12
$\begingroup$

In my novel I need incriminating international information somehow embedded in/on an erotic marble statue.

Is this possible? If so how would it be done and how info later be retrieved?

I've searched things like MOS microchips, quartz crystal discs, and centralized directory

Improve this question
$\endgroup$
11
  • 8
    $\begingroup$ Hello and welcome to WorldBuilding! Please edit the question to make it clear what is the perceived problem. You can easily buy cheap novelty USB flash drives embedded in all sorts of objects, from ballpoint pens to chess pieces to various figurines. What's the difficulty in carving a hidden compartment in the statue and placing a flash drive / SSD card / whatever in it? $\endgroup$
    – AlexP
    Commented Mar 11 at 22:30
  • 4
    $\begingroup$ Please note that "is this possible?" is kinda not why we're here. Making fiction factual isn't our goal. Per the help center, helping you build an imaginary world is. So, frankly, is this possible isn't relevant. Is it believable and consistent with the rules of your world? That's what we do. Noting that you're allowed to ask one and only one question per post, the first will be ignored in favor of the second. (Technically the second is two questions, but asking how to transmit and receive is reasonably close enough to "how can I achieve this in my world" for government work.) $\endgroup$
    – JBH
    Commented Mar 12 at 2:08
  • 9
    $\begingroup$ We came up with this wonderful data storage invention a few centuries ago, these days we call it writing, inscribed on your statue are these nifty little things called words, you can retrieve them with these useful things most of us have called eyeballs. $\endgroup$
    – Pelinore
    Commented Mar 12 at 3:25
  • 3
    $\begingroup$ The hollow butthole is a timeless classic. $\endgroup$
    – Emilio M Bumachar
    Commented Mar 12 at 11:15
  • 6
    $\begingroup$ How much data do you need to store, how long till the data is read, and who will read it? A solution which works for a sculpture I can send privately to the receiver will be very different from a solution if the sculpture is going to last for centuries, when it ends up in a museum, making it harder for the receiver to access. $\endgroup$
    – Abigail
    Commented Mar 12 at 13:10

13 Answers 13

Reset to default
30
$\begingroup$

https://www.youtube.com/watch?app=desktop&v=QDF8qV-ksCs

Synthetic marble, you can create it- and control the swirls. And if you can control the swirls, you can encode into the curves https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spline_(mathematics) - values and assign via ASCII meaning to it. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ASCII

Looks like normal marble, but with that special eyes, you can see the math in the swirls.

PS: Do not clean with acidic cleaning solutions, otherwise the secrets start secreting.

Improve this answer
$\endgroup$
3
  • $\begingroup$ No its not Synthetic marble, it is a 2000-year-old erotic pink marble statue $\endgroup$
    – Why
    Commented Mar 13 at 1:16
  • $\begingroup$ Etch the swirls in and fill them up? $\endgroup$
    – Pica
    Commented Mar 13 at 6:19
  • 6
    $\begingroup$ Or alternatively- use the natural swirls in the marble as cryptographic key with the method of reading it mentioned above to decode a encrypted message stored elsewhere $\endgroup$
    – Pica
    Commented Mar 13 at 8:24
20
$\begingroup$

  1. Burn sub-100 micron holes in a digital pattern. Can be read by the appropriate laser reader placed in exactly the right place. Given the size of the structure, nobody's finger could feel the existence of the patterns. You could encode an encyclopedia this way and still not feel it.

  2. create a thin-wafer chip with RF tech (this tech, though not used this way, exists today, I first encountered it a long time ago). Plasma cut a thin slot into the statue. Insert the chip, then epoxy with marble dust mixed into the epoxy. Why do this? The chip recognizes an encoded transmission on wavelength A and responds by using the energy pumped via wavelength A to create wavelength B with all the information. Due to the need to match both the wavelength and the encryption on that wavelength, the chip can't accidentally transmit. Honestly, this isn't far off of how people datamine credit card data from passersby on the street.

