Here is my pitch for the next James Bond movie. It has to be something big, it has to be something that threatens the stability of the world as we know it and it has to be run by an evil tyrant bent on world domination. Above all, it has to be something to do with technology.
Imagine the scene: Ernst Stavro Blofeld, arch super-villain and Bond’s nemesis is sitting in a black leather wing-backed chair, running his evil fingers through the plush fur of his pure white cat. Apart from the henchmen, of which there are several, the only other person in the room is our hero, dressed impeccably in black tie dinner attire.
On the wall in from of them in the penthouse suite of Tump Towers is a bank of screens showing what looks like a network diagram. Bright lights are flashing and flowing across a map of the world with North America, Europe and parts of China brightly lit while the central parts of Africa remain relatively dark.
Blofeld turns slightly and sneers. ‘What you can see before you Mr Bond is the flow of web traffic around the world. It’s a beautiful sight, wouldn’t you agree? The world’s economy is wholly dependent upon the electronic transactions that this modern phenomenon allows.’
Bond glances up at the red illuminated digital clock that is counting the seconds down from fifty minutes. ‘When that clock gets to zero,’ says Blofeld, ‘unless the World Bank has deposited $100 trillion into my high interest super-saver account, I am going to unleash my deadliest weapon so far. The people will not know what has hit them. I have employed the finest computer programmers who will, at my command, release a virus which will render the PDF document format obsolete. I just have to press that red button there, next to the coffee machine.’
‘No longer will this file format be secure. Within minutes unscrupulous lawyers will be inserting clauses into contracts and seedy business men will be altering invoices in their favour. Within hours the whole basis of trust on which global trade is based will be annihilated and everything will be chaos. Nothing will be CoCo V3.1 compliant.’
He lets out a diabolical laugh and Commander Bond feels a shudder run up his spine. Thankfully he remembers the always-live cloud-watch that Q had given him for just such an emergency.
I don’t have the rest of the detail, or even the plot but it will involve fast cars, Martini’s, semi-clad beautiful women and large bits of infrastructure being blown up. I’m waiting for the call from the franchise.
Thoughts from a Guerrilla Worker 