And then you have to trust the OS. And the machine... Unless you build you computer yourself from silicon, you're not going to get rid of trust.

> Unless you build you computer yourself from silicon

And the chip design, and the fab control software, and the tools that make the tools that make the tools. And descrete components won't help you because transistors are large enough to conceal a mircocontroler emulating a transistor and listening for high-frequency handshake signals.

Relays are probably safe since you can make those yourself out of iron and copper (rods, springs and wire), and conveniently those are the same things you need to build motors!

You're still probably screwed though.

To make an omelette, first you have to create the universe!

Carl Sagans Cookbook series: How to bake an apple pie from scratch -- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7s664NsLeFM

Further reading: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trusted_computing_base

There is a simple antidote to this problem, as long as you have 1) the source code to the compiler you suspect of being bad, and 2) a second compiler (binary only), written by someone who is not friends with the first one. For instance, if you want to verify that gcc is not evil, you need the gcc source, and MS Visual C++. The basic idea is summarized by Bruce Schnier here: https://www.schneier.com/blog/archives/2006/01/countering_tr...