Improve this answer
$\endgroup$
5
  • 3
    $\begingroup$ Just from a glance 2. would be perfectly feasible today even with amateur-available equipment (though the fake-marble expoxy would take some practice, but who's gonna check the details of the nose of a statue? $\endgroup$
    – Hobbamok
    Commented Mar 12 at 10:16
  • $\begingroup$ Thank you, your answer is interesting. Burn sub-100 micron holes in a digital pattern.Can be read by the appropriate laser reader $\endgroup$
    – Why
    Commented Mar 13 at 0:35
  • $\begingroup$ Sorry, still working out how to use WordStack, stupidly hit enter. I currently can't even work out how to respond to each question. In my novel an Info Trader has attached a "lot' of politically incriminating information to the statute which for that reason is being sought by the likes of the CIA etc. I am unfamiliar with data language. Could you clarify Burn sub-100 micron holes in a digital pattern? $\endgroup$
    – Why
    Commented Mar 13 at 0:51
  • 3
    $\begingroup$ @Why, Take a sec to research how compact discs (e.g. DVDs, Blu Rays, etc) are made. You're punching holes through a thin metal plate. Think of the marble surface as the thin metal plate. Where discs are measuring the reflection of the disc (or lack of reflection due to the hole) you're measuring the depth like a laser speed detector used by the police. Short = 1, long = 0. "Micron" means 0.000001 meter holes in depth and diameter or less (well within the capacity of modern technology). HOWEVER, please DO NOT try to explain all of this in technical detail. You'll ruin the story... $\endgroup$
    – JBH
    Commented Mar 13 at 1:39
  • 1
    $\begingroup$ ... foryour audience. You need to give people just enough explanation to fire their imaginations - and then let their imaginations do the rest of the work. $\endgroup$
    – JBH
    Commented Mar 13 at 1:40
15
$\begingroup$
  • A shipping or ownership label on the underside.
    "From the collection of John Doe, catalog number 1234, date 23-08-19." Except that 1234 is the number of the safe deposit box and 230819 is the code to open it. Such stickers are used to track the provenance of art, so they would not be removed lightly.
  • Use it as a key for steganography.
    Alice wants to send a message to Bob, but they do not want it to look like an encrypted message. So both Alice and Bob have the same photo of baby Charlie on their smartphones, and a bit of software. Alice takes the photo, alters the colors a tiny little bit, and sends it. Bob compares the photo with the original, notes the differences, and gets the message that way. With digital pictures, you can hide a lot of data that way.
    The key is either a picture of the marble, or it is some sort of label or shipping instruction under the base.
  • Dust and a microdot.
    Use photographic methods to create a very small negative of the message, and put it somewhere on the statue. Say under a fingernail, or in the corner of an eye. Glue it in place with some grime.
Improve this answer
$\endgroup$
2
  • $\begingroup$ It is a 2,000-year-old erotic pink marble statue. It's not a message, it contains numerous docs collected over years, being sought by the CIA & similar agencies $\endgroup$
    – Why
    Commented Mar 13 at 1:12
  • $\begingroup$ @Why, my first or second bullet point would make the ancient statue the key to the newer document, rather than the document itself. The third point would be facsimiles of the messages. $\endgroup$
    – o.m.
    Commented Mar 13 at 5:31
6
$\begingroup$

Depending on Precision available and the amount of error for reading - there's multiple ways of doing this.

From Surface texture, to pattern as indicated above by Pica, to the actual relationship between the various elements of the statue.

It's long been a staple of fiction of hidden messages encoded within a piece of Art - and it really depends how you want to do your encoding - whether it's raw binary (which would have to be really small - aka Microscopic) to fit everything in, or whether you want some high-level code (e.g. the precise radii of something means X and the length means Y and...)

Improve this answer
$\endgroup$
3
  • 1
    $\begingroup$ Or physical difference to a supposedly perfect twin statue, only noticeable with detailed 3D scans. $\endgroup$
    – Hobbamok
    Commented Mar 12 at 10:17
  • $\begingroup$ The "multiple ways of doing this is interesting." I've searched determinedly and at this stage considering quartz crystal, though not sure about attachment. I've only just discovered WordStack and working out how to use same. $\endgroup$
    – Why
    Commented Mar 13 at 1:04
  • $\begingroup$ @why - I suspect you are thinking about the problem from the wrong lens. Think about Cryptography, think about Spycraft - what you are asking is 'How do I hide or encode data using a physical medium' - it's not about the Statue, that is just the medium. $\endgroup$
    – TheDemonLord
    Commented Mar 13 at 1:13
5
$\begingroup$

It depends on a technology level, intended audience and required longevity. E.g. you could drill a hole into the base and hide a flash disk or a nfc tag inside.

Or you pick up your chisel and hammer and make something more into-your-face like these chronograms.

Improve this answer
$\endgroup$
1
  • 1
    $\begingroup$ My personal technology level is low, my character's is high. Drilling a hole is a bit 'pedestrian' for a fictional novel. The encoding is for volume information and the statue is 2,000-year-old pink marble, not something you'd take a chisel to. $\endgroup$
    – Why
    Commented Mar 13 at 0:58
4
$\begingroup$

Mostly on the internet.

This is possibly a frame challenge answer.

The point of a hiding place for something is to distinguish between intended and unintended end users of the thing. Actually storing the thing right there is incidental - and for data, completely unnecessary as long as the intended user can directly or indirectly access the internet. We can securely store the data on any hard drive on the planet: put it behind a three-strikes password and a hefty encryption. Even if anybody can identify that your innocuously named, anonymously hosted zip file is, in fact, the secret incriminating documents, they'll never be able to decrypt it.

The only information that needs to be attached to the statue (for whatever story reason it is attached to the statue) is a code which lets the intended recipient know how to look up where to find the data and the password, using information only the intended user is supposed to know.

With so little data that actually needs to be attached to the statue, whatever low tech solution makes sense for the story can do the job. No special technology is required.

Just as an example to explain what I mean:

We could arrange in advance that XXX-ABC-DEFG means start with the B'th word of the A'th chapter of Gulliver’s Travels and transcribe everything for the next C words to get the password. The first E words (no spaces or punctuation) of the D'th chapter of the same book are the back half of various link-shortener links to different hosts of the same encrypted file, and the first G words of the F'th chapter is a duplicate for additional redundancy. XXX is a rural American area code that we picked to signify that the next seven numbers are a code and simultaneously disguise the number as a phone number.

