Password

Object Lessons

by Martin Paul Eve, Christopher Schaberg (Editor), Ian Bogost (Editor)

Object Lessons is a series of short, beautifully designed books about the hidden lives of ordinary things.

Where does a password end and an identity begin? A person might be more than his chosen ten-character combination, but does a bank know that? Or an email provider? What's an 'identity theft' in the digital age if not the unauthorized use of a password? In untangling the histories, cultural contexts and philosophies of the password, Martin Paul Eve explores how 'what we know' became 'who we are', revealing how the modern notion of identity has been shaped by the password.

Ranging from ancient Rome and the 'watchwords' of military encampments, through the three-factor authentication systems of Harry Potter and up to the biometric scanner in the iPhone, Password makes a timely and important contribution to our understanding of the words, phrases and special characters that determine our belonging and, often, our being.

Object Lessons is published in partnership with an essay series in The Atlantic .

Genres: Nonfiction

136 pages, Paperback

Published July 28, 2016

Reviews

[Frank · Rating 4 out of 5]

Another brief and interesting read. The author does a good job of thinking about the genealogy of"passwords" and makes really good literary connections.

[annika]

Skimmed for my dumb ahh class…

[Alicia · Rating 2 out of 5]

I thought this one would be more of the cultural understanding of the password than the mechanics through history but I get that this specific series does drill down to the very minutiae of the subject it's focused on. I wanted a book akin the NYT article about passwords I read and devoured years ago. While I learned odd facts and plenty of the backstory, it wasn't exactly what I wanted to get out of it though I always got excited when Eve referenced literature including Harry Potter, Lord of the Rings, One Thousand and One Arabian Nights, Hamlet, etc.

"Another fairy tale / magical password environment demonstrates this thinking further. In the tale of Rumpelstiltskin, as collected by the Brothers Grimm, a mischievous imp helps a young girl to fulfil her father's overambitious boast that she can spin straw into gold..."

"... the reader has been introduced to three security systems that protect spaces: the entrance to The Leaky Cauldron, the entrance to Diagon Alley and the entrance to Platform 9 3/4 at King's Cross Station. Each of these depends, in some way, on pre-shared knowledge in order to gain admittance."

[Kate · Rating 3 out of 5]

Philosopher Theodor W. Adorno stated that “objects do not go into their concepts without leaving a remainder.” How does that relate to identity theft? Why is the term “identity theft” now more common than “identity fraud” or “unauthorized access,” how does this usage shift affect the victim, and what light can the history of passwords shed on this? To explore, turn on your flashlight and thinking cap with Password by Paul Martin Eve. Trace the evolution of the password from “Open sesame” to Parseltongue, differentiate between “security by design” and “security by obscurity,” and ponder the ways that the fingerprint uniquely represents but is not equal to the finger.

[Callie · Rating 3 out of 5]

Password is a short read that uses the word "password" very liberally. It focuses a lot on history, but also has sections on biometrics and cryptography. There were some interesting points, but the author's obsession with the conflation of identification (Are you person X?) with identity (Who *is* person X, really?) gets a little tiring and apocalyptic.

[Liam Malia · Rating 5 out of 5]

I love the concept of this series- very much in the vein of Barthes’ ‘Mythologies’. So far this is the only volume in the series I’ve read but I love Eve’s playful approach to the concept of the password, as well as his clear and accessible explanations of quite complex aspects of cybersecurity. Also this guy really knows his Harry Potter

[Heather · Rating 2 out of 5]

Decent framework for exploring concepts of privacy and identity, but felt more like an academic textbook than the typical series instalment. To be fair, I work in IT so the industry vs. literary language did not translate well for me.