Sony’s problem is memes, not security

I often think of memes as an astonishingly powerful, abstract force that flows through individuals on the internet and in real life with a shocking fluency. Within a surprisingly brief period, a 4chan meme can become a joke played on the world's stage. It reminds me of the wind, a force of innumerable particles smashing into each other in a massive wavelength, which eventually results in a brief gust that trails through a field of wheat. If watched closely, it turns and spins, wanders about, and moves in a generally unpredictable manner in a confined sense. Of course, we know there is a system that causes this abstract motion, pushing the wheat down into undulated patterns, known as particle theory. Strong, weak, electromagnetic and gravitational forces cause particles to exchange gluons, bosons, photos and mysterious gravitons by the gazillions, resulting in a light puff of invisibleness. Or a strong puff of destruction.

Regardless, the wind is, like memes, functionally invisible -- observable only through its interactions with other objects.

I think memes are also influenced by observable fundamental forces: humor, sexiness, sadness, outrage, fear and cuteness. It might seem a bit absurd to compare sexiness to strong nuclear force or gravity, but those who disagree might take a moment to rethink exactly how powerful these forces are on the arrow of human history. These elementals prod humans to pass on items strongly charged, and as they pass them on, a social wavelength develops.

Social wavelengths are not new. Revolutions, movements in modern thought, love, etc. have all commoditized them to achieve physical goals. But not since the internet have they moved with such speed, and in such surprising hybrid forms. And much like scientists toiling away at Hadron colliders, marketers, artists and programmers define the elementals of social wavelengths.

Sony has no excuse

So with the resources Sony has toiling away in marketing labs, it has no excuse for being so utterly terrible at managing its memes. For years now, Sony has conjured up an image of arrogant stupidity in the world of meme-makers. First it was humor, with the ‘massive damage’ meme; then anger, when it removed features from its Playstation 3 console, and finally pursued legal prosecution of a meme folkhero, Geohot, for opening up Playstation’s closed firmware. Sony might have thought these moves didn’t do much damage to their general market, but how likely do you think it is that the hackers in this case were at least partially motivated by the irritating and inconsiderate tactics of the multinational company? In fact, the entire thing reeks of a revenge case for the lulz.

It’s not karma, it's stupidity that charges forces

This isn’t some karmic force where Sony got what it deserved. There are plenty of companies that will get away with far worse and never see this type of public retribution. It’s the fact that Sony did not recognize the rules of elemental memes and, on occasion, misused them. This is easy fodder for charging individuals with a dangerous combination of humor and outrage. Now, as Sony rolls on the floor with shut-down services, it is repeatedly kicked by noncooperative hackers who share in a memetic hatred for the company's mismanaged internet image.

As Sony falls to hack after hack, looking increasingly incompetent on the public stage, it might consider simply learning to admit when it is defeated. Fighting to keep its system closed, to keep users from doing something as innocuous as installing Linux on their hardware, is not worth the trouble at this point. Learn when the winds have changed, and go with it.