Guns and Keyboards

I recently watched the movie Becket, a movie staring Peter O'Toole as King Henry II of England struggling to govern the Saxons in the mid-1100s.  There is a scene in the movie depicting King Henry and his chancellor, Thomas Becket, hunting on horseback.  It seems to have been the mark of aristocracy back then to be able to go hunting.  What began as a matter of survival became a sport, and it continues to this day.  When I lived in Colorado, I saw firsthand the modern manifestation of this ancient tradition.  It is a ritual of preparation, with guns, bows, camouflage, maps, and vehicles.  Though I have not personally been hunting, I believe I understand what draws man to the hunt.  There is a thrilling emotion that the activity evokes in a person.  Should it surprise us then that in the complexities of modern society, many new avenues are found and traversed to induce such adrenaline?

Cliff Stoll, a PhD recipient in astrophysics and a self-proclaimed remnant of the 60s hippie movement, is far removed from any trait that could be linked to the stereotypical hunter.  He came to work at LBNL as a computer network support employee.  This would have been the sum and total of his work life, but things changed when a routine error correction lead him to the trail of what turned out to be a German hacker.  His natural-born instincts kicked in, and he joined King Henry and a thousand others as man on the hunt.  Though the pursuit lasted many months, he kept detailed records and worked tirelessly, even at times against his boss's wishes.  He interrupted his personal life and in all things gave precedence to seeking out the elusive hacker.  The enemy.  With ingenuity beyond expectation he sought to capture his prey.  Why did he care?  What made him act the way he did?  What we can conclude from this story is perhaps obvious, but it is still interesting.  There is deep within the human psyche a natural desire to triumph, to overcome.  To identify the enemy and defeat him.  We seek to pit our intelligence against the odds and come out victor.  This was the case for Cliff Stoll, and unless I have missed the mark, it is the case for all of us.