Let's take the example of an automobile. A car may be described as a gasoline-powered, four-wheeled vehicle. To interact with this system, the user need be familiar with only a small set of commands: "Start engine," "shift," "turn steering wheel," "depress accelerator," and "apply brake." I suppose those are the only commands that the driver might need to operate that vehicle. This set of commands is small and the operator's guide could be printed on one sheet of paper. That small set of commands is called, in computer parlance, an "abstraction layer."
This is a depiction of various abstraction layers:
The one-sheet guide to commands to operating the car would be part of the "OS and applications" layer. That layer is the top-most layer and provides access to most of the functionality of the car.
But there are commands that are not available to the average user, commands that are not listed on that one-page user's guide.
I have a Jaguar Vanden Plas. It is a luxury sports car with all the bells and whistles. My father gave it to me a few years ago. On the console is a little switch that puts the transmission into sport mode. If you flip that switch, that car will blow the doors off anything else on the highway. It's like activating an afterburner. You will actually be pushed back into your seat.
But let's say that no mention of that switch is made in that one-page user's guide, that set of commands that comprise the top-most abstraction layer. The average user thus has no theoretical access to that command; he is limited to what is listed on that one-page user's guide. I, however, have access to a more comprehensive, but more technically confusing, set of commands, a set of commands that comprise a more fundamental abstraction layer. I am thus more "powerful" than the average user. The only drawback is that I must now familiarize myself with a trickier set of commands. That "flip sport mode switch" command might reside within the "kernal" layer.
But that's not all that car can do. The engine is computer controlled. The computer limits the engine for emissions reasons or whatever. But if you hook an EPROM programmer up to the computer and reprogram it, that car will go faster still. No mention of this function is made outside of a factory-level maintenance manual. This "MAX FUEL/O2 LIMIT, RESET" command is not available within the Applications layer or even within the Kernal layer. Let's say that it is contained within the set of commands that comprise the Firmware abstraction layer.
Remember: As you go down that stacked set of abstraction layers, you gain access to additional commands, ones that grant you more power within the system. The average person is never to be allowed access to that fuel limit reset command. That is for factory purposes only.
But let's say that you have a friend who works at the factory. He pulls you aside and says, "Listen: I happen to know precisely how that machine works. The transmission is an XJ12 unit that has a hydraulic limiter between bands. It's there to smooth out spikes in torque. [Or whatever.] In testing, we were blowing out rear ends so we had to cut the torque. Here's a secret: If you run a wire to pin 5 on Molex connector 3B on that transmission and apply twelve volts to it, you can disable that limiter and get another fifty foot-pounds out of that transmission. But don't do it for longer than sixty seconds; you'll leave the rear end on the side of the road."
If I run a wire to pin 5 on Molex connector 3B of that transmission and install a switch on the dashboard and flip that switch, I am now "programming the metal." I now have complete access to the most powerful set of "commands" that the system responds to. I am now operating at the hardware level in that diagram above. The hardware level is the most fundamental. Everything above it is an abstraction layer. The hardware level is not an abstraction layer. It is the most "real" representation of that system.
The power available to a user who is operating within a higher abstraction layer does not compare with the power available to the technician who is programming the metal.
The more astute among you already know where I'm going with this.
The American political system is described by abstraction layers. At the top is the set of commands contained in a high school civics textbook: "Men in powdered wigs debate a bill and then they vote on it. The president signs it and it becomes a law and it is enshrined for all to see as one more flame in the beacon of American Liberty and Justice."
Uh huh.
So within this top-most abstraction layer, the commands available to the typical political actor --that is, the citizen-- are fairly limited: "Watch TV and learn about issues," "Go vote," "Sit back on the couch and watch the country get looted." And that is the extent of his political power.
Within this abstraction layer, the one described in the civics 101 textbook, all things happen according to some set of rules: Bills get introduced, congress debates the bill, bill gets voted on, president signs or vetoes it. End of set of commands.
But these days, an accepted part of politics is that forces operate within a more fundamental abstraction layer, the "kernal" layer. This is the layer of the lobbyists. They have access to additional commands. They wine and dine and give away tickets to sporting events. If you operate within this layer, it matters little to you who the people voted into office, because you have access to additional commands that allow you to control those representatives. These lobbyists are more powerful than the voters.
And there are actors who operate within a more fundamental abstraction layer still. They work within the Assembler layer. They bribe and blackmail your representatives. They are more powerful than the lobbyists.
And there is a singularly disgusting breed that operates within a more fundamental abstraction layer still: the Firmware layer. They achieve their political objectives by flying planes into buildings and sending anthrax through the mail and Wellstoning their political adversaries. They are vile creatures of every stripe. No one clan possesses a monopoly on these animals, but animals they are.
No actor operating within a higher abstraction layer can out-power an actor operating within a more fundamental layer. That is a truism. Do not forget it. Those more fundamental actors win.
But I trump them all. ...because I propose to program the metal. That is why I need control of the police and fire unions in New York. I need to be able to shut off electricity. I need to be able to suspend the financial system of the United States at will.
All the bribery and the blackmail and the murder in the world do not at all compare with the power of physically walking up to a communications cable and unplugging it or with shutting off electricity to the New York Stock Exchange.
Give me access to those permissions. Give me access to the hardware level. Give me New York.
