The Unhackable Key

Jesus proposes the key to resolving conflict.

Electronic keycards have been familiar features in hotel rooms for years now. A guest uses such a keycard by inserting it into a slot above the door handle. More recent models, however, allow you to simply wave the keycard in front of a sensor to produce the cheery green light that seems to say, "Come on in."

Hotel companies love the technology. It offers many advantages over old-fashioned metal keys -- which, when lost, are costly to reproduce. Then, too, hotel managers worried about possible breaches of security. What if a former guest returned with the metal key he or she had walked off with?

The downside with keycards is that sometimes they flat-out don't work. In that case, it's a fairly simple matter for the front desk staff to reprogram or replace the card. Just the same, it's irritating and it's a frustration, however minor, that you don't want to deal with when you're traveling.

But what if all the keys in a hotel stopped working all at once? And what if the hotel staff were...