Overview

We’re going to take a brief detour from assembly to think about how assembly and compilers relate to our human society and think about both the limits of our control over the technology we use and how we can continue to function despite that limited control.

Basic Learning Objectives

Before class, you should be able to:

  • Define a “quine”
  • Explain why you can’t trust a compiler that you didn’t write yourself

Advanced Learning Objectives

After class, you should be able to:

  • Explain the high-level idea of the “trusting trust” attack and defense

Resources

You should read the following, including the side notes (but not the links unless you want to!):

Checks

“Reflections on Trusting Trust” was written in 1984. How do you feel that society’s interactions with “hackers” has changed or stayed the same since Ken Thompson wrote about these issues? Feel free to bring in anything that you are interested in or know about, from modern or old movies to “hacktivism” and beyond. Submit at least 3-4 sentences to Moodle and be prepared to discuss in class!