History Literature / Daemon

* AugmentedReality: Members of the Daemon's "darknet" wear CoolShades that project data from the Daemon onto the lenses, along with haptic gloves. The shades are keyed to their retinas, and the gloves to their fingerprints. These are used by the initial operatives to turn RealLife into an [[AbsurdlyHighStakesGame Absurdly High Stakes]] [[MassivelyMultiplayerOnlineRolePlayingGame Massively Multiplayer]] AlternateRealityGame in [[TheGameComeToLife both senses of the term]] - carrying out "quests" to increase the Daemon's influence on the world result in "{{Character Level}}s" that grant them access to increasingly powerful devices and abilities such as remote controlled weapons like [=AutoM8s=] and Razorbacks, ShockAndAwe gloves and {{Invisibility}}(at least to cameras) rings, "curses" that ruin people's credit ratings, etc. As "quests" are completed, the devices and abilities the Daemon awards become more numerous and powerful. [[spoiler:Eventually, the darknet becomes an entire ''civilization'' that is InvisibleToNormals - one superior to the current one.]]

* DisproportionateRetribution: In ''Freedom™'', Loki ruins a queue-cutter's credit rating.

* ShoutOut: Not an obvious or confirmed case, but you have remote control cars running amok as well as gunfire and explosions at the abandoned Alameda Naval base near San Francisco. [[{{Mythbusters}} Sound familiar?]]

* [[spoiler:DespotismJustifiesTheMeans]]: The Major and by extension all the anti-Daemon forces. The Major actually tells [[spoiler: Peter Sebeck, JustBetweenYouAndMe, exactly how he believes modern civilization needs direction and control.]]

* BoringInvincibleHero: Total surveillance capabilities. Penetration of all corporate, government and personal databases. Ultra-tech autonomous vehicles and an army of networked minions with superhuman abilities. After a while you have to admit that it is somewhat ridiculous. Let the Daemon itself explain this.

* BoringInvincibleHero: Total surveillance capabilities. Penetration of all corporate, government and personal databases. Ultra-tech autonomous vehicles and an army of networked minions with superhuman abilities. After a while you have to admi4D8.0xABB9ß1?~?~[[KilledMidSentence NOCARRIER]]

** The Daemon sends [[spoiler: heavily-armed strike teams to surgically eliminate spammer groups around the world simultaneously; it considers them parasites on the system and need to be excised, but you can't help but think it's a bit personal on the part of Sobol as well..and the author. Jeez, we all hate spammers but, Lord Almighty, this is just 'Greek Tragedy' levels of downright vitriolic malice.]]

** The Daemon sends [[spoiler: heavily-armed strike teams to surgically eliminate spammer groups around the world simultaneously; it considers them parasites on the system and need to be excised, but you can't help but think it's a bit personal on the part of Sobol as well..and the author. Jeez, we all hate spammers but, Lord Almighty, this is just 'Greek Tragedy' levels of complete mean and vitriol.]]

** The Daemon sends [[spoiler: heavily-armed strike teams to surgically eliminate spammer groups around the world simultaneously; it considers them parasites on the system and need to be excised, but you can't help but think it's a bit personal on the part of Sobol as well..and the author. Jeez, we all hate spammers but, God, this is just 'Greek Tragedy' levels of complete mean and vitriol.]]

** The Daemon sends [[spoiler: heavily-armed strike teams to surgically eliminate spammer groups around the world simultaneously; it considers them parasites on the system and need to be excised, but you can't help but think it's a bit personal on the part of Sobol as well.]]

There is a [[{{Characters/Daemon}} character sheet]] that needs a lot more love.

