The Silicon Valley Tarot

The Server

The Server

The server stands on a raised floor, in an air-conditioned room, in a locked building. It's a bank-vault of precious corporate data. But there's a paradox: as its yellow crown attests, it is well-networked, and thus the vault is vulnerable. But if it were not networked, it would not be a server. The archetypal server's lemniscate indicates its 24x7 availability, ensuring its status as a totally abstract concept. Reversed: darkness, isolation, loneliness, dwindling MIS budget.


Copyright 1998, Thomas Scoville. All rights reserved.

Next Card


Steve Jackson Games