E V E R Y D AY L I F E
Lock and key Humans not only like to have all sorts of things at their disposal – they also want to control access to them. So roughly 3,500 years ago, ingenious minds invented a mechanism that helps accomplish this: locks and the corresponding keys. The first exemplars of this mechanical control device were little more than hooks that could be slipped through a small opening in a door. This kind of key was precisely constructed to enable one to reach a bolt and then push it back. Over time and through the work of many more inventors, this system became increasingly refined to keep others right where you want them: outside and locked out, or inside and locked in. In the process, human ingenuity has concentrated mainly on constructing ever more sophisticated locks, fit by keys that were ever more complex and difficult to reverse engineer. The principle that a key with its particular shape must be compatible with a very specific lock extends from mechanics into today’s digital world, where people similarly work with keys – though not to guard troves of gold and jewels, but rather to protect valuable information.
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