Cellular Copy Protection

From the novel Olympos, by Dan Simmons:<blockquote>Is he dead? Irretrievably dead?



The Prime Integrator standing near the surgical table watching the procedure does not lift his head as he answers on the common band. No… normally the procedure would be to inject several million nanocytes to repair the human’s damaged aorta and heart muscle, then insert more specialized molecular machines to replenish his blood supply and strengthen his immune system. …[T]his is not possible with scholic Hockenberry.



Why not? asks the Callistan integrator, Cho Li.



Scholic Hockenberry’s cells are signed.



Signed? says Mahnmut. …



Signed - copyrighted and copy-protected, sends Asteague/Che on the common band. … The cells and subcellular machinery ignore our own nano-interrogation and destroy any alien intrusion.</blockquote>

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