At 3:52 PM 4/2/96, Chris Stillson wrote:
at Kryptogorodok, the secret city of Soviet cryptographers
hidden in the Urals (and first visited by an outsider, Stephen Wolfram, only a couple of years ago).
Nice touch. I worked at Wolfram Research a few years ago, and wolfram actually was in Russia for a tour.
And based on an actual happening. Wolfram reasoned that the Soviets must've had a "secret city of cryptographers," as they had secret cities for several other kinds of military scientists (rockets, atomic energy, CBW, metallurgy, etc.). He speculated that the U.S. should locate this city and see if the residents needed jobs. And of course several people have speculated that if the "P ?=? NP" ball of wax has been solved by anyone, in secret, the Russians are a good bet, given their strong skills in pure mathematics. (And my choice of Kolmogorov was not just a name made up...) I first floated this April Fool's Day joke two years ago...I figured enough time had passed and enough newcomers had subscribed to make it worth posting again. Wolfram actually saw the copy two years ago and liked it. --Tim May Boycott "Big Brother Inside" software! We got computers, we're tapping phone lines, we know that that ain't allowed. ---------:---------:---------:---------:---------:---------:---------:---- Timothy C. May | Crypto Anarchy: encryption, digital money, tcmay@got.net 408-728-0152 | anonymous networks, digital pseudonyms, zero W.A.S.T.E.: Corralitos, CA | knowledge, reputations, information markets, Higher Power: 2^756839 - 1 | black markets, collapse of governments. "National borders aren't even speed bumps on the information superhighway."