Bug Off

摘要

After all, the spies of fiction move through a dark world full of narrow escapes and clever gadgets. Judging from what you can see at the International Spy Museum in Washington, D.C., the spies of real life aren't so far behind. Decisions, as we know, are based on information, and spies offer critical intelligence to military and political decision-makers. But skullduggery aside, hardware is the attraction most likely to appeal to mechanical engineers gathered in Washington for ASME's Congress next month. As long as there has been espionage, engineers have been a part of it. Is there a better example of deception and infiltration than the Trojan Horse? In the 15th century, Leon Battista Alberti, an Italian mathematician, invented the cipher disc, which made substitution codes harder to crack. Twenty-five separate alphabet discs could be rotated to form an enormous number of letter-to-letter switches.