...it's like TV Tropes, but LINKED DATA!

Daemon

500 statements
98 feature instances
53 referencing feature instances

Daemon	type	TVTItem
Daemon	label	Daemon
Daemon	page	Daemon
Daemon	comment	NAME DaemonSYNOPSIS A computer program that runs continuously in the background and performs specified operations at predefined times or in response to certain events.Matthew Sobol is the young, genius programmer head of CyberStorm, one of the world's most successful computer gaming companies. At least until he dies from cancer. However, before dying, he spent a good portion of his prodigious talent and vast fortune designing and building custom hardware and writing a collection of sophisticated computer programs that have been left sitting passive on machines scatted around the Internet. Passive, that is, until one of them reads Sobol's obituary. This program sends triggers to other systems which activate a number of other distributed processes; the Daemon awakes.Among its first actions are to kill two of Sobol's coworkers. When they try to forcibly enter his mansion after connecting Sobol with the aforementioned murders, a number of police and FBI agents are maimed or killed by an impressive set of boobytraps, including an autonomous, murderous Humvee that is Nigh-Invulnerable to everything they can throw at it. The Daemon then frames its actions on a handful of people to cast doubt on its very existence and withdraws from the public eye. It quietly offers certain people in key positions fame and success if they make a Deal with the Devil, or more accurately, the Daemon. Then, ominously, it goes silent. When it resurfaces, things go downhill. Fast.This 2009 book is unusual for the standard technothriller in that Daniel Suareznote no relation to the NASCAR driver is One of Us. It becomes clear from the very beginning of the book that he is very familiar with computer systems, networking and security. (He is, in fact, a successful systems & networking security consultant.) It starts off a little jargon-heavy — clearly to set up the book as tech-heavy for the uninitiated, and to indicate to those of us on the inside that he actually knows this stuff. He never skimps on the explanations for those who don't already know these things, while not going overboard for those of us who do.The 2010 sequel, Freedomâ„¢ (yes, the trademark symbol is part of the title), picks up shortly after where Daemon leaves off and focuses further on the motives and goals of the Daemon's actions. Through the main viewpoint character, whose identity is a spoiler for the previous book, we learn that the Daemon has moved beyond merely attacking the old system to building a new one and making itself more appealing to the masses, who it needs in order to truly upset the status quo. We also get multiple looks through the viewpoints of the powerful parties both corporate and governmental who oppose it for their own reasons and are slowly but surely putting together plans to get rid of it for good. A storm is coming, and only one of the sides will be walking away after it erupts.You thought spammers were bad? Pray you never face the Daemon.Because of the number of plot twists and the way many tropes are stretched in various directions throughout the story, while many things are hidden below, you might still encounter spoilers. You have been warned.There is a character sheet that needs a lot more love. See also Kill Decision, his next book.
Daemon	fetched	2024-03-01T19:29:51Z
Daemon	parsed	2024-03-01T19:29:51Z
Daemon	processingComment	Dropped link to GhostInTheShell: Not a Feature - ITEM
Daemon	processingComment	Dropped link to TheElricSaga: Not a Feature - ITEM
Daemon	isPartOf	DBTropes
Daemon / int_14d633ed	type	If I Wanted You Dead...
Daemon / int_14d633ed	comment	If I Wanted You Dead...: Loki/Gragg tells Dr. Philips this when they first meet in Freedomâ„¢. Loki/Gragg was also on the receiving end from Boerner in Daemon.
Daemon / int_14d633ed	featureApplicability	1.0
Daemon / int_14d633ed	featureConfidence	1.0
Daemon	hasFeature	Daemon / int_14d633ed
Daemon / int_1aa76d29	type	Death by Origin Story
Daemon / int_1aa76d29	comment	Death by Origin Story: The second type applies to both Matthew Sobol and, later, Pete Sebeck. Except that the latter gets better.
Daemon / int_1aa76d29	featureApplicability	1.0
Daemon / int_1aa76d29	featureConfidence	1.0
Daemon	hasFeature	Daemon / int_1aa76d29
Daemon / int_1c4adce1	type	The Siege
Daemon / int_1c4adce1	comment	The Siege: Late in Freedomâ„¢ anti-Daemon mercenaries carry out one against a Daemon community.
Daemon / int_1c4adce1	featureApplicability	1.0
Daemon / int_1c4adce1	featureConfidence	1.0
Daemon	hasFeature	Daemon / int_1c4adce1
Daemon / int_1e75509c	type	Adventure-Friendly World
Daemon / int_1e75509c	comment	Adventure-Friendly World: Daemon's darknet starts out as one, with "Logistics Defense sorcerers" like Loki having the time of their lives infiltrating Predatory Businesses, clashing with Private Military Contractors, and killing spammers. However, as the story moves into Freedomâ„¢, over time those threats are all but eliminated, shifting the darknet's focus from eliminating threats to streamlining the Player-Generated Economy, leaving them with little to do and way too much power to do it with. Luckily, Sobol anticipated this, and designed the darknet to adapt to its citizens' wishes. In this case, a player-generated avatar of Roy "Tripwire" Merrit which depowers Loki when he goes too far.
Daemon / int_1e75509c	featureApplicability	1.0
Daemon / int_1e75509c	featureConfidence	1.0
Daemon	hasFeature	Daemon / int_1e75509c
Daemon / int_1fc8335e	type	Deal with the Devil
Daemon / int_1fc8335e	comment	Deal With The Daemon: Fame and fortune, or quick death. Your choice. The Daemon may also choose you — with the same rules.
Daemon / int_1fc8335e	featureApplicability	1.0
Daemon / int_1fc8335e	featureConfidence	1.0
Daemon	hasFeature	Daemon / int_1fc8335e
Daemon / int_209d0b5f	type	Wainscot Society
Daemon / int_209d0b5f	comment	Wainscot Society: The Daemon's darknet. It can only be perceived via Augmented Reality, and in an interesting twist, they point out how normal society isn't just ignoring theirs, but all kinds of equally important information immediately relevant to their lives; clerks don't really look at the prices on registers, just the final total. Most people aren't aware of their real credit ratings — or that they could be kicked out of most of the places they wander at any time.
Daemon / int_209d0b5f	featureApplicability	1.0
Daemon / int_209d0b5f	featureConfidence	1.0
Daemon	hasFeature	Daemon / int_209d0b5f
Daemon / int_21f3e32e	type	Chekhov's Boomerang
Daemon / int_21f3e32e	comment	Chekhov's Boomerang: The Oberstleutnant Boerner bot, purpose seemingly accomplished in Daemon, returns in Freedomâ„¢.
Daemon / int_21f3e32e	featureApplicability	1.0
Daemon / int_21f3e32e	featureConfidence	1.0
Daemon	hasFeature	Daemon / int_21f3e32e
Daemon / int_230d64	type	Screw the Rules, I Have Money!
Daemon / int_230d64	comment	Screw the Rules, I Have Money!: Theorized to be as old as civilization, and the real basis of it;
Daemon / int_230d64	featureApplicability	1.0
Daemon / int_230d64	featureConfidence	1.0
Daemon	hasFeature	Daemon / int_230d64
Daemon / int_233647f6	type	Post-Cyberpunk
Daemon / int_233647f6	comment	Post Cyber Punk: Especially in Freedomâ„¢, where the Daemon has progressed beyond destructive class warfare and subversion of the old system to guiding the formation of a new society.
Daemon / int_233647f6	featureApplicability	1.0
Daemon / int_233647f6	featureConfidence	1.0
Daemon	hasFeature	Daemon / int_233647f6
Daemon / int_2efd276d	type	We Are Everywhere
Daemon / int_2efd276d	comment	We Are Everywhere: The Daemon has recruits everywhere. If you are not part of the Daemon's plans it's because it either hasn't picked you yet, or you are dead.
