On Mon, Jan 13, 2025 at 11:48:23PM +0100, Daniel Maslowski via 9fans wrote: > I'd say, submit a paper and elaborate on this. > > There are many approaches to cryptography besides primitives that count on > problems hard to calculcate, such a steganograpby (hiding messages in > images) and other forms of covert channels; > https://github.com/mindcrypt/covertchannels-steganography > > Mind that analog computing is a thing: > https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Analog_computer > > And so is biological computing: > https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Biological_computing > > You will find existing approaches of both applied to cryptography. >
Well, I will very more probably propose a paper for WIP: "kerTeX: from typographical system to typography of the system" (how all the pieces exist to replace *roff---I don't mean the macro for man page, but using the TeX engine instead of the roff one---and to have a complete system from fonts, to layout and rendering because one can even replace a PostScript interpreter because METAFONT is a RIP...) I'm interested in all the (previous last paragraph) things, around computability, numerical vs analogical and so on, but I have not something suffisantly original or even educated to say on the field. I will prefer listening others. But for the ones interested in cryptography, I came across an historical remark that made me laugh and I can't resist sharing: In letters written by Louvois (war minister, so to speak, under Louis XIV), he once advised the commanding general to instruct the generals under his own command to code and crypt their mails. And he added, that it was not because he feared the enemy could surprise our war plans if they managed to get the mails, but because he didn't want the enemy to discover how subpar our generals were... I like history. You discover that some things remain constant over the time... > > On Mon, 13 Jan 2025, 22:00 , <tlaro...@kergis.com> wrote: > > > Reading the presentation of the upcoming 11th International Workshop > > on Plan 9, on http://iwp9.org, I notice that: > > > > "This year, our host having a focus on computer security, papers about > > cryptography, authentication, fault tolerance, robustness, security > > applications, error detection and remediation, software reliability, > > etc. are particularly welcome." > > > > I'd like to add something (if people at the CNAM read this too...). > > > > When speaking about cryptography / security, one needs to speak also > > about computability. > > > > "Computing" or "calculating" is the way humans track nature, by > > generally beating around the bushes (indirect, lengthy access). There > > are equations that we can write, but that we can't solve while soap > > bubbles, for example, have no difficulty "calculating" (wrong verb) > > minimal surfaces that we don't know how to calculate. > > > > So if organizers or researchers in the field could add a presentation > > about the limit of numerical, digital, and propose an answer to the > > following question (perhaps by crossing swords with physicists), > > I would be very interested: > > > > "Cryptography for security relies on how long and how computer > > intensive is a digital computation to solve some equations. But > > how to be reassured about the digital security of something, if > > one can not prove that there are no "soap bubbles" able to analogically > > solve the equations that computers are unable to solve?" > > > > More broadly, the main question is: what are the limits of numerical, > > digital, computation? What is it obviously good at? What is it open > > to question good at? Does it rule out experiments?---experiment: > > "analogical computing" i.e. letting Nature doing the calculus. > > > > PS: could someone at the Plan9 Foundation update the copyright on the > > bottom of the pages? It is an easy way to show that things are still > > alive ;-) > > -- > > Thierry Laronde <tlaronde +AT+ kergis +dot+ com> > > http://www.kergis.com/ > > http://kertex.kergis.com/ > > Key fingerprint = 0FF7 E906 FBAF FE95 FD89 250D 52B1 AE95 6006 F40C -- Thierry Laronde <tlaronde +AT+ kergis +dot+ com> http://www.kergis.com/ http://kertex.kergis.com/ Key fingerprint = 0FF7 E906 FBAF FE95 FD89 250D 52B1 AE95 6006 F40C ------------------------------------------ 9fans: 9fans Permalink: https://9fans.topicbox.com/groups/9fans/T42113639a6975e1d-M470338495e4025f602b0edd1 Delivery options: https://9fans.topicbox.com/groups/9fans/subscription
