Homework 1

Due Date: Thursday, April 8, 2004
Points: 40

This assignment tries to put you in the right frame of mind for the course, which will require you to find out what assumptions are being made, and then question them.

Please select any work of fiction (such as a book, movie, or poem) that either explicitly states some assumption, or clearly expects or causes the reader (or viewer) to make some assumption, that is invalid by the end of the work. The work may discuss exploiting a weakness in a system, or just take an unusual view of a situation that reveals something previously unknown, or that shows the situation is not as it seems. Please write at most 1 page about the twist and how it relates to the assumptions that characters in the work (or targets of the twist) make, as well as how the twist illustrates the (mis)placement of trust in the assumptions.

Please remember to identify the work you are writing about.


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