Re: VMs: Spending lots of money...

[elvogt@xxxxxxxxxxx]

Zitat von Nick Pelling <incoming@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>:

> Hi everyone,
> ...
> Here, I believe that the repeated inability of our tools to cast useful 
> light on the VMs is a strong indication that we're exposed to "Knightian 
> uncertainty" - despite all our imaginative insight, the VMs remains a black 
> hole into which our gaze disappears. Hiring a supercomputer would therefore 
> most likely achieve nothing. :-(
> ...
> Cheers, .....Nick Pelling..... 
> 

I fully agree (except with the ":-(" at the end). In all likelihood, none of 
the possible authors of the VM (whether it be 13th, 15th, or 17th century) had 
a coding system at hand which was complex enough to require amounts of computer 
power beyond our means -- Even something comparatively compact as a Playfair 
cipher wasn't around until the 1800s, AFAIK.

So, this means that the solution of the VM doesn't depend on gazillions of CPU 
cycles to be spent on the subject, but in finding the right method, the 
algorithm -- which is still what people are better for. So, even without a 
tremenduous budget (which still would help, I strongly support setting up a 
research central in Hawaii!), we have the chance to solve the riddle -- which 
is why I would label the situation :-).

Cheers,

   Elmar

P.S.: A small question from a non-native speaker of English: What is the 
difference between a "code" and a "cipher"? Is there a distinction?


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