Science Lounge

  • Thread starter Thread starter dcf2
  • Start date Start date
  • Replies: 133
  • Views: 6K
  • Off-Topic 
stankeylegjones said:
This is pretty neat. I haven't had chance to read the paper yet, but planning to do so.
Click to expand...
Yeah. To the extent I understand it (not really all that much), it sounds ingenious. A factor exists that if you scale the preceding steps by it and repeat them twice you end up where you were before you started the preceding steps. Crazy.

Reminds me a bit (not really) of the old brain teaser: you travel a mile south, a mile west, and a mile north, and you arrive back at the same location, where on the earth might you be? (no just a singe solution, multiple locations are possible).
 
Ddseddse said:
Yeah. To the extent I understand it (not really all that much), it sounds ingenious. A factor exists that if you scale the preceding steps by it and repeat them twice you end up where you were before you started the preceding steps. Crazy.

Reminds me a bit (not really) of the old brain teaser: you travel a mile south, a mile west, and a mile north, and you arrive back at the same location, where on the earth might you be? (no just a singe solution, multiple locations are possible).
Click to expand...
Yes. They take a loop in SO(3), lift it to a path in SU(2). They then scale it by 1/2 and concatenate it with itself, giving a loop in SU(2). Since \pi_1(SU(2)) is trivial, when projected back down you get a contractible loop. Very cool!
 
Middle of the night thought popped in my half awake head.

Why can't this be used to break virtually all encryption? Transform any encryption algorithm into a series of rotations. Apply scaling factor. "Encrypt" twice more by repeating the scaled algorithm steps. BOOM, Decryption.!

Tell me why I didn't just take down the entire global economy.
 
Ddseddse said:
Middle of the night thought popped in my half awake head.

Why can't this be used to break virtually all encryption? Transform any encryption algorithm into a series of rotations. Apply scaling factor. "Encrypt" twice more by repeating the scaled algorithm steps. BOOM, Decryption.!

Tell me why I didn't just take down the entire global economy.
Click to expand...
Not sure, but I'd say you didn't. Encryption uses discrete mathematics, I believe. Also, proving the existence of something does not mean you can always find the scaling.
 
stankeylegjones said:
Not sure, but I'd say you didn't. Encryption uses discrete mathematics, I believe. Also, proving the existence of something does not mean you can always find the scaling.
Click to expand...
I will say that I would have to imagine that finding the scaling factor would have to be an easier task than brute force decryption (I need to imagine cause I'm not smart enough to understand the finer details here :)).

But point taken that I have no clue if it would be possible to express an encryption algorithm as a series of rotations.

All I know is that the guys that work on this stuff are smart and if there is a way, they will find it.
 
Ddseddse said:
I will say that I would have to imagine that finding the scaling factor would have to be an easier task than brute force decryption (I need to imagine cause I'm not smart enough to understand the finer details here :)).

But point taken that I have no clue if it would be possible to express an encryption algorithm as a series of rotations.

All I know is that the guys that work on this stuff are smart and if there is a way, they will find it.
Click to expand...
I think it's more than that. Their proof relies on continuity - SO(3) and SU(2) are manifolds. But, I have no clue on current encryption.
 
look, the answer is really simple - just divide by 0 and end it all.

TAKE THAT MATH GENIUS NERDS!
 
stankeylegjones said:
I think it's more than that. Their proof relies on continuity - SO(3) and SU(2) are manifolds. But, I have no clue on current encryption.
Click to expand...
I believe that is more used in block chain than standard 128 but encryption.

From what I've read quantum computing will be fast enough to brute force 128 bit encryption. I've read that our government's have massive collections of intercepted encrypted transmissions just waiting on the quantum computing to evolve to the point that they can read what's in the data.
 
Last edited:
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top