From: elvogt@xxxxxxxxxxx
Reply-To: vms-list@xxxxxxxxxxx
To: vms-list@xxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: Re: VMs: Criteria for a successful solution
Date: Tue, 17 Aug 2004 08:49:41 +0200
Zitat von "Dennis S." <tsalagi@xxxxxxxx>:
> Elmar wrote:
>
> >(If the VM is only gibberish, it's obviously impossible to prove this
fact,
> and
> >there simply is no solution.)
>
> Yes. However, if it is in fact gibberish, can we prove it? The only
way
> I can think of is to produce a valid solution. Can anyone think of
another?
>
> Perhaps this is a philosophical question. In designing a scientific
> experiment, one assumes the null hypothesis, that an observed difference
is
> due to chance, one specifies limits of confidence, and then one rejects
the
> null hypothesis if the experimental results show a difference exceeding
the
> limits of confidence. Perhaps this is analogous.
>
Exactly my point:
Although it's possible to prove the non-existance of anything in a
_logical_
manner ("something can't be big and small at the same time"), it's
impossible
to do the same in an empirical manner:
I might go around and show that 100 UFO sightings were false, and not a
single
one was true, but this doesn't prove there are no UFO's -- the 101st one
might
be for real.
Likewise, it's impossible to prove (in the strict sense) the Gibberish
hypothesis: Even if you refuted 100 encoding schemes, the 101st one might
still
turn out to be the solution.
At the same time, it's possible to _show_ that the VM is gibberish. If eg
Rugg's method can come up with a ciphertext which exhibits all the
statistical
phenomena of the VM etc., we may safely assume that this is the way it's
been
done.
Cheer,
Elmar, philosopher's stone in a nutshell
-------------------------------------------------
debitel.net Webmail
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