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{{Short description|1997 short story by Neal Stephenson}}
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"'''Jipi and the Paranoid Chip'''" is a [[science fiction]] [[short story]] by [[Neal Stephenson]] that appeared in ''[[Forbes]]'' magazine's July 7, 1997 issue. It is part of the [[Baroque Cycle]]/[[Cryptonomicon]] universe.

==Plot==
The story deals with the concepts of [[mindshare]] and [[Evolutionary algorithm|evolutionary software]].

Jipi, a former Pacific-rim airline [[flight attendant]], is staying with her friend in a [[high-rise]] luxury apartment building inside [[Manila]]'s walled district of [[Intramuros]]. The fiftieth floor of a neighboring high-rise houses the Asian-Pacific headquarters of Mindshare Management, under regional supervisor Mr. Cardoza. Goto Engineering is conducting a citywide sewer replacement project which produces unpleasant gases that have hurt the city's [[hospitality industry]]. Jipi, looking for work, is given employment by Mr. Cardoza at the Manila Hotel in order to monitor guests in the lobby for signs of having noticed the unpleasant [[Sanitary sewer|sewer]] gases and having the guests distracted by Cardoza's actors before they become aware of the construction across the street and lower the hotel's reputation by word of stay experiences.

Mr. Cardoza explains a new job to Jipi. A California software firm, under contract with requests from law enforcement, have produced evolving software inclined to detect [[paranoid schizophrenic]]s during conversations over the Internet. Eventually, several million descendent generations of software are evolved that mimics the persona of a paranoid human, thus making them ideal against a hacker trying to shut them down. [[Shenzhen]] begins to make pirated wholesale copies of the chip, which are sold to a [[tariff]][[Free trade zone|-free zone city]] in North Africa, leading to the manufacture of an evolved theft-deterrent - an alarm-activated [[car bomb]]. Not knowing a proper amount of explosives to use with the car alarms, one manufacturer's particular shipment of Czech [[Semtex]] is equally divided into 48 customer deliveries, each with enough charge to level part of a city block. After one levels a mall in California, Mr. Cardoza, in Manila, is hired to track down the remaining 47 vehicles using each vehicle's [[wireless internet]] modems. Recognizing Jipi's charm, he recruits her to type messages in internet conversation to the next of the remaining schizoid-induced personality car alarms via satellite connection to track down clues to its location until local police can shut it down.

==Genre==

The story takes place in the same universe as ''[[The Baroque Cycle]]'' and ''[[Cryptonomicon]]''. Mention is made of Homer/Homa Goto, presumably a descendant of [[Goto Dengo]], and his firm, Goto Engineering; of the Bank of Manila and [[Kinakuta]]; and of the Black Chamber, also known as the International Data Transfer Regulatory Organisation. It is presumably set in the first half of the 21st century, a generation after the events of Cryptonomicon.

==See also==
{{portal|Novels}}
*[[Mindshare]]
*[[Artificial intelligence]]
*[[Genetic programming]]
*[[Cyberpunk]]
*[[The Great Simoleon Caper]]

==External links==
*[http://www.vanemden.com/books/neals/jipi.html Jipi and the Paranoid Chip] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060830131222/http://www.vanemden.com/books/neals/jipi.html |date=2006-08-30 }} as it appeared in ''Forbes'', Vol. 160, Issue 1 (7 July 1997)
{{NealStephensonBooks}}

[[Category:1997 short stories]]
[[Category:Science fiction short stories]]
[[Category:Short stories by Neal Stephenson]]
[[Category:Works originally published in Forbes]]


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