Daemon / int_2efd276d	featureApplicability	1.0
Daemon / int_2efd276d	featureConfidence	1.0
Daemon	hasFeature	Daemon / int_2efd276d
Daemon / int_30adeff3	type	Defective Detective
Daemon / int_30adeff3	comment	Defective Detective: Sebeck is cheating on his wife, whom he felt obligated to marry because he got her pregnant. His son is none too happy with him. And he's got an appetite for danger that borders on self-destructive. Then his mistress turns out not to be what she seems...
Daemon / int_30adeff3	featureApplicability	1.0
Daemon / int_30adeff3	featureConfidence	1.0
Daemon	hasFeature	Daemon / int_30adeff3
Daemon / int_319e4a2f	type	Even Evil Has Standards
Daemon / int_319e4a2f	comment	Even Evil Has Standards: Halperin Organix may be a biotech firm creating strains of corn that can only feed someone if put through a special industrial processor, and suing anyone they suspect has their patented genetic material in their fields for copyright infringement, but they don't appreciate having the Major's private military contractors utilize their troubles with the Daemon to justify a terror campaign across the Midwest.
Daemon / int_319e4a2f	featureApplicability	1.0
Daemon / int_319e4a2f	featureConfidence	1.0
Daemon	hasFeature	Daemon / int_319e4a2f
Daemon / int_362bdb30	type	Out-Gambitted
Daemon / int_362bdb30	comment	Out-Gambitted: The villains thought they had Sobol and the Daemon beat. They thought wrong.
Daemon / int_362bdb30	featureApplicability	1.0
Daemon / int_362bdb30	featureConfidence	1.0
Daemon	hasFeature	Daemon / int_362bdb30
Daemon / int_38ac6c7d	type	Former Regime Personnel
Daemon / int_38ac6c7d	comment	Former Regime Personnel: One small part of Freedomâ„¢ gives us the viewpoint of a mercenary who used to serve in the regime of Romanian Communist leader Nicolae CeauÈ™escu.
Daemon / int_38ac6c7d	featureApplicability	1.0
Daemon / int_38ac6c7d	featureConfidence	1.0
Daemon	hasFeature	Daemon / int_38ac6c7d
Daemon / int_38d02d44	type	Batman Gambit
Daemon / int_38d02d44	comment	Batman Gambit Roulette: Matthew Sobol programmed the Daemon to anticipate every circumstance he could think of and take advantage of it. However you can only anticipate so much before you have to guess. Of course, the essential component of a Batman Gambit is Bastard Humans acting like Bastards = people who don't act like Bastards trigger positive Daemon events instead of negative ones. And Sobol, as a game developer, had been technically running Gambit Roulettes for a living for his entire adult life. Rule #1: Matthew Sobol is SMARTER THAN YOU. Rule #2: No plan, no matter how well thought out, no matter how well made, no matter how many variables have been taken into account, survives first contact with the enemy. Rule #3: Murphy's/Finagle's Law — Anything that can go wrong will. Rule #4: Computers are unreliable, but humans are even more unreliable. Any system which depends on human reliability is unreliable. Rule #5: Debugging is at least twice as hard as writing the program in the first place. If your code is as clever as you can possibly make it, then by definition you're not smart enough to debug it. Rule #6: Sometimes a Gambit Roulette works. As pointed out in Daemon, Sobol's game AI's true strength isn't anticipation, it's manipulation — and this is reflected in both Sobol's plans and the Daemon's tasks. This is first daemonstrated in the FBI's early siege of Sobol's mansion: while the preparations for an assault are rather crude, the actual goal is manipulation of attention. Sobol is very aware of his limitations and as such, an integral part of the Daemon's lifetime cycle is the recruitment of human agents which can adapt to the details of a situation while the Daemon sets broader goals and handles automated tasks. In Freedomâ„¢, the active part of Sobol's masterplan is luring his enemies into revealing themselves through a faked backdoor into his Daemon.
Daemon / int_38d02d44	featureApplicability	1.0
Daemon / int_38d02d44	featureConfidence	1.0
Daemon	hasFeature	Daemon / int_38d02d44
Daemon / int_3bce9346	type	RagnarÃ¶k Proofing
Daemon / int_3bce9346	comment	RagnarÃ¶k Proofing: Ultimately what Sobol and his Daemon are trying to do for the entire PLANET. By distributing civilization into darknet nodes that are self-sustaining and self-sufficient, instead of having a global civilization completely dependent on imports and exports with very little wiggle room, the potential for human civilization to completely collapse decreases significantly. These communities are even establishing archives across the globe to help get humanity back on its feet within a couple generations after a collapse.
Daemon / int_3bce9346	featureApplicability	1.0
Daemon / int_3bce9346	featureConfidence	1.0
Daemon	hasFeature	Daemon / int_3bce9346
Daemon / int_3cf44d4b	type	High-Class Glass
Daemon / int_3cf44d4b	comment	High-Class Glass: The Oberstleutnant Boerner bot wears one.
Daemon / int_3cf44d4b	featureApplicability	1.0
Daemon / int_3cf44d4b	featureConfidence	1.0
Daemon	hasFeature	Daemon / int_3cf44d4b
Daemon / int_3d59c9a0	type	Powered Armor
Daemon / int_3d59c9a0	comment	Powered Armor: Some darknet operatives show up in Freedomâ„¢ wearing the primitive five-seconds-into-the-future "artificial musculature" suits.
Daemon / int_3d59c9a0	featureApplicability	1.0
Daemon / int_3d59c9a0	featureConfidence	1.0
Daemon	hasFeature	Daemon / int_3d59c9a0
Daemon / int_416a2a0d	type	Torture Always Works
Daemon / int_416a2a0d	comment	Torture Always Works: The Major certainly thinks so...
Daemon / int_416a2a0d	featureApplicability	1.0
Daemon / int_416a2a0d	featureConfidence	1.0
Daemon	hasFeature	Daemon / int_416a2a0d
Daemon / int_41a3e267	type	Hidden in Plain Sight
Daemon / int_41a3e267	comment	Hidden in Plain Sight: One of Sobol's (and thus, the Daemon's) favorite tricks is encoding messages into video game scenes. Individually, the assets in a scene could be loaded thousands of times in numerous different contexts, making them nearly impossible to trace and meaningless if you only look at them one at a time. Only by being in the right place and seeing the whole scene in context, as a player, does the information reveal itself.
Daemon / int_41a3e267	featureApplicability	1.0
Daemon / int_41a3e267	featureConfidence	1.0
Daemon	hasFeature	Daemon / int_41a3e267
Daemon / int_420c50b7	type	A.I. Is a Crapshoot
Daemon / int_420c50b7	comment	A.I. Is a Crapshoot: Explicitly subverted. The Daemon is in no way an AI, nor is it ever claimed to be one. Experts repeatedly have to correct people who do refer to it as an "AI" by explaining that at best it is a distributed network of expert systems with a predefined set of actions, and in no way intelligent. Although its actions can be construed as evil, the Daemon itself is just a program and no more evil than a spreadsheet or word processor. However, it is very, very sophisticated and comprehensive.
Daemon / int_420c50b7	featureApplicability	-0.3
Daemon / int_420c50b7	featureConfidence	1.0
Daemon	hasFeature	Daemon / int_420c50b7
Daemon / int_45da2076	type	Improbably High I.Q.
Daemon / int_45da2076	comment	Improbably High I.Q.: Sobol's IQ is 220. Based on statistics, there is a chance of less than one person in 6 billion having this result.
