Sorry, I meant to say the author of the NOVEL is a security expert.<p>And I dare say, the developer of the Daemon virus proved he was a security expert, too.<p>SPOILERS:<p>I ended up thinking of the Daemon not so much as an AI, but as an OS, with very many sub-programs hard-coded into it...  But for the most part, I thought what made Daemon so smart, and the novel so compelling, was how much it relied on humans to help it achieve its goals and make decisions.  The depiction of how people banded together to make the Burning Man, for instance.  The OS <i>allowed</i> that, and exposed APIs that made that <i>possible,</i> but the decision to actually make it and the morality encoded into it were created by humans, after Sobel had died.  I guess I end up seeing the Daemon not so much as an AI, but as a sufficiently well-designed Chinese Box, with very capable humans inside.  (Some willingly, some blackmailed.)