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| - A logic bomb is
- A logic bomb was a computer programming weapon, a piece of code intentionally inserted into a software system that scrambled data to take down a system or network. The Levelers used one against the Committee of Public Safety during their attempted coup. (HHA1.3: AWoG)
- Is your sentient supercomputer acting up? Good news. There's an easy solution: confuse it. If you give a computer nonsensical orders in the real world it will, generally, do nothing (or possibly appear to freeze as it loops eternally trying to find a solution to the unsolvable problem presented to it). In fiction-land however, it will explode. It may start stammering, "I must... but I can't... But I must..." beforehand. The easiest way to confuse it is with the Liar paradox, i.e. "this statement is a lie". A fictional computer will attempt to debate and solve the paradox until it melts down. If the computer is a robot, this will probably result in Your Head Asplode.
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| - A logic bomb is
- Is your sentient supercomputer acting up? Good news. There's an easy solution: confuse it. If you give a computer nonsensical orders in the real world it will, generally, do nothing (or possibly appear to freeze as it loops eternally trying to find a solution to the unsolvable problem presented to it). In fiction-land however, it will explode. It may start stammering, "I must... but I can't... But I must..." beforehand. The easiest way to confuse it is with the Liar paradox, i.e. "this statement is a lie". A fictional computer will attempt to debate and solve the paradox until it melts down. If the computer is a robot, this will probably result in Your Head Asplode. Paradoxes and contradictory statements (especially contradictory orders) have become the primary material used to build the Logic Bomb and thus the standard way to defeat any sophisticated, computerized system or AI. But be warned, if the Logic Bomb fails to destroy the system outright (and in some cases, even when it does), the system's surviving remnants may go insane and attempt to kill you just the same. Also note that Ridiculously-Human Robots (and some very advanced AIs) are generally able to recognize and defuse logic bombs on sight, long before they go off (and may be Genre Savvy enough to view this as a particularly irritating kind of Fantastic Racism). Some ridiculously dumb AIs are also immune to logic bombs. Occasionally the way to shut down such a computer is less like a few odd statements, and more like an advanced philosophical debate on the nature of truth, free will and purpose. The end result is still a super computer muttering an error several times before exploding. Of course if writers had bothered to do their research they would learn that computer software is often vulnerable to being fed inputs that cause buffer overflows or inject commands. Of course these don't cause the machine to explode, but instead places the computing device entirely under your control. They can also be bogged down or bluescreened with programs such as fork bombs (each instance of the program opens two more). For the human equivalent, see some of the entries under Brown Note. See also Straw Vulcan and Puff of Logic. Not to be confused with You Fail Logic Forever (though some Logic Bombs use the fallacies listed in that page). If you want to do this to a well-organized group of people, use an Apple of Discord instead. Examples of Logic Bomb include:
- A logic bomb was a computer programming weapon, a piece of code intentionally inserted into a software system that scrambled data to take down a system or network. The Levelers used one against the Committee of Public Safety during their attempted coup. (HHA1.3: AWoG)
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