Daemon / int_45da2076	featureApplicability	1.0
Daemon / int_45da2076	featureConfidence	1.0
Daemon	hasFeature	Daemon / int_45da2076
Daemon / int_45fe3a2e	type	Utopia Justifies the Means
Daemon / int_45fe3a2e	comment	Utopia Justifies the Means: As the story develops, you discover this is Sobol's plan.
Daemon / int_45fe3a2e	featureApplicability	1.0
Daemon / int_45fe3a2e	featureConfidence	1.0
Daemon	hasFeature	Daemon / int_45fe3a2e
Daemon / int_4604fd4d	type	Worthy Opponent
Daemon / int_4604fd4d	comment	Worthy Opponent: Gragg and the rest of the darknet see Merritt this way. (The feelings are not reciprocated.)
Daemon / int_4604fd4d	featureApplicability	1.0
Daemon / int_4604fd4d	featureConfidence	1.0
Daemon	hasFeature	Daemon / int_4604fd4d
Daemon / int_4abc2ca9	type	Virtual Ghost
Daemon / int_4abc2ca9	comment	Virtual Ghost: The Burning Man is a simulation of Merritt, visible only in the augmented reality of the darknet, and as accurate a recreation of the actual Merritt as the darknet was able to create. His vast power is only possible from "donations" from individuals in the darknet as a means of preventing any single person from becoming too powerful. i.e. he is the embodiment of justice, as the darknet saw Merritt to be in real life. The Burning Man censures Loki by pulling him from level 60 down to level 10, which requires it to give up the number of levels he removes from Loki. He is almost instantly recouped up to level Overly High by donations from the audience. Loki uses his power to release pseudo-AI Oberstleutnant Heinrich Boerner from the game "Over the Rhine" and give him full access to the darknet.
Daemon / int_4abc2ca9	featureApplicability	1.0
Daemon / int_4abc2ca9	featureConfidence	1.0
Daemon	hasFeature	Daemon / int_4abc2ca9
Daemon / int_50b05d30	type	Disproportionate Retribution
Daemon / int_50b05d30	comment	Disproportionate Retribution: In Freedomâ„¢, Loki ruins a queue-cutter's credit rating. The Daemon arranges for darknet operatives to carry out vigilante executions on the people responsible for email spam.
Daemon / int_50b05d30	featureApplicability	1.0
Daemon / int_50b05d30	featureConfidence	1.0
Daemon	hasFeature	Daemon / int_50b05d30
Daemon / int_51d8f2e3	type	Not-So-Omniscient Council of Bickering
Daemon / int_51d8f2e3	comment	Not-So-Omniscient Council of Bickering: Played with. Both books regularly cut back to secret meetings of the directors of the major intelligence agencies as they discuss reports of what is going on with the Daemon and how to effectively combat it, with each branch having very different opinions on what to do. Near the end of the first book, corporate interests are included on the talks at which point things take a turn for the worse over the course of the second book as the corporations begin to exert more and more control over the meetings, resulting in the imprisonment of the head of the NSA.
Daemon / int_51d8f2e3	featureApplicability	1.0
Daemon / int_51d8f2e3	featureConfidence	1.0
Daemon	hasFeature	Daemon / int_51d8f2e3
Daemon / int_5300b1de	type	Invincible Hero
Daemon / int_5300b1de	comment	Invincible Hero: Total surveillance capabilities. Penetration of all corporate, government and personal databases. Ultra-tech autonomous vehicles and an army of networked minions with superhuman abilities. After a while you have to admit that it is somewhat ridiculous. Let the Daemon itself explain this, it will certainly be unbiased sarcasm.
Daemon / int_5300b1de	featureApplicability	1.0
Daemon / int_5300b1de	featureConfidence	1.0
Daemon	hasFeature	Daemon / int_5300b1de
Daemon / int_56b53152	type	Green Aesop
Daemon / int_56b53152	comment	Green Aesop: The Daemon guides its operatives into building sustainable communities based on local manufacture and renewable energy, while striking at Big Business and its long supply chains.
Daemon / int_56b53152	featureApplicability	1.0
Daemon / int_56b53152	featureConfidence	1.0
Daemon	hasFeature	Daemon / int_56b53152
Daemon / int_578712fd	type	Predatory Business
Daemon / int_578712fd	comment	Predatory Business: The Daemon's primary blackmail target. A major setting in Freedomâ„¢ is an agricultural darknet community battling "Halperin Organix", a Fictional Counterpart of Monsanto.
Daemon / int_578712fd	featureApplicability	1.0
Daemon / int_578712fd	featureConfidence	1.0
Daemon	hasFeature	Daemon / int_578712fd
Daemon / int_5e782d0c	type	Super Prototype
Daemon / int_5e782d0c	comment	Super Prototype: The first AutoM8 is an Immune to Bullets solid-tired Hummer. Later ones use normal cars as a base and aren't so survivable.
Daemon / int_5e782d0c	featureApplicability	1.0
Daemon / int_5e782d0c	featureConfidence	1.0
Daemon	hasFeature	Daemon / int_5e782d0c
Daemon / int_610afe0a	type	Flechette Storm
Daemon / int_610afe0a	comment	Flechette Storm: One of the most potent weapons in the Daemon's arsenal are "Angel Teeth"; balloon-dropped smart flechettes precise enough to hit previously launched ones. And are usually dropped in packs of a hundred; dozens of Daemon operatives show up at Merrit's funeral, only for Private Military Contractors to fire into the crowds to kill them — and for every PMC present to die from a single drop.
Daemon / int_610afe0a	featureApplicability	1.0
Daemon / int_610afe0a	featureConfidence	1.0
Daemon	hasFeature	Daemon / int_610afe0a
Daemon / int_61459062	type	Perception Filter
Daemon / int_61459062	comment	Perception Filter: the "Ring of Aggys" that rendered Ross invisible to digital cameras.
Daemon / int_61459062	featureApplicability	1.0
Daemon / int_61459062	featureConfidence	1.0
Daemon	hasFeature	Daemon / int_61459062
Daemon / int_6293c185	type	Sequel Hook
Daemon / int_6293c185	comment	Sequel Hook: Daemon ends with Sebeck and companion setting off on a road trip across America, leading into their part of Freedomâ„¢.
Daemon / int_6293c185	featureApplicability	1.0
Daemon / int_6293c185	featureConfidence	1.0
Daemon	hasFeature	Daemon / int_6293c185
Daemon / int_64d3ffd8	type	The Extremist Was Right
Daemon / int_64d3ffd8	comment	The Extremist Was Right: In the end it appears that Sobol's new society not only reaches the point of self-sustaining growth, but proves itself superior to what preceded it by censuring Loki where the old world continued to empower the Major.
Daemon / int_64d3ffd8	featureApplicability	1.0
Daemon / int_64d3ffd8	featureConfidence	1.0
Daemon	hasFeature	Daemon / int_64d3ffd8
Daemon / int_66f69cd4	type	Invisibility Cloak
Daemon / int_66f69cd4	comment	Invisibility Cloak: a primitive version shows up in Freedomâ„¢ worn by darknet operatives.
Daemon / int_66f69cd4	featureApplicability	1.0
Daemon / int_66f69cd4	featureConfidence	1.0
Daemon	hasFeature	Daemon / int_66f69cd4
Daemon / int_6c553873	type	Private Military Contractors
Daemon / int_6c553873	comment	Private Military Contractors: Korr Military Solutions, Inc. is just one of many used to fight the Daemon.
