Technology Proportionality at the Digital Fortress: Critical Analysis of Cryptography, Monitoring, and Technological Fiction

Dougglas Hurtado Carmona

doi:10.67294/2c3nvz80

Authors

Dr. Dougglas Hurtado Carmona Universidad Centro Panamericano de Estudios Superiores Author https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0624-9371

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.67294/2c3nvz80

Keywords:

Cybersegurity, Cryptography, Technoscientific Deception, Digital Fortress, Narrative Analysis

Abstract

This article analyzes the construction of technoscientific verisimilitude in Dan Brown’s novel Digital Fortress through its representations of cryptography, digital surveillance, and computer security. A qualitative, documentary, and interpretive study was conducted using a critical-comparative design complemented by elements of narrative analysis. The corpus comprised the novel, a previous book examining its technological elements, and specialized sources on cryptography, cybersecurity, privacy, and narrative studies. The study sample consisted of 10 technological statements purposively selected from an inventory of 45 elements. A six-field analysis matrix served as the data collection and systematization instrument; its fields were narrative statement, associated technical concept, specialized evidence, classification, narrative function, and ethical implications. The results show that the novel combines technically consistent concepts with simplifications, extrapolations, exaggerations, and terminological inventions. Encryption principles, key length, brute-force attacks, and parallel processing have identifiable technical foundations. However, Transltr’s universal decryption capability, infallible email tracking, and certain behaviors attributed to computer programs exceed recognized technological possibilities. These transformations perform narrative functions related to suspense, character development, and the representation of institutional power. The gradual classification proposed in this study is therefore more appropriate than a strict opposition between reality and fiction. The study contributes primarily to Sustainable Development Goal 16 by encouraging critical reflection on privacy, state surveillance, accountable institutions, and fundamental freedoms, and complementarily to Sustainable Development Goal 4 by promoting critical technological literacy.

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