Tech
Cornell Tech – Ari Juels publishes new thriller novel about cryptocurrencies
By Tom Fleischman
A confluence of events, combined with a healthy obsession with detail and a love of writing, gave birth to the computer scientist Ari Juels just what he needed to produce his second thriller.
Juels, the Weill Family Foundation, and the Joan and Sanford I. Weill Professor at the Jacobs Technion-Cornell Institute at Cornell Tech and the Technion, spent much of the pandemic-forced lockdown and a coinciding sabbatical writing “The oracle,” his new novel about a software developer who, along with his FBI partner, races against time to dismantle a murderous blockchain program launched by the Delphians, worshipers of the ancient Greek god Apollo.
Juels, also a member of the computer science faculty at the Cornell Ann S. Bowers College of Computing and Information Science, tells the story from an expert’s point of view: The technology described (often in great detail but for a general audience) is based heavily on research he and his research group are doing at Cornell Tech’s Roosevelt Island campus.
“Much of my research for the book did not involve what many novelists do – that is, reading academic publications – but I was instead writing those publications,” Juels said. “Part of the fun of ‘The Oracle’ is that I was and am living the quest in the novel.”
This is Juels’ second foray into the literary world. His first was the 2010 cybersecurity thriller “Tetraktys,” which, like “The Oracle,” combines Greek history and modern technology in a story of mysterious computer break-ins, international intrigue and corruption.
Juels spoke to the Chronicle about his new novel:
Question: Is this a warning? The author’s note at the beginning of the book reads like a warning of sorts.
Answer: More likely. Fundamentally, the story is a cautionary tale about the haphazard fusion of technologies, in this case blockchain with artificial intelligence, especially large language models like ChatGPT. The scenario in the book involves a blockchain technology called smart contracts that automatically pays rewards for killings. Artificial intelligence plays a role here by interpreting news articles to judge the payment. The novel is near-future science fiction, but the technologies it describes are here now and its premise is technologically plausible. Fortunately, smart contracts like The Oracle’s are not possible with today’s infrastructure, and I think colleagues in the community are taking the future risks seriously.
Q: This book is based on a 2015 research paper you co-wrote; How much other research did you do while writing the book?
A: The technology portion of the book relies heavily on our research, including a 2015 paper and a number of others, some of which have seen the light of day as blockchain technologies in use today. I had to do a fair amount of research the old fashioned way – reading books and articles – for the other aspects of the book, particularly the story of the Oracle of Delphi.
Q: What are the biggest dangers related to blockchain/cryptocurrency/smart contracts and the like?
A: There are two dangers: the rock and the hard place, if you will. On the one hand, blockchain technologies, like all technologies, are dual-use and can be abused in all sorts of ways. This includes scams, such as FTX – the exchange run by the now infamous Sam Bankman-Fried – and criminal uses, both of the kind common today and those that may occur in the future, such as the one in my novel. This is a clear, present and evolving danger.
On the other hand, however, there is also the danger of overreactions or misconceptions about the disadvantages of the technology. For example, I worry that people, especially politicians, confuse the frothy and sometimes silly side of cryptocurrencies – think dog-themed coins and other meme coins – with the deep and powerful blockchain technology that cryptocurrencies gave rise to. The result could be that a promising, rapidly evolving technology is quashed in its infancy. So, in short, the dangers I worry about are abuse and neglect.
Q: History and its links to the present are evident in both of your novels; What is your fascination with the ancients?
A: Overall, I find the ancient world point of view to be an extremely intuitive way to understand the modern one. When it comes to ancient Greece in particular, however, I am fascinated by a kind of miracle: this small community, in a short space of time, was responsible for the birth of theatre, philosophy, the accurate representation of the human body and democracy. – just to name a few of the outcomes of the creative explosion there. For me, this is a recurring source of wonder.
Q: How has writing fiction influenced or changed your academic writing, if at all?
A: Not so much. Academic writing is so bound by the standards and conventions of the academic community that there aren’t many opportunities for true stylistic experimentation. An example: a colleague of mine and I published an article a long time ago in which we cited the popular cookbook “The Joy of Cooking”. We were reprimanded by reviewers for what they felt was an insufficiently academic citation. This is how limited some parts of the community are.
I see fiction as a way to ask important “what-ifs” for which there is little space in academic circles. It’s also a way, I hope, to popularize tech ideas for non-technologists and, in this case, to draw attention to all the wild and visionary things happening in the blockchain world that are so rarely written about.