Improve this answer
$\endgroup$
3
$\begingroup$

Imbedded Cache

If you had an embedded data storage system hidden in the base with a hidden wireless connection that is activated upon picking up a RFID signal.

Someone with the right setting on a modern phone could walk past the statue, the phone RFID triggers the hotspot to activate and the phone deposits data or collects data and once the RFID signal is out of range, it shut down again.

You could use nuclear batteries continuously charging capacitors to give it enough power for a few minutes use but the power source would last for many years.

Using this method, a spy would just need to wander through the art gallery to drop off and collect information and wouldn't need to interact with anyone or anything.

enter image description here

Hardware wise, this could be the size of a matchbox or smaller

Improve this answer
$\endgroup$
3
$\begingroup$

Quartz Data-Storage Rods

The artist of the original statue had the idea to sculpt his statue primarily out of marble, but also drilled hundreds of holes through it and slotted carefully cut pieces of quartz into them. They're very decorative and tend to glow if you place the statue so the light-source is behind it, which is what the artist wanted it for back in the day. The statue lights up in the right lighting.

For the purpose of your story, your Edward-Snowden-like character has extracted one or more of these quartz rods from the statue and replaced it with a Data-Crystal of the same kind of Quartz.

Data Crystals are similar to those souvenir Glass paperweights with 3D pictures burned into them with lasers, but instead of pictures, you encode data which can then be read by a suitable reader device. You can store quite a lot of data in this way, and it will last a long time and be very hard to notice to an uneducated eye. It might look like the crystal is oddly foggy inside rather than clear like most of the other crystals, but viewed end-on and lit up from behind, it'd be just like the other quartz rods.

The challenge then, acquire the statue, figure out which one of hundreds of quartz rods is the right one, pull it out and put it through a data-crystal reader to analyse the encoded data.

Improve this answer
$\endgroup$
2
$\begingroup$

As I see it, there are three basic possibilities:

  1. The artist built the secret in, to be seen contemporaneously. In this case, it might use something like "the language of flowers". A series of conventions for encoding information in otherwise innocuous items. A modern rediscovery might thus explain historical actions.
  2. The artist built the secret in, to be discovered in the future, presumably after he and his family had passed. In this case, it is probably still encoded in something like "the language of flowers", but a much more obscure one. It would probably even be some other culture's hidden language. A modern discovery might still have political import if the current ruling dynasty has been going on long enough. Such discovery would probably be a result of specialists in two different cultures comparing notes.
  3. A modern message hidden in an ancient statue. In this case, the question becomes how is it secreted, and there are lots of suggestions here. The problem is that you need something that will not be discovered by people doing authentication and conservation work. One thought from me: It could be hidden inside repair work.

Just to throw things for a loop, several of these could be the case

Improve this answer
$\endgroup$
1
$\begingroup$

Use a neutron beam to write your data and then use an electron beam to read it.

doi:10.1016/j.radmeas.2011.12.005

I am posting an answer under duress by breaking my self imposed boycott as stackexchange management/ownership does not deserve our unpaid work product.

Improve this answer
$\endgroup$
2
  • 1
    $\begingroup$ Thank you for breaking your boycott, I appreciate the ongoing battle for ethivc. $\endgroup$
    – Why
    Commented Apr 5 at 1:48
  • 1
    $\begingroup$ sorry accidental send: . ... for ethic against online manipulation. Could you contact me at [email protected] $\endgroup$
    – Why
    Commented Apr 5 at 1:51
0
$\begingroup$

embedded in/on an erotic marble statue.

( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)

Have you considered Braille?

You can make it so subtle that it would not be easily noticeable by sight, by using patterns of more and less smooth marble rather than bumps or holes. This also has the advantage of making the statue interactive, no matter what shape it takes. On top of that, this adds to the plot how someone might figure that there is a message there.

Improve this answer
$\endgroup$
0
$\begingroup$

How about audio scratched into the surface / base, like a record?

The idea has been used before regarding ancient pottery "recorded" with sticks while making patterns on the soft clay, perhaps as a prank, but with a little effort and know-how it should be possible. Even if etching onto the marble itself isn't desirable, what if it had a metal base that was poured into a clay mold that contained an innocent looking spiral pattern of recorded audio...

From some of your comments emphasizing the 2000 year old statue, I'm assuming a lower level of tech, so no laser microdots or embedded electronics.

Improve this answer
$\endgroup$
0
$\begingroup$

If it is marble with lines, which seem to be almost random to the casual viewer, then you might adjust the edges of the lines microscopically with a laser. Compare the original marble lines with their edited lines and then analyze the difference per binary (added to vs removed from) for the message. Some marble has lots of lines thus maybe a lot of data might be hidden in plain sight. Keep a copy of the edited lines, then edit again later for new information. Result: a continuous medium for the transportation of information.

Improve this answer
$\endgroup$

You must log in to answer this question.

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged .