plw@panda.UUCP (Pete Williamson) (03/14/86)
> Suppose, heaven forbid, WWIII should break out. >Speculate on the role of cryptography in such a conflict. >Would each side be able to keep its most secret secrets secret >by using "unbreakable" codes? How would the Yanks try to >break such codes? What if the Russki's knocked out Fort Mead? >Could they? Can/would the allies be trusted? Would it be over >so fast that it wouldn't even matter? Start slinging... With today's Nuclear weaponry, I would think that it would be over before anybody knew what happened. However, perhaps a MORE INTERESTING question would be: What would the role of cryptography HAVE BEEN in the Second World War with TODAY'S state of the art in computer software and hardware and mathematics. WHAT IF HITLER HAD CRAY COMPUTERS AND RSA ALGORITHMS AND FIELD AGENTS WITH IBM-PCs HOOKED UP TO MODEMS et al !!! How about it, NETLAND. Care to speculate?? -- Pete Williamson "By hook or by crook, we will !!" ... #2
kort@hounx.UUCP (B.KORT) (03/16/86)
If Hiter's boys had had computers, two or three good things might have happened. First, they might have discovered the challenge and delight of learning logic. This would have diminished their inability to use their brains for creative purposes. Second, they might have gotten hooked on computer games or computer networking, and forgotten about incinerating people. Third, they might have discovered they needed the inferior races to develop and debug their software. --Barry Kort ...ihnp4!hounx!kort
greg@utcsri.UUCP (Gregory Smith) (03/17/86)
In article <1520@panda.UUCP> plw@panda.UUCP (Pete Williamson) writes: >What would the role of cryptography HAVE BEEN in the Second World War >with TODAY'S state of the art in computer software and hardware and >mathematics. > >WHAT IF HITLER HAD CRAY COMPUTERS AND RSA ALGORITHMS AND FIELD AGENTS >WITH IBM-PCs HOOKED UP TO MODEMS et al !!! > >How about it, NETLAND. Care to speculate?? The 'phone lines would have been too noisy. :-) :-) :-) :-) :-) -- "No eternal reward will forgive us now for wasting the dawn" -J. Morrison ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Greg Smith University of Toronto ..!decvax!utzoo!utcsri!greg
sean@ukma.UUCP (Sean Casey) (03/22/86)
In article <2347@utcsri.UUCP> greg@utcsri.UUCP (Gregory Smith) writes: >>WHAT IF HITLER HAD CRAY COMPUTERS AND RSA ALGORITHMS AND FIELD AGENTS >>WITH IBM-PCs HOOKED UP TO MODEMS et al !!! > >The 'phone lines would have been too noisy. :-) :-) :-) :-) :-) They haven't gotten any better! :-) :-)