Daemon / int_6c553873	featureApplicability	1.0
Daemon / int_6c553873	featureConfidence	1.0
Daemon	hasFeature	Daemon / int_6c553873
Daemon / int_7286e96d	type	Idiot Ball
Daemon / int_7286e96d	comment	Idiot Ball: Despite having the resources of an entire planet to work with, the governments and corporations constantly drag their heels and use narrowminded, outdated thinking to try and tackle the Daemon, which culminates in the climax of the first book, where the headquarters of a top-secret joint task force is infiltrated by a high-ranking Daemon operative, because the people running it OUTSOURCED THE SECURITY BACKGROUND CHECKS TO A DIFFERENT COMPANY. The second book reveals that The Major screwed up the anti-Daemon task force even more by secretly planting bugs all over the base to spy on his own colleagues, bugs that Loki subsequently hacked to gain access.
Daemon / int_7286e96d	featureApplicability	1.0
Daemon / int_7286e96d	featureConfidence	1.0
Daemon	hasFeature	Daemon / int_7286e96d
Daemon / int_733e007a	type	Unwitting Pawn
Daemon / int_733e007a	comment	Unwitting Pawn: Pete Sebeck.
Daemon / int_733e007a	featureApplicability	1.0
Daemon / int_733e007a	featureConfidence	1.0
Daemon	hasFeature	Daemon / int_733e007a
Daemon / int_7583ecbf	type	Morality Kitchen Sink
Daemon / int_7583ecbf	comment	Morality Kitchen Sink: Apart from Merritt, the reader will find his conceptions of who's "good" and who's "evil" near-constantly questioned.
Daemon / int_7583ecbf	featureApplicability	1.0
Daemon / int_7583ecbf	featureConfidence	1.0
Daemon	hasFeature	Daemon / int_7583ecbf
Daemon / int_79372d59	type	The Game Come to Life
Daemon / int_79372d59	comment	The Game Come to Life: The entire plot. Early on, the autonomous Hummer is believed to have been programed with videogame-style logic and CyberStorm's games are used to recruit talent for Sobol's cause. Once recruited, operatives use Augmented Reality glasses to carry out "quests" in the style of a MMORPG; agents gain levels and earn "network credits" for completing tasks such as building tools and weapons, infiltrating and suborning governments and corporations, recruiting and training new operatives. As the Daemon network becomes more sophisticated and populated by warm bodies, the combat and infiltration operations become less important(which annoys Loki to no end) and focus shifts to building a new civilization based on sustainable communities and acceptance of technological and social change. This was Sobol's plan all along; comparing the shortcomings of modern society to the strong, stable Player Generated Economies of CyberStorm's virtual worlds inspired him to use his decades of development experience to create a Player Generated Civilization.
Daemon / int_79372d59	featureApplicability	1.0
Daemon / int_79372d59	featureConfidence	1.0
Daemon	hasFeature	Daemon / int_79372d59
Daemon / int_7a53b67d	type	Sinister Surveillance
Daemon / int_7a53b67d	comment	Sinister Surveillance: During a meeting of top government TLAs, one of them orders the NSA to track down the Daemon and everyone associated using Echelon. In a realistic subversion of this trope, the NSA explains that the Daemon is using a sophisticated darknet for all its communications, and anyway, Echelon doesn't really work like that. Played straight when it's discovered that the Daemon itself has infiltrated most of the accessible surveillance systems worldwide, either directly or through Social Engineering. However it's again played in a reasonably realistic fashion.
Daemon / int_7a53b67d	featureApplicability	1.0
Daemon / int_7a53b67d	featureConfidence	1.0
Daemon	hasFeature	Daemon / int_7a53b67d
Daemon / int_7eaf99d	type	Malevolent Architecture
Daemon / int_7eaf99d	comment	Malevolent Architecture: Take the dangerous features of your average MMORPG or First Person Shooter and put them in the hands of a crazy-smart game designer. Apply the result to a real building. You have Sobol's death trap Mansion, where Everything Trying to Kill You gets serious.
Daemon / int_7eaf99d	featureApplicability	1.0
Daemon / int_7eaf99d	featureConfidence	1.0
Daemon	hasFeature	Daemon / int_7eaf99d
Daemon / int_7f38c0cd	type	An Offer You Can't Refuse
Daemon / int_7f38c0cd	comment	An Offer You Can't Refuse: A favored tactic of the Daemon in recruiting its agents. As an example, when it springs Charles Mozely from prison by cleaning his record, it warns him when he starts getting cold feet that it could easily put him back. Say, as a child molester.
Daemon / int_7f38c0cd	featureApplicability	1.0
Daemon / int_7f38c0cd	featureConfidence	1.0
Daemon	hasFeature	Daemon / int_7f38c0cd
Daemon / int_7f3e75b6	type	Look on My Works, Ye Mighty, and Despair
Daemon / int_7f3e75b6	comment	Look on My Works, Ye Mighty, and Despair: How Sobol sees the modern world;
Daemon / int_7f3e75b6	featureApplicability	1.0
Daemon / int_7f3e75b6	featureConfidence	1.0
Daemon	hasFeature	Daemon / int_7f3e75b6
Daemon / int_8344209e	type	BFG
Daemon / int_8344209e	comment	BFG: Nothing less than 50-cal will damage a Razorback or the first AutoM8.
Daemon / int_8344209e	featureApplicability	1.0
Daemon / int_8344209e	featureConfidence	1.0
Daemon	hasFeature	Daemon / int_8344209e
Daemon / int_83f3983b	type	Necessarily Evil
Daemon / int_83f3983b	comment	Necessarily Evil: Sobol. He firmly believes that Utopia Justifies the Means and was willing to pay the price for it. In the end, it appears his actions are vindicated by the new society he helped create, although being dead, he'll never know it. The Major insists that he is the same, but given how he causes exponentially more terror, pain and death than Sobol(deception, torture, murder, ethnic cleansing) with no positive results whatsoever, he comes off as a self-justifying sadist.
Daemon / int_83f3983b	featureApplicability	1.0
Daemon / int_83f3983b	featureConfidence	1.0
Daemon	hasFeature	Daemon / int_83f3983b
Daemon / int_8767b1f3	type	Black-and-Gray Morality
Daemon / int_8767b1f3	comment	Black-and-Gray Morality: As the story progresses, you learn that the Daemon is by far the least evil faction at work. Especially in the sequel. After all, the Daemon only murdered less than a dozen people at its inception and went on to improve the lives of billions, while by the climax of Freedomâ„¢ the anti-Daemon forces have re-created Nazi Germany in all but name.
Daemon / int_8767b1f3	featureApplicability	1.0
Daemon / int_8767b1f3	featureConfidence	1.0
Daemon	hasFeature	Daemon / int_8767b1f3
Daemon / int_90769dd0	type	Evil Genius
Daemon / int_90769dd0	comment	Evil Genius: Matthew Sobol.
Daemon / int_90769dd0	featureApplicability	1.0
Daemon / int_90769dd0	featureConfidence	1.0
Daemon	hasFeature	Daemon / int_90769dd0
Daemon / int_9350a0b9	type	The Tape Knew You Would Say That
Daemon / int_9350a0b9	comment	The Tape Knew You Would Say That: Played with. At several points, people have complete, flowing conversations with tapes Sobol made of himself before he died, but just as often they say something that he couldn't have anticipated and the tape defaults to a message reminding them that he's not really talking with them.
Daemon / int_9350a0b9	featureApplicability	1.0
Daemon / int_9350a0b9	featureConfidence	1.0
Daemon	hasFeature	Daemon / int_9350a0b9
Daemon / int_987be393	type	Gambit Roulette
Daemon / int_987be393	comment	Rule #6: Sometimes a Gambit Roulette works.
Daemon / int_987be393	featureApplicability	1.0
Daemon / int_987be393	featureConfidence	1.0
Daemon	hasFeature	Daemon / int_987be393
Daemon / int_99db72ee	type	Immune to Bullets
Daemon / int_99db72ee	comment	Immune to Bullets: Razorbacks and the first AutoM8. So you need a BFG.
