Agrippa, A Book of the Dead

filfre.net

62 points·doppp··8 comments

I remember reading about this project some time ago, but it was before HN...

A small phrase from the article that most fellow HN readers will appreciate: “A hacker always takes the path of least resistance,” said Templar years later. “And it is a lot easier to ‘hack’ a person than a machine.”

The encryption scheme, for those curious: http://www.crackingagrippa.net/submissions/robert_xiao.html

I've followed this story off and on since the book was originally published (and read the poem a number of times), but I learned quite a bit of new information from this article. I'd recommend reading it even if you think you're already familiar with the story!

Wikipedia also mentions that this account has been questioned:

> However, according to a dissenting account by hacktivist and MindVox co-founder Patrick K. Kroupa, subterfuge prior to The Transmission elicited a betrayal of trust which yielded the uploaders the text. Kirschenbaum declined to elaborate on the specifics of the Kroupa conjecture, which he declared himself "not at liberty to disclose".

Here's a direct link to the text of the poem, which I have always enjoyed.

http://www.williamgibsonbooks.com/source/agrippa.asp

Aghhh, what I wouldn't give to have experienced this :-) I don't know how many were ever "printed", but it doesn't seem like any resurfaced online - I guess that makes sense, given the nature of the thing!

http://agrippa.english.ucsb.edu/ seems apropos. Includes an emulation.

I've always loved this thing, and enjoyed the first encounter I had with it.

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