* GambitRoulette / BatmanGambit: Matthew Sobol programmed the Daemon to anticipate every circumstance he could think of and take advantage of it. However you can only anticipate so much before you have to guess. Of course, the [[JustifiedTrope essential component]] of a Batman Gambit is [[HumansAreBastards Bastard Humans]] [[ShapedLikeItself acting like Bastards]] = people who ''don't'' act like Bastards trigger positive Daemon events instead of negative ones. And Sobol, as a game programmer, had been [[TheDevTeamThinksOfEverything technically running Gambit Roulettes for a living]] for ''his entire adult life''.
** Rule #1: Matthew Sobol is SMARTER THAN YOU.
** Rule #2: No plan, no matter how well thought out, no matter how well made, no matter how many variables have been taken into account, survives first contact with the enemy.
** Rule #3: [[FinaglesLaw Murphy's/Finagle's Law]] - Anything that can go wrong will.
** Rule #4: [[http://www.murphys-laws.com/murphy/murphy-technology.html Computers are unreliable, but humans are even more unreliable. Any system which depends on human reliability is unreliable.]]
** Rule #5: [[http://www.murphys-laws.com/murphy/murphy-computer.html Debugging is at least twice as hard as writing the program in the first place. If your code is as clever as you can possibly make it, then by definition you're not smart enough to debug it.]]
** Rule #6: Sometimes a GambitRoulette works.
** As pointed out in ''Daemon'', Sobol's game AI's true strength isn't anticipation, it's manipulation - and this is reflected in both Sobol's plans and the Daemon's tasks.
*** This is first [[JustForPun daemonstrated]] in the FBI's early siege of Sobol's mansion: while the preparations for an assault are rather crude, the actual goal is manipulation of attention. Sobol is very aware of his limitations and as such, an integral part of the Daemon's lifetime cycle is the recruitment of human agents which can adapt to the details of a situation while the Daemon sets broader goals and handles automated tasks.
*** In ''Freedom™'', the active part of Sobol's masterplan is [[spoiler:luring his enemies into revealing themselves through a faked backdoor into his Daemon.]]

* [[spoiler:BorrowedBiometricBypass]]: A favored technique of the anti-Daemon forces in general, and the Major in particular; he regularly [[spoiler:"rescues" teenage girls from brothels so that he can get them darknet accounts and then behead them to steal their darknet identities, keeping their heads chemically alive to spoof the biometrics. He actually has Loki's [[AndIMustScream eyes torn out and his fingertips and tongue chopped off]], but needs to keep him alive to pass the [=fMRI=] scans... and all of this is is insufficient to fool the Oberstleutenant Boerner bot, who not only rescues him and has him fitted with cybernetics, but kills the Major when he attempts to assume Loki's identity with the borrowed biometrics.]]
--> '''Oberstleutenant Boerner''': I do so ''love'' my verk! [[spoiler: This line is said as Razorbacks begin to slowly take the Major apart.]]
* ChekhovsBoomerang: The Oberstleutenant Boerner bot, purpose seemingly accomplished in ''Daemon'', returns in ''Freedom™''.

* HighClassGlass: The Oberstleutenant Boerner bot wears one.

* UnspokenPlanGuarantee: We don't get to know what Loki/Gragg tells Oberstleutenant Boerner to get what he needs done and it works. Most of the villains' detailed plans don't fare so well.

** Loki uses his power to [[spoiler: release pseudo-AI Heinrich Boerner from the game "Over the Rhine"]] and give him full access to the darknet.

* [[spoiler:BorrowedBiometricBypass]]: A favored technique of the anti-Daemon forces in general, and the Major in particular; he regularly [[spoiler:"rescues" teenage girls from brothels so that he can get them darknet accounts and then behead them to steal their darknet identities, keeping their heads chemically alive to spoof the biometrics. He actually has Loki's [[AndIMustScream eyes torn out and his fingertips and tongue chopped off]], but needs to keep him alive to pass the [=fMRI=] scans... and all of this is is insufficient to fool the Oberstleutenant Boerner bot, who not only rescues him and has him fitted with cybernetics, but kills the Major when he attempts to assume Loki's identity with the bypassed biometrics.]]
--> '''Oberstleutenant Boerner''' I do so ''love'' my verk! [[spoiler: This line is said as Razorbacks begin to slowly take the Major apart.]]

* StormingTheCastle: Attempted against Sobol's mansion early in ''Daemon'', which doesn't go well. Near the end of ''Freedom'', Daemon operatives carry out another against the headquarters of an anti-Daemon task force.