Daemon / int_99db72ee	featureApplicability	1.0
Daemon / int_99db72ee	featureConfidence	1.0
Daemon	hasFeature	Daemon / int_99db72ee
Daemon / int_9f9540ae	type	We Can Rebuild Him
Daemon / int_9f9540ae	comment	We Can Rebuild Him: In Freedomâ„¢, the Daemon gives cybernetics to Loki after the Major performs a Borrowed Biometric Bypass on him — AKA cuts out his fingertips, eyes and tongue.
Daemon / int_9f9540ae	featureApplicability	1.0
Daemon / int_9f9540ae	featureConfidence	1.0
Daemon	hasFeature	Daemon / int_9f9540ae
Daemon / int_a2b38d3b	type	Eye Scream
Daemon / int_a2b38d3b	comment	Eye Scream: The Major has Loki's eyes torn out — along with having his fingertips and tongue chopped off as part of an attempt to steal his biometrics and assume his high-profile darknet identity.
Daemon / int_a2b38d3b	featureApplicability	1.0
Daemon / int_a2b38d3b	featureConfidence	1.0
Daemon	hasFeature	Daemon / int_a2b38d3b
Daemon / int_a2dd3c5	type	My Death Is Just the Beginning
Daemon / int_a2dd3c5	comment	My Death Is Just the Beginning: Matthew Sobol's obituary is the trigger to start the Daemon. In the sequel, Freedomâ„¢, Merritt's death at the end of Daemon has turned him into a martyr and folk hero to the people of the darknet. The situation avoids any irony by the fact that based on everything the darknet learns about his life, he truly was a man of honor and integrity. Ultimately, "The Burning Man" project is the key to maintaining equality in the new darknet society.
Daemon / int_a2dd3c5	featureApplicability	1.0
Daemon / int_a2dd3c5	featureConfidence	1.0
Daemon	hasFeature	Daemon / int_a2dd3c5
Daemon / int_a4f2570d	type	Muggles
Daemon / int_a4f2570d	comment	Muggles: Everyone who doesn't — or perhaps refuses to — admit that the Daemon exists.
Daemon / int_a4f2570d	featureApplicability	1.0
Daemon / int_a4f2570d	featureConfidence	1.0
Daemon	hasFeature	Daemon / int_a4f2570d
Daemon / int_a814671b	type	N.G.O. Superpower
Daemon / int_a814671b	comment	N.G.O. Superpower: Implicit. The corporations leading the charge against the Daemon have such power that at one point they have the NSA director put away on trumped-up charges.
Daemon / int_a814671b	featureApplicability	1.0
Daemon / int_a814671b	featureConfidence	1.0
Daemon	hasFeature	Daemon / int_a814671b
Daemon / int_a971e83c	type	Hidden Elf Village
Daemon / int_a971e83c	comment	Hidden Elf Village: Sebeck visits a modern version as a part of his quest. This one is located in the desert of New Mexico on tribal lands, where they are building a massive complex out of an impact crater to generate energy and water perpetually. The project is so efficient, it is actually carbon-negative!
Daemon / int_a971e83c	featureApplicability	1.0
Daemon / int_a971e83c	featureConfidence	1.0
Daemon	hasFeature	Daemon / int_a971e83c
Daemon / int_ac4ac8e5	type	Idiosyncratic Episode Naming
Daemon / int_ac4ac8e5	comment	Idiosyncratic Episode Naming: One-Word Title, with Daemon, and Freedomâ„¢, if the latter still counts as one word.
Daemon / int_ac4ac8e5	featureApplicability	1.0
Daemon / int_ac4ac8e5	featureConfidence	1.0
Daemon	hasFeature	Daemon / int_ac4ac8e5
Daemon / int_b10d7e8e	type	Head-in-the-Sand Management
Daemon / int_b10d7e8e	comment	Head-in-the-Sand Management: What Sobol believes led to the demise of every civilization in recorded history, and will do the same to modern civilization unless drastic steps are taken. He points out that the Anasazi and the Mayans actually had similar capabilities to Rome and Constantinople — writing, architecture, agriculture — and fell in the end for the exact same reason; their ruling class grew complacent, used up all the resources available, then fiddled while their empires burned.
Daemon / int_b10d7e8e	featureApplicability	1.0
Daemon / int_b10d7e8e	featureConfidence	1.0
Daemon	hasFeature	Daemon / int_b10d7e8e
Daemon / int_b17f6a27	type	I Did What I Had to Do
Daemon / int_b17f6a27	comment	I Did What I Had to Do: Sobol consciously chose to become the villain to achieve his goals.
Daemon / int_b17f6a27	featureApplicability	1.0
Daemon / int_b17f6a27	featureConfidence	1.0
Daemon	hasFeature	Daemon / int_b17f6a27
Daemon / int_b5171e10	type	Tragic Villain
Daemon / int_b5171e10	comment	Tragic Villain: Sobol. Though, as the duology eventually makes plain, he's an Anti-Villain at worst, and more probably a fairly dark class of Anti-Hero, such as an Unscrupulous Hero or a darker Pragmatic Antihero.
Daemon / int_b5171e10	featureApplicability	1.0
Daemon / int_b5171e10	featureConfidence	1.0
Daemon	hasFeature	Daemon / int_b5171e10
Daemon / int_b9f472b	type	Storming the Castle
Daemon / int_b9f472b	comment	Storming the Castle: Book Ends. The FBI "attempts" one against Sobol's mansion early in Daemon, which doesn't go well. Near the end of Daemon, Loki returns the favor against the headquarters of an anti-Daemon task force singlehandedly. Near the end of Freedomâ„¢, he annihilates the anti-Daemon forces.
Daemon / int_b9f472b	featureApplicability	1.0
Daemon / int_b9f472b	featureConfidence	1.0
Daemon	hasFeature	Daemon / int_b9f472b
Daemon / int_ba4cfe21	type	Social Engineering
Daemon / int_ba4cfe21	comment	Played straight when it's discovered that the Daemon itself has infiltrated most of the accessible surveillance systems worldwide, either directly or through Social Engineering. However it's again played in a reasonably realistic fashion.
Daemon / int_ba4cfe21	featureApplicability	1.0
Daemon / int_ba4cfe21	featureConfidence	1.0
Daemon	hasFeature	Daemon / int_ba4cfe21
Daemon / int_ba652cb	type	Video Wills
Daemon / int_ba652cb	comment	Video Wills: Sobol apparently recorded a lot of tapes before he died. So many, in fact, that it begins to make you wonder if he really died because he was too busy preparing his master plan to participate in proper medical treatment.
Daemon / int_ba652cb	featureApplicability	1.0
Daemon / int_ba652cb	featureConfidence	1.0
Daemon	hasFeature	Daemon / int_ba652cb
Daemon / int_c2288824	type	A Nazi by Any Other Name
Daemon / int_c2288824	comment	A Nazi by Any Other Name: During the final stages of Daemon's takeover, the "Operation Exorcist" anti-Daemon taskforce makes an Alpha Strike on a major North American darknet community. Their objectives(stated in order of rising importance); destroy all vehicles, destroy all computer equipment, and execute every man, woman and child. Pre-Daemon, that last one would be called an ethnic cleansing.
Daemon / int_c2288824	featureApplicability	1.0
Daemon / int_c2288824	featureConfidence	1.0
Daemon	hasFeature	Daemon / int_c2288824
Daemon / int_c26ebed4	type	Finagle's Law
Daemon / int_c26ebed4	comment	Rule #3: Murphy's/Finagle's Law — Anything that can go wrong will.
