Democracy’s worst news: The US model can be hacked

Having scared us with horror movies, spine-tingling fiction and God-defying technologies, the Americans have saved the best for last. What if the whispers in Washington are true – that hackers armed with powerful computers rigged the presidential election and placed a “loose cannon” in the ultimate position of deciding whether the world will be engulfed by nuclear war?
I have watched enough Hollywood films not to dismiss outright the theory that Donald Trump won the presidency thanks to computer geniuses who manipulated the outcomes in key “swing” states. But while Hillary Clinton supporters all over the world might be celebrating the vote recount as a potential turning point in this surreal race to the White House, they should spare a moment to consider the implication. And they should be really afraid.
It’s very scary, even scarier than seeing Trump’s victorious smile and swagger on election night. If someone can hack and dictate the national path of America just like that, we are all but doomed. We must assume that the same person or group could easily fake stock movements, or siphon change out of billions of bank accounts, or reprogramme rocket trajectories. And if you think that deleting your browser history is enough to keep your secrets safe, you’d better think again.
Yet it’s most terrifying when you consider that the alleged hacking took place when Hillary Clinton’s people were in charge of all the crucial national infrastructure, including the apparatus for receiving and processing the election votes. I mean, if it scares you when enemies of the state are the hackers, it should scare you a heck of a lot more when the state is the hacker itself.
With everything we own stored in the “cloud” or servers whose location we don’t know, we are virtually living at the mercy of hackers. Our “wealth” is what a network of computers tells us it is. We have Bt5 million in the bank because the computers say so; we don’t really get to see the money. If one day the computers say we have just Bt5,000, who are we to argue? 
Applied to democracy, that technological reality is a big slap in the face. For a concept that cherishes the decisions of the majority, there’s no bigger mockery than a computer geek or two being able to change those decisions or toy with them. “The hackers have spoken” now sounds like a very nice post-election hallmark proclamation.
As for the allegations of Russian fingerprints on the “rigged” election, why would any rival power go to the trouble of making Trump a Trojan Horse when hacking into US killer drones or missiles looks a much easier and more foolproof alternative? Trump could turn against Russia, for one thing. He might be mad, but he’s also a nationalist.
Those seeking a recount based on suspicion of hacking should think of Wall Street and how it could be affected by a widespread perception that the American government is vulnerable to cyberattack. A world economy that depends so heavily on a few financial markets is insane enough, without throwing in hackers who couldn’t care less.
Even taking the Russians, hackers and pro-Trump maniacs out of the equation and calling it a simple computer glitch would be no comfort. The cat has already leapt out of the bag. If we can’t trust the computers that handle the single most crucial event in US politics, what computers can we trust?
There are only bad, badder and baddest scenarios now. 
The first scenario has the losing side in the election grasping at straws and undermining a legitimate system in the process. In the second scenario, a computer glitch installed a dangerous man in a very dangerous place – which raises doubts over what might happen when people’s savings, not political power, are at stake. The third scenario sees computer nerds with nothing better to do sneaking in to what was supposed to be the most secure and important digital network and messing it up.
The fourth scenario, of course, involves one “empire” successfully breaching another’s firewall and giving the rest of the world a glimpse of what the future war will look like.
Like the Americans, I’m keeping my best for last. As you can see, the second, third and fourth scenarios are based on the assumption that Trump would not have won otherwise. Here’s my own “what if”. It could have been a computer glitch of Hollywood sci-fi proportions. Or it could have been maverick hackers spurred by boredom and mischief. Or it could have been Russia-hired hackers paid to sabotage America from the inside.
What if one of those scenarios is fact, but Trump would still have won fair and square without it? In other words, two scary things were happening at the same time. If that doesn’t make you squirm, nothing can.