Mind Hack: Insufficient Input Validation

If your brain were a piece of computer hardware, the software running on your brain would be more advanced than anything a thousand code monkeys on a thousand terminals could crank out in a thousand years – this would software so efficient that its inner workings would be virtually impenetrable to all but the most genius of software architects (and that’s not to say we do not already have some of our brightest minds working to crack the puzzle at this very moment) … but …

The software running on your brain would also be some of the buggiest code in existence. Not only would it suffer from regular crashes (you have to sleep sometime, right?) and a wholly counter-intuitive lack of environmental awareness, the software running on your brain would include some lines which constitute the cardinal sin of all software:

Your brain does not validate input.

Believing is not a two-stage process involving first understanding then believing. Instead understanding is believing, a fraction of a second after reading it, you believe it until some other critical faculty kicks in to change your mind.

• Correspondence bias: this is people’s assumption that others’ behaviour reflects their personality, when really it reflects the situation.
• Truthfulness bias: people tend to assume that others are telling the truth, even when they are lying.
• The persuasion effect: when people are distracted it increases the persuasiveness of a message.
• Denial-innuendo effect: people tend to positively believe in things that are being categorically denied.
• Hypothesis testing bias: when testing a theory, instead of trying to prove it wrong people tend to look for information that confirms it.

- Why You Can’t Help Believing Everything You Read
PsyBlog
2009-09-17

Every software vulnerability known to man results from a failure to properly validate input. Your brain is a happy little piece of high-powered hardware just begging to be hacked – and if you’ve ever believed in Santa Claus or Jesus or the benevolence of profit-driven entities, your mind has already been compromised.

Apply security patches. Upgrade where possible. Reboot.

This entry was posted on Saturday, September 19th, 2009 at 10:58:02 and is filed under Operator's Manual.

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