Daemon / int_c26ebed4	featureApplicability	1.0
Daemon / int_c26ebed4	featureConfidence	1.0
Daemon	hasFeature	Daemon / int_c26ebed4
Daemon / int_c3963bc4	type	No Place for Me There
Daemon / int_c3963bc4	comment	No Place for Me There: Deconstructed somewhat. Sobol knows he is dying from cancer and will never survive to see whether his goals succeed or whether it will have been worth the price. In the end we see a recording he made near his death where he agonizes over his decisions and nearly begs Sebeck to tell him whether it was worth it. Made even more tragic since it's only a recording and the real Sobol would never get his answer.
Daemon / int_c3963bc4	featureApplicability	1.0
Daemon / int_c3963bc4	featureConfidence	1.0
Daemon	hasFeature	Daemon / int_c3963bc4
Daemon / int_c69ae9b2	type	Self-Destruct Mechanism
Daemon / int_c69ae9b2	comment	Self-Destruct Mechanism: Sobol's Mansion, subverting the normal sequence:
Daemon / int_c69ae9b2	featureApplicability	1.0
Daemon / int_c69ae9b2	featureConfidence	1.0
Daemon	hasFeature	Daemon / int_c69ae9b2
Daemon / int_c75df49a	type	Shout-Out
Daemon / int_c75df49a	comment	Shout-Out: Not an obvious or confirmed case, but you have remote control cars running amok as well as gunfire and explosions at the abandoned Alameda Naval base near San Francisco. Sound familiar? Gragg/Loki's moniker is Stormbringer. The Major is a key player in an faction not quite under governmental control. It's a bit of a stretch, but given that this is a cyberpunk work and the author has shown clear knowledge of anime/manga culture, a certain other Major comes to mind.
Daemon / int_c75df49a	featureApplicability	1.0
Daemon / int_c75df49a	featureConfidence	1.0
Daemon	hasFeature	Daemon / int_c75df49a
Daemon / int_c82e751f	type	Unspoken Plan Guarantee
Daemon / int_c82e751f	comment	Unspoken Plan Guarantee: We don't get to know what Loki/Gragg tells Oberstleutnant Boerner to get what he needs done and it works. Most of the villains' detailed plans don't fare so well.
Daemon / int_c82e751f	featureApplicability	1.0
Daemon / int_c82e751f	featureConfidence	1.0
Daemon	hasFeature	Daemon / int_c82e751f
Daemon / int_cbe687ab	type	Corrupt Corporate Executive
Daemon / int_cbe687ab	comment	Corrupt Corporate Executive: Several, intentional or otherwise. One of the Daemon's ploys is to completely infiltrate a company's IT department and then demand cooperation or face destruction of all their corporate data. In the sequel it becomes clear that Private Military Contractors involved at the highest levels of government are taking every advantage they can of the worldwide economic chaos caused by the continued progression of Sobol's goals to gain private power for themselves and make a quick buck at the expense of the American public.
Daemon / int_cbe687ab	featureApplicability	1.0
Daemon / int_cbe687ab	featureConfidence	1.0
Daemon	hasFeature	Daemon / int_cbe687ab
Daemon / int_cc7fae30	type	Outside-Context Problem
Daemon / int_cc7fae30	comment	Outside-Context Problem: The Daemon to...pretty much everyone. Its programming is simple logic gates, too dumb to communicate with effectively, let alone reason with, so it cannot be negotiated with. Its processes were distributed across the entire Internet within moments of its activation, so it cannot be destroyed without purging everything. It uses keywords in news articles to activate events, and neural activity sensors on those it interrogates to see what they are thinking, so it cannot be deceived. Anyone trying to fight against it is constantly outwitted and a step behind its plans, and its creator, a genius game developer with loads of capital, thought of just about every possible contingency.
Daemon / int_cc7fae30	featureApplicability	1.0
Daemon / int_cc7fae30	featureConfidence	1.0
Daemon	hasFeature	Daemon / int_cc7fae30
Daemon / int_cccb4fd1	type	Death by Pragmatism
Daemon / int_cccb4fd1	comment	Death by Pragmatism: The Major, and by proxy the entire anti-Daemon movement. Shooting Merritt to Uphold the Masquerade hurts him in numerous ways that lead to the end of pre-Daemon civilization; obviously it costs him a skilled and determined operative, but not only does it also lead to the Heel Face Turns of first Ross and ultimately Phillips, and martyr Merrit in the eyes of the darknet, but it pisses off Loki so badly that he vows to kill the Major at any cost. In short, the entire plot of Freedomâ„¢ occurs because he decided preserving the Masquerade was more important than capturing a One-Man Army so deranged even the darknet eventually censures him.
Daemon / int_cccb4fd1	featureApplicability	1.0
Daemon / int_cccb4fd1	featureConfidence	1.0
Daemon	hasFeature	Daemon / int_cccb4fd1
Daemon / int_ceec4df5	type	Roaring Rampage of Revenge
Daemon / int_ceec4df5	comment	Roaring Rampage of Revenge: Loki uses every one of his considerable assets to track down and destroy the person responsible for Merritt's death. Nothing and nobody gets in his way, civilian or not. The Daemon sends heavily-armed strike teams to surgically eliminate spammer groups around the world simultaneously; it considers them parasites on the system and need to be excised, but you can't help but think it's a bit personal on the part of Sobol as well..and the author. Jeez, we all hate spammers but, Lord Almighty, this is just 'Greek Tragedy' levels of downright absurd vitriolic malice. This last is noted in the book: Internet traffic is much lighter and more efficient without zombie PCs and spam stealing bandwidth, which is to the Daemon's benefit. Also, because, hey spammers suck.
Daemon / int_ceec4df5	featureApplicability	1.0
Daemon / int_ceec4df5	featureConfidence	1.0
Daemon	hasFeature	Daemon / int_ceec4df5
Daemon / int_d0447c7b	type	Lightning Gun
Daemon / int_d0447c7b	comment	Lightning Gun: The LIP-C weapon (Laser Induced Plasma Channel) used by Gragg/Loki.
Daemon / int_d0447c7b	featureApplicability	1.0
Daemon / int_d0447c7b	featureConfidence	1.0
Daemon	hasFeature	Daemon / int_d0447c7b
Daemon / int_d24ed873	type	Developer's Foresight
Daemon / int_d24ed873	comment	Developer's Foresight: Above all else, the Daemon is just a Massively Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Game — albeit one with real-life consequences — and Sobol is just the developer. As it doesn't begin until after he dies, there's no way to make him turn it off, and he had to anticipate every action his enemy could possibly take without patching it. Thus, the entire plot is the establishment trying to break the game before it breaks them. They fail. Notably, it points out exactly how true Developer's Foresight works; there's no way to predict how every player will play a game, so clever developers make the Railroading so subtle most don't notice it.
Daemon / int_d24ed873	featureApplicability	1.0
Daemon / int_d24ed873	featureConfidence	1.0
Daemon	hasFeature	Daemon / int_d24ed873
Daemon / int_d62dd556	type	The Chessmaster
Daemon / int_d62dd556	comment	The Chessmaster: Sobol is a unique case since he's dead for the entirety of both novels.
Daemon / int_d62dd556	featureApplicability	1.0
Daemon / int_d62dd556	featureConfidence	1.0
Daemon	hasFeature	Daemon / int_d62dd556
Daemon / int_d72b162f	type	Technicolor Eyes
Daemon / int_d72b162f	comment	Technicolor Eyes: Invoked by Loki/Gragg's special darknet-accessing contacts.
Daemon / int_d72b162f	featureApplicability	1.0
Daemon / int_d72b162f	featureConfidence	1.0
Daemon	hasFeature	Daemon / int_d72b162f
Daemon / int_d7b34c31	type	Everyone Calls Him "Barkeep"
Daemon / int_d7b34c31	comment	Everyone Calls Him "Barkeep": The Major.
