Seen on ba.seminars and posted here: Mathematical Sciences Research Institute Empennage Seminar An Introduction to Cryptopolitics Whitfield Diffie Sun Microsystems Mountain View, California Some years ago, Andy Gleason observed that during World War II, the physicists had discovered that what they did had an impact on the real world and that now it was the mathematicians turn. The talk will explore why seemingly arcane technology has become a political football. We will examine the significance of communications privacy in human affairs, how communications intelligence functions, and how cryptography affects that functioning. In the process we will look at a variety of proposals for controlling cryptography and the possible impact of those propsals on intelligence, law enforcement, commerce, and the personal life. 2 PM, Tuesday October 24, 1995, MSRI Lecture Hall Next Month: Scott Mitchell, Sandia National Laboratories, on hexahedralization ##################################################################### About Empennage As part of our effort to build bridges between Mathematics and the larger world, the Mathematical Sciences Research Institute is sponsoring a seminar where mathematicians can meet adventurers on the technological frontier. The Empennage Seminar will meet in the MSRI lecture hall Tuesday afternoons from 2 to 3. The seminar is intended to bring together not only scientists from the Bay Area involved directly with mathematical computing, but also people involved in envisioning and implementing new technologies, people concerned with the social and political ramifications of the development of information technology, and people working on problems, the formal nature of which brings them close to mathematics. The seminar is aimed at breaking down the walls which in this century have isolated mathematics from intellectual life outside of its own tradition. While the Empennage seminar is still in its infancy, we have begun to attract an audience beyond MSRI, including scientists from other institutions and disciplines, both within and without academe. If you have any recommendations for possible speakers, please let me know. Also, anyone interested in attending should contact me: Joe Christy, joe@msri.org, (510)643-6069. About MSRI The Mathematical Sciences Research Institute (MSRI) is an independently funded research institute located on the UC Berkeley campus, high above the Lawrence Hall of Science. At any given time, MSRI is host to 50 to 100 post-doctoral fellows and more senior researchers who come from all over the world for periods of a week to a year. Most of them participate in one of two topical programs which change from year to year, with a smaller group in "Area III", our catch-all. Currently the programs are Holomorphic Spaces and Several Complex Variables. MSRI is aiming to become a model site for the integration of computing into mathematical research. In practical terms this means not only the development and use of software for numerical calculation, symbolic manipulation, and geometric visualization, but also exploration of the uses of technology in other areas of scholarly life. This includes network access and distribution of structured information, new modes of scholarly communication (incorporating Email, formatted and illustrated mathematical text, and shared interactive software for experimental mathematics), and the development of software engineering tools necessary to put the creation of useful, shareable special purpose software within the reach of the average individual scientist. directions to MSRI are available at the URL: http://www.msri.org/housing/info/howtoget.html About the word "empennage" Empennage is the French word for fletching - the act of putting feathers on the tail of an arrow. This makes the arrow fly strighter by giving it a spin. ------------------------------------------------------------------------- Steven Weller | "The Internet, of course, is more +1 415 390 9732 | than just a place to find pictures | of people having sex with dogs." stevenw@iglou.com | -- Time Magazine, 3 July 1995