Park was able to crack both the Enigma and Lorenz cyphers (the German's thought them uncrackable) and cracked those of other countries.
2) Recently, a security expert said somthing to the effect of:
There are two types of businesses: Those who have been hacked and those who don't know that they've been hacked.
So the question isn't "Why would Decimus do that?" It's "How come none of his enemies have been able to disable them yet?"
Acantha can go live anywhere other than the Palace (which she is on track for doing anyway), we let our little tyrant think he killed Maxus because he'll be busy running the city and doesn't have time to deal with him. The attack on the palace can be blamed on New Troy, and while it will give Centcom a headache to pretend she can't instantly crush him she can probably simulate an entire campaign's worth of details to flood him with.
Then once the Prince's murder machine has been switched off we replace the door to his room with prison bars while he sleeps. Mission accomplished.
Also, random: If Acantha wants to go to school with Lynn, she'll need a badass bodyguard that can also pass for a 17 year old girl. Who wants to tell TeeDee? I'm sure she'll love it...
Muhahahahahahaha!
As usual, awesome art and story! Keep it up, my friend.
You rock!
It is a pity that Malati is already gone...
This is an EX-Cassian.
But there's a guy in Bolton that can fix her. Or was it Ipswitch?
Speaking of which, the whole "hands behind your head" thing definitely adds a certain, "je ne sais quoi" to her frame...
EDIT: I forgot to mention that I absolutely love the detailing on Noctis' sword. Is it just me, or does it look semi-transparent? The reflections on the blade are really impressive...