[45158] in Cypherpunks
Re: The Elevator Problem
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Daniel Miskell)
Mon Dec 11 12:35:05 1995
Date: Mon Dec 11 10:57:40 1995
From: Daniel Miskell <DMiskell@envirolink.org>
Reply-To: DMiskell@envirolink.org
To: s1113645@tesla.cc.uottawa.ca
Cc: cypherpunks@toad.com
Ok, here was the method of key generation i was talking about. With the light
communications, the idea was to use photons whose waves pulsed in certain
directions (up/down, left/right, and diagonally) to create a way toommunicate
much like morse code. The key used to scramble these communications was
designed to change the direction the photons of a message pulsated - like
changing the characters of a message, scrambling it up. The key consisted of
three symbols, one for each of the possible orientations, and was fainly
simple. It was like a one time pad in that the key was never recycled.
The key could be generated by a game of 20 questions, so to speak. The people
at either end randomly generated a key. Then, they asked eiither indirect
questions about the contents of one anothers key (do you have an odd number of
up/down symbols in row x, etc), but since the contents of the key were never
touched on DIRECTLY, no eavesdfropper could determine the key, and it was
ttally secure.
We, obviously, cannot use the photon as a method of communication, not for th
e masses. the undertaking of building such a network from scratch is
astronomical. however, if one wwas to use the orientation symbols in ones
messages, as if they were being beamed, but in an email message instead, one
could make use of the simple key, and the simple game of '20 questions' to
generate a totally secure key in a mater of minutes, depending on how long the
message was and therefore how long the key has to be. Does any of this make
sense?
Regards,
Munster.
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_________________________________
*!Cheese Doctrine:!*
Though cultured over time,
and aged to perfection, one must
not yield to produce mold. One
must also not belittle themselves
by conforming to the "whiz", but
melt over the unprocessed ideas
of Ghuda.
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