Daemon / int_d7b34c31	featureApplicability	1.0
Daemon / int_d7b34c31	featureConfidence	1.0
Daemon	hasFeature	Daemon / int_d7b34c31
Daemon / int_d9cf40fa	type	Screw This, I'm Outta Here
Daemon / int_d9cf40fa	comment	Screw This, I'm Outta Here: At the end of Freedomâ„¢, Sobol wipes out the finances of the moguls behind The Conspiracy, then points out to their Mooks that their employers no longer have the money to pay them. The remnants of their mercenary army immediately surrender and the technicians in their control room grab their coats and head for the exits.
Daemon / int_d9cf40fa	featureApplicability	1.0
Daemon / int_d9cf40fa	featureConfidence	1.0
Daemon	hasFeature	Daemon / int_d9cf40fa
Daemon / int_db33bc7e	type	Ludicrous Gibs
Daemon / int_db33bc7e	comment	Ludicrous Gibs: What happens to anyone hunted by a Razorback.
Daemon / int_db33bc7e	featureApplicability	1.0
Daemon / int_db33bc7e	featureConfidence	1.0
Daemon	hasFeature	Daemon / int_db33bc7e
Daemon / int_db71d717	type	Thanatos Gambit
Daemon / int_db71d717	comment	Thanatos Gambit: The event that kicks off the whole plot, of course.
Daemon / int_db71d717	featureApplicability	1.0
Daemon / int_db71d717	featureConfidence	1.0
Daemon	hasFeature	Daemon / int_db71d717
Daemon / int_dca70c44	type	Reasonable Authority Figure
Daemon / int_dca70c44	comment	Reasonable Authority Figure: The head of the NSA during the secret meetings with the other heads of the American intelligence services. He seems the most level-headed and calm of them all, and the most committed to combating the Daemon while also minimizing the casualties. Good lot it does for him when he is arrested by the very corporations he is trying to protect. By extension, Natalie Phillips , who by the start of the second book is the only named government authority figure alive, also serves this role. As a premiere analyst for the NSA, she is pretty much the only person in the government who even has a hope of fighting Sobol's Daemon.
Daemon / int_dca70c44	featureApplicability	1.0
Daemon / int_dca70c44	featureConfidence	1.0
Daemon	hasFeature	Daemon / int_dca70c44
Daemon / int_ddc59925	type	Augmented Reality
Daemon / int_ddc59925	comment	Augmented Reality: Members of the Daemon's "darknet" use Cool Shades as a Heads-Up Display and haptic gloves. The shades are keyed to their retinas, and the gloves to their fingerprints. These turn Real Life into an Absurdly High Stakes Massively Multiplayer Alternate Reality Game, initially in a figurative sense and eventually literally — by carrying out "quests" to increase the Daemon's influence on the world, operatives are awarded with "Character Levels" that grant them access to increasingly powerful devices and abilities such as remote controlled weapons like AutoM8s and Razorbacks, Shock and Awe gloves and Invisibility(at least to cameras) rings, "curses" that ruin people's credit ratings, etc. As "quests" are completed, the devices and abilities the Daemon awards become more numerous and powerful. Eventually, the darknet becomes an entire civilization that is Invisible to Normals — one superior to the current one.
Daemon / int_ddc59925	featureApplicability	1.0
Daemon / int_ddc59925	featureConfidence	1.0
Daemon	hasFeature	Daemon / int_ddc59925
Daemon / int_df410b77	type	Decoy Protagonist
Daemon / int_df410b77	comment	Decoy Protagonist: Oh, sorry, were you thinking this detective story would have the obvious hard-bitten Defective Detective (who knows very little about computers, yet the Daemon seems to be intently interested in) running the case? Actually, yes, he comes back and does end up a major character.
Daemon / int_df410b77	featureApplicability	1.0
Daemon / int_df410b77	featureConfidence	1.0
Daemon	hasFeature	Daemon / int_df410b77
Daemon / int_e03070b7	type	Dystopia Justifies the Means
Daemon / int_e03070b7	comment	Dystopia Justifies the Means: The Major and by extension all the anti-Daemon forces. The Major actually tells Peter Sebeck, Just Between You and Me, exactly how he believes modern civilization needs direction and control.
Daemon / int_e03070b7	featureApplicability	1.0
Daemon / int_e03070b7	featureConfidence	1.0
Daemon	hasFeature	Daemon / int_e03070b7
Daemon / int_e303d198	type	Whole-Plot Reference
Daemon / int_e303d198	comment	Whole-Plot Reference: A three-way war between Playful Hackers, Government Conspiracies and Predatory Businesses where Everything Is Online and the Establishment's trump card boils down to, "destroy the Internet." And La RÃ©sistance's ultimate goal is to turn civilization over to a Benevolent A.I. which recognizes only a person's ability and intention instead of their wealth, influence or capacity for violence. Gee, this sounds a lot like John Brunner's The Shockwave Rider. But Suarez is a lot better at Showing His Work — and the Daemon has much cooler toys.
Daemon / int_e303d198	featureApplicability	1.0
Daemon / int_e303d198	featureConfidence	1.0
Daemon	hasFeature	Daemon / int_e303d198
Daemon / int_e567510d	type	Determinator
Daemon / int_e567510d	comment	Determinator: FBI Agent Roy "Tripwire" Merritt, of the hostage retrieval team that tries to get in Sobol's booby-trapped mansion is set on fire and still manages to breach the interior of the mansion. His run becomes the stuff of legend, the video passed around the darknet as recruitment material, members of which christen him "The Burning Man" as a measure of respect. And he survives, somehow, to later pursue Gragg/Loki and the AutoM8s in an epic chase through the streets of San Francisco.
Daemon / int_e567510d	featureApplicability	1.0
Daemon / int_e567510d	featureConfidence	1.0
Daemon	hasFeature	Daemon / int_e567510d
Daemon / int_e8123047	type	Borrowed Biometric Bypass
Daemon / int_e8123047	comment	Borrowed Biometric Bypass: A favored technique of the anti-Daemon forces in general, and the Major in particular; he regularly "rescues" teenage girls from brothels so that he can get them darknet accounts and then behead them to steal their darknet identities, keeping their heads chemically alive to spoof the biometrics. He actually has Loki's eyes torn out and his fingertips and tongue chopped off, but needs to keep him alive to pass the fMRI scans... and all of this is is insufficient to fool the Oberstleutnant Boerner bot, who not only rescues him and has him fitted with cybernetics, but kills the Major when he attempts to assume Loki's identity with the borrowed biometrics.
Daemon / int_e8123047	featureApplicability	1.0
Daemon / int_e8123047	featureConfidence	1.0
Daemon	hasFeature	Daemon / int_e8123047
Daemon / int_eb8ec7c8	type	Jerkass
Daemon / int_eb8ec7c8	comment	Jerkass: Gragg/Loki. His character is introduced by describing how he orchestrates the gang-date-rape of a teenage girl at a rave so he can put the video on the Internet for money. Right afterwards, he lets a acquaintance of his take the well-deserved bullets (for Loki anyway) from a pissed off group of drug-runners after Gragg/Loki stiffed them. He mentioned not liking the guy, but still quite the Jerkass move. He doesn't get any better, although... see Jerkass Woobie.
Daemon / int_eb8ec7c8	featureApplicability	1.0
Daemon / int_eb8ec7c8	featureConfidence	1.0
Daemon	hasFeature	Daemon / int_eb8ec7c8
Daemon / int_ecb70eb4	type	Video Game Cruelty Potential
Daemon / int_ecb70eb4	comment	Videogame Cruelty Potential: It's outside of a videogame, but clearly the same trope — Loki sees people not part of the Darknet as NPCs, and treats them as such. When he is permitted to kill them, he does so eagerly and cruelly. Even when he isn't, he torments them in any way he can.
