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William Gibson's AGRIPPA Recovered and Revealed

Posted by kdawson on from the gripping-hand dept.

Bud Cook writes "While the text of William Gibson's elusive electronic poem AGRIPPA is widely posted around the Web, it has not been seen in its original incarnation — custom-built software designed to scroll the poem through a single play before encrypting each line with an RSA algorithm — since 1992. Today is the 16th anniversary, to the day, of the poem's initial release. A team of scholars at the University of Maryland and UC Santa Barbara used forensic computing to restore the code from an original diskette loaned by a collector and have placed video of the complete 'run,' as well as never-before-seen footage from the night of AGRIPPA's public debut in 1992, up on a Web site called the Agrippa Files. There's also a detailed essay documenting the forensic process, plus a mess of stills, screenshots, and a copy of the disk image itself."

15 of 98 comments (clear)

  1. Harold AI? by PakProtector · · Score: 4, Insightful

    We finally found the Epitaph of the Twilight?!

    --

    Edward@Tomato - /home/Edward/ man woman
    man: no entry for woman in the manual.
    "Qua!?"

  2. Could this be.. by contra_mundi · · Score: 5, Funny

    Could this be the first DRM? It's much more draconian than the 3 activations and buy a new game from EA.

    1. Re:Could this be.. by Qzukk · · Score: 4, Funny

      It's much more draconian than the 3 activations and buy a new game from EA.

      And apparently just as ineffective.

      --
      If I have been able to see further than others, it is because I bought a pair of binoculars.
    2. Re:Could this be.. by Lisandro · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Considering it took 16 years for it to become widely available in its original form, I'm not sure I'd exactly call that ineffective.

      Maybe it's just no one cared too much about it...

  3. In a world of art that's mostly disposable... by The+Ultimate+Fartkno · · Score: 5, Insightful

    ...it's quite heartbreaking to see a work that intentionally removed itself from your grasp. It's quite the change from people who expect immortality simply for having cameras pointed at them or semi-literate fiction aimed at people who think MTV is the height of culture.

    1. Re:In a world of art that's mostly disposable... by Splab · · Score: 4, Informative

      Except the dead sea scrolls is hide from animals, not paper from your printer. Normal printing paper has a very short life span (comparatively).

    2. Re:In a world of art that's mostly disposable... by smoker2 · · Score: 3, Insightful

      - 1 Missing the point.

      The whole point of this was to show you it disappearing. End of. No more. Done.

      Putting into a medium designed for longevity would be precisely against the intention of the work. How do you demonstrate the effect of a highly mobile medium on literature if you protect against that effect ? Do you (can you) see DRM in action through the medium of paper ? It is impossible because you can always go back a page - not so with this. This is ice sculpture for the modern age.

  4. The 2008 /. version of the poem ... by krou · · Score: 5, Funny

    "The 2008 incarnation of the poem consists of custom-built software that, when /. readers try to read the poem, it is encrypted in a weird Web-based algorithm that transforms the text into a message saying 'Error establishing a database connection'.

    --
    'If Christ had tweeted the sermon on the mount, it might have lasted until nightfall.' - John Perry Barlow
    1. Re:The 2008 /. version of the poem ... by mazarin5 · · Score: 3, Funny

      "The 2008 incarnation of the poem consists of custom-built software that, when /. readers try to read the poem, it is encrypted in a weird Web-based algorithm that transforms the text into a message saying 'Error establishing a database connection'.

      Sorry, that was my fault. I was the first one to visit the website, and it consequently encrypted itself. I should have mirrored it.

      --
      Fnord.
  5. Re:Yawn by morgan_greywolf · · Score: 5, Funny

    it is a 5th grade programming project

    So, let me get this straight. You were writing programs that RSA encrypt data embedded within its own executable in the 5th grade?

    Wow. And here I was just writing programs in LOGO that made a turtle move around the screeen. :(

    You were a gifted child, weren't you?

    --
    My blog
  6. Good art by smoker2 · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Good art requires the viewer to think. What is more indicative of the state of social consumerism and the temporary nature of anything, than a document that allows precisely one viewing then removes itself from the page. Not to mention the indirect commentary on the transitory nature of language as a communication mechanism. It doesn't matter what the theme of the poem was, the art was the action of allowing one reading then visibly degrading the communication to the point where it was no longer communicating anything other than loss. What is poetic about a sunset ? The scientific fact that the sun is merely being hidden by the rotation of the earth ? Or the mental notion of the day coming to an end, time passing, out with the old, everything dies, sadness, hope etc. ?

    I would see Gibsons work as deliberately demonstrating the sadness of work being published, read, then being removed from view and denying future readings. Very nice work considering the date it was first published, and our current problems with DRM and copyright.

    1. Re:Good art by fracai · · Score: 3, Insightful

      I think the real trick is to display a work of art, while concealing said art, while also not allowing the act of concealing to turn into art itself. It seems to me that many would consider the "performance" of concealing the poem a work of art in itself.

      I also have a hard time stating that "bad art" is "not art".
      And I struggle over whether "not art" can be "accidental art".

      --
      -- i am jack's amusing sig file
  7. pay attention by hal9000(jr) · · Score: 4, Insightful

    an alternative interpretation is that in a world that Gibson envisioned where data is fleeting and we are deluged with it, there are times when you need to pay attention.

    This poem, for all intents and purposes self destructs after the first reading. Therefore, you should pay attention the first time--you won't get another chance.

    That was, I think, the intent. Whether he could have written a program that would have enforced that intent better is beside the point (apparently it was "broken"). For the average reader, you'd get one shot.

    It's still a compelling thought.

  8. I've studied Agrippa by benwiggy · · Score: 4, Funny

    This is only news if your opponent has studied his Agrippa.... which I have.

  9. Buhddist sand art by dazedNconfuzed · · Score: 3, Interesting

    That's a major factor in Buhddist/Nepalese sand art (proper name escapes me): a great deal of effort goes into making an intricate work of art, only to have it brushed away a few days later.

    From the Japanese samurai classic text Hagakure: "In the Kamigata area, they have a sort of tiered lunchbox they use for a single day when flower viewing. Upon returning, they throw them away, trampling them underfoot. The end is important in all things."

    --
    Can we get a "-1 Wrong" moderation option?