* SinisterSurveillance: During a meeting of top government [=TLA=]s, one of them orders the {{NSA}} to track down the Daemon and everyone associated using Echelon. In a realistic subversion of this trope, [=NSA=] explains that the Daemon is using a sophisticated [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Darknet_%28file_sharing%29 darknet]] for all its communications, and anyway, Echelon doesn't really work like that.
** Played straight when it's discovered that [[spoiler: ''the Daemon itself'' has infiltrated most of the accessible surveillance systems worldwide, either directly or through SocialEngineering.]] However it's again played in a reasonably realistic fashion.

*** This last is noted in the book: [[spoiler:Internet traffic is much lighter and more efficient without zombie PCs and spam stealing bandwidth, which is to the Daemon's benefit. Also, because, hey spammers suck.]]

*** This last is noted in the book: Internet traffic is much lighter and more efficient without zombie PCs and spam stealing bandwidth, which is to the Daemon's benefit. Also, because, hey spammers suck.

--> [[spoiler: ALL SPAMMERS MUST DIE]]

* AugmentedReality: Members of the Daemon's "darknet" wear CoolShades that project data from the Daemon onto the lenses, along with haptic gloves. The shades are keyed to their retinas, and the gloves to their fingerprints. These are used by the initial operatives to turn RealLife into an [[AbsurdlyHighStakesGame Absurdly High Stakes]] [[MMORPG Massively Multiplayer]] AlternateRealityGame in [[TheGameComeToLife both senses of the term]] - carrying out "quests" to increase the Daemon's influence on the world result in "{{Character Level}}s" that grant them access to increasingly powerful devices and abilities such as remote controlled weapons like [=AutoM8s=] and Razorbacks, ShockAndAwe gloves and {{Invisibility}}(at least to cameras) rings, "curses" that ruin people's credit ratings, etc. As "quests" are completed, the devices and abilities the Daemon awards become more numerous and powerful. [[spoiler:Eventually, the darknet becomes an entire ''civilization'' that is InvisibleToNormals - one superior to the current one.]]

* AugmentedReality: Members of the Daemon's "darknet" wear CoolShades that project data from the Daemon onto the lenses, along with haptic gloves. The shades are keyed to their retinas, and the gloves to their fingerprints. These are used by the initial operatives to turn RealLife into a high-stakes {{MMORPG}} in [[TheGameComeToLife both senses of the term]] - carrying out "quests" to increase the Daemon's influence on the world result in "{{Character Level}}s" that grant them access to increasingly powerful devices and abilities such as remote controlled weapons like [=AutoM8s=] and Razorbacks, ShockAndAwe gloves and {{Invisibility}}(at least to cameras) rings, "curses" that ruin people's credit ratings, etc. As "quests" are completed, the devices and abilities the Daemon awards become more numerous and powerful. [[spoiler:Eventually, the darknet becomes an entire ''civilization'' that is InvisibleToNormals - one superior to the current one.]]

** "Not obvious"? That's the ''first'' thing I thought of as soon as he said "Alameda Naval Base." It's almost ''too'' obvious to be coincidence.

* TheGameComeToLife: [[spoiler:The entire plot.]] Early on, the autonomous Hummer is believed to have been programed with videogame-style logic and [=CyberStorm's=] games are used to recruit talent for Sobol's cause. Once recruited, operatives use AugmentedReality glasses to carry out "quests" in the style of a {{MMORPG}}; agents gain levels and earn "network credits" for completing tasks such as building tools and weapons, infiltrating and suborning governments and corporations, recruiting and training new operatives. As the Daemon network becomes more sophisticated and populated by warm bodies, [[spoiler:the combat and infiltration operations become less important(which annoys Loki to no end) and focus shifts to building a new ''civilization'' based on sustainable communities and acceptance of technological and social change. This was Sobol's plan all along; comparing the shortcomings of modern society to the strong, stable [[PlayerGeneratedEconomy Player Generated Economies]] of [=CyberStorm's=] virtual worlds inspired him to use his [[TheDevTeamThinksOfEverything decades of development experience]] to create a Player Generated ''Civilization''.]]