Daemon / int_ecb70eb4	featureApplicability	1.0
Daemon / int_ecb70eb4	featureConfidence	1.0
Daemon	hasFeature	Daemon / int_ecb70eb4
Daemon / int_ee7a60e9	type	One-Steve Limit
Daemon / int_ee7a60e9	comment	One-Steve Limit: Apparently, there are no other Matthew Sobols in the world for their obituaries to trigger the Daemon. For the Daemon to be able to differentiate between obituaries would almost certainly make it sentient, which it's not. How many other Matthew Sobols are there that worked at CyberStorm and died of brain cancer? Finding the right obituary really wouldn't be very difficult. Please note — The keywords used in each search are pointed out (bolded at the start of each chapter). The algorithm used to determine that this was the right one had a lot of ammo.
Daemon / int_ee7a60e9	featureApplicability	1.0
Daemon / int_ee7a60e9	featureConfidence	1.0
Daemon	hasFeature	Daemon / int_ee7a60e9
Daemon / int_f32d85ab	type	20 Minutes into the Future
Daemon / int_f32d85ab	comment	Five Minutes into the Future: Believe it or not, all of the tech in the story has been demonstrated in some way. Most of it has never gone beyond the prototype stage, or is currently too bulky or impractical. By the time the story takes place, most of it is now at least viable, if not perfected and being mass produced. Given the continued speed of the advance in technology (i.e. Moore's Law), most of this stuff is probably not that far off from actually working. Also probably justified since Sobol spent hundreds of millions of his own fortune on R&D to make it all work.
Daemon / int_f32d85ab	featureApplicability	1.0
Daemon / int_f32d85ab	featureConfidence	1.0
Daemon	hasFeature	Daemon / int_f32d85ab
Daemon / int_fd4f8299	type	Well-Intentioned Extremist
Daemon / int_fd4f8299	comment	Well-Intentioned Extremist: Sobol again.
Daemon / int_fd4f8299	featureApplicability	1.0
Daemon / int_fd4f8299	featureConfidence	1.0
Daemon	hasFeature	Daemon / int_fd4f8299
Daemon / int_fe3dfca8	type	Prop Recycling
Daemon / int_fe3dfca8	comment	Prop Recycling: Used In-Universe as an encryption strategy by the Daemon. See Hidden in Plain Sight above.
Daemon / int_fe3dfca8	featureApplicability	1.0
Daemon / int_fe3dfca8	featureConfidence	1.0
Daemon	hasFeature	Daemon / int_fe3dfca8
Daemon / int_ffad4e9f	type	Shown Their Work
Daemon / int_ffad4e9f	comment	Shown Their Work: Daniel Suarez is a successful systems and networking security consultant, and it shows. The few times he varies from actual, implemented technology are for story reasons, and even then he still keeps it within the realm of possibility. See also Five Minutes Into The Future.
Daemon / int_ffad4e9f	featureApplicability	1.0
Daemon / int_ffad4e9f	featureConfidence	1.0
Daemon	hasFeature	Daemon / int_ffad4e9f
Daemon / int_name	type	ItemName
Daemon / int_name	comment
Daemon / int_name	featureApplicability	1.0
Daemon / int_name	featureConfidence	1.0
Daemon	hasFeature	Daemon / int_name
Daemon / int_name	itemName	Daemon

The following is a list of statements referring to the current page from other pages.

Daemon	hasFeature	An Offer You Can't Refuse / int_b7776ed1
Daemon	hasFeature	Augmented Reality / int_b7776ed1
Daemon	hasFeature	BFG / int_b7776ed1
Daemon	hasFeature	Borrowed Biometric Bypass / int_b7776ed1
Daemon	hasFeature	Capitalism Is Bad / int_b7776ed1
Daemon	hasFeature	Chekhov's Boomerang / int_b7776ed1
Daemon	hasFeature	Cool Shades / int_b7776ed1
Daemon	hasFeature	Corrupt Corporate Executive / int_b7776ed1
Daemon	hasFeature	Cyberpunk / int_b7776ed1
Daemon	hasFeature	Death by Origin Story / int_b7776ed1
Daemon	hasFeature	Death by Pragmatism / int_b7776ed1
Daemon	hasFeature	Developer's Foresight / int_b7776ed1
Daemon	hasFeature	Elaborate Underground Base / int_b7776ed1
Daemon	hasFeature	Former Regime Personnel / int_b7776ed1
Daemon	hasFeature	Green Aesop / int_b7776ed1
Daemon	hasFeature	Hero Antagonist / int_b7776ed1
Daemon	hasFeature	Hidden Villain / int_b7776ed1
Daemon	hasFeature	High-Class Glass / int_b7776ed1
Daemon	hasFeature	Hollywood Hacking / int_b7776ed1
Daemon	hasFeature	Immune to Bullets / int_b7776ed1
Daemon	hasFeature	Improbably High I.Q. / int_b7776ed1
Daemon	hasFeature	Invincible Hero / int_b7776ed1
Daemon	hasFeature	Lightning Gun / int_b7776ed1
Daemon	hasFeature	Lonely at the Top / int_b7776ed1
Daemon	hasFeature	Morality Kitchen Sink / int_b7776ed1
Daemon	hasFeature	My Death Is Just the Beginning / int_b7776ed1
Daemon	hasFeature	N.G.O. Superpower / int_b7776ed1
Daemon	hasFeature	Necessarily Evil / int_b7776ed1
Daemon	hasFeature	No Place for Me There / int_b7776ed1
Daemon	hasFeature	Omniscient Morality License / int_b7776ed1
Daemon	hasFeature	Post-Cyberpunk / int_b7776ed1
Daemon	hasFeature	SWAT Team / int_b7776ed1
Daemon	hasFeature	Self-Destruct Mechanism / int_b7776ed1
Daemon	hasFeature	Sequel Hook / int_b7776ed1
Daemon	hasFeature	Sinister Shades / int_b7776ed1
Daemon	hasFeature	Sinister Surveillance / int_b7776ed1
Daemon	hasFeature	Storming the Castle / int_b7776ed1
Daemon	hasFeature	Super Prototype / int_b7776ed1
Daemon	hasFeature	Take Over the World / int_b7776ed1
Daemon	hasFeature	Technicolor Eyes / int_b7776ed1
Daemon	hasFeature	Thanatos Gambit / int_b7776ed1
Daemon	hasFeature	The Extremist Was Right / int_b7776ed1
Daemon	hasFeature	The Game Come to Life / int_b7776ed1
Daemon	hasFeature	The Heavy / int_b7776ed1
Daemon	hasFeature	The Siege / int_b7776ed1
Daemon	hasFeature	Token Evil Teammate / int_b7776ed1
Daemon	hasFeature	Too Cool to Live / int_b7776ed1
Daemon	hasFeature	Tradesnarkâ„¢ / int_b7776ed1
Daemon	hasFeature	Unscrupulous Hero / int_b7776ed1
Daemon	hasFeature	Unspoken Plan Guarantee / int_b7776ed1
Daemon	hasFeature	Video Game Cruelty Potential / int_b7776ed1
Daemon	hasFeature	Video Game Stories / int_b7776ed1
Daemon	hasFeature	Video Wills / int_b7776ed1

Copyright of DBTropes.org wrapper 2009-2013 DFKI Knowledge Management. Imprint. - Thanks to Bakken&Baeck for hosting. Contact.
Copyright of data TVTropes.org contributors under Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported License.