RIP, Carl Gorman, Code Talker
Mr. Carl Gorman, one of the few remaining Navajo 'Code-Talkers' of WWII fame, died yesterday of cancer at the age of 90. Along with his fellow Navajo, he encrypted military voice communication by using his native language over the radio in the Great American Imperialist Struggle against the Great Japanese Imperialist Initative. Just a few thoughts: - when asked why he helped America after all the abuse he took growing up as a Navajo, he basically said (my interpretation here) he was fighting to protect the Navajo, not particularily America, from the Japanese. A geographical dilemma. - aside from the NSA sucking up everything in sight relating to languages, doesn't Chomsky's theoretical 'Universal Syntax' (all human languages have an identical fundamental syntax) negate the effectiveness of the Code-Talker approach in the long run? - on the other hand, the lovely ambiguities of natural language would seem to be capable of effectively obscuring the meaning of the message even if the plaintext were revealed. For example, President Clinton's reference to 'blowjobs' not actually being a sexual act. While the President is innocently asking a normal person to provide him with a urgently needed act of personal hygiene, that person mistakingly would be thinking he wants oral sex. An effective obscuration of the Prez's message. - now-a-days of course, if the shoe were on the other foot, the Navy's NOSS satellite constellations would trianglate on the radio signal and feed the coordinates to one of the TDRS sat- ellites to target the crusie missles we just launched, effectively ending the conversation prematurely without regard to syntax. [Sexy Hi-Tech Option]. Using radio for passing encrypted comm seems to require a few non-traditional approaches. For example, using a repeater system that would present the NOSS satellites and any RDF equipment in the neighborhood with 'a thousand points of...' RF energy - the 'needle-in-the-haystack' approach. The source would be difficult to find amongst its many (presumedly cheap) clones. Oh well. Good bye Carl. Thanks for the help. Sorry we were such jerks. On the bright side - we're such third-rate fuckups it's a sure thing the Navajo will out-live us if they just hang in there a little bit longer. Your living to 90 was a fine example. Survival is always the best revenge. ----------------------------------------------------------------- foggy@netisle.net lat:47d36'32" long:122d20'12" "Rather perish than hate and fear, and twice rather perish than make oneself hated and feared." -F. Nietzche- -----------------------------------------------------------------
(As Gary seems to be a newcomer, let me remind him and others that "cypherpunks@toad.com" is not the place to send messages to the list. Please use one of the distributed addresses. It's been a year since the list moved off of toad.com. I wish John would just start bouncing messages sent to toad.com and be done with it.) At 11:16 PM -0800 1/30/98, Gary Harland wrote:
- when asked why he helped America after all the abuse he took growing up as a Navajo, he basically said (my interpretation here) he was fighting to protect the Navajo, not particularily America, from the Japanese. A geographical dilemma.
Never understimate the power of blind chauvinistic patriotism. Killing Japs was the honorable thing to do, even for Injuns.
- aside from the NSA sucking up everything in sight relating to languages, doesn't Chomsky's theoretical 'Universal Syntax' (all human languages have an identical fundamental syntax) negate the effectiveness of the Code-Talker approach in the long run?
"All crypto is economics." One doesn't have to jump to theoretical mumbo jumbo about a putative "identical fundamental syntax" to know that the Navajo code talkers were not using an unbreakable system. But what mattered is that, for the level of security needed on the battlefield, the system was "essentially secure" against Japanese translation. Sure, in time the Japanese could have found some experts on Navajo, could have trained their own code talker translators, etc. But they didn't have this time. (And if we posit "enough time," then the U.S. military would have had enough time to drop the Navajo code talkers and replace them with Ebonics code talkers. Dat be da jive, mo fo.) "All crypto is economics." --Tim May The Feds have shown their hand: they want a ban on domestic cryptography ---------:---------:---------:---------:---------:---------:---------:---- Timothy C. May | Crypto Anarchy: encryption, digital money, ComSec 3DES: 408-728-0152 | anonymous networks, digital pseudonyms, zero W.A.S.T.E.: Corralitos, CA | knowledge, reputations, information markets, Higher Power: 2^2,976,221 | black markets, collapse of governments. "National borders aren't even speed bumps on the information superhighway."
Tim May
(As Gary seems to be a newcomer, let me remind him and others that "cypherpunks@toad.com" is not the place to send messages to the list. Please use one of the distributed addresses. It's been a year since the list moved off of toad.com. I wish John would just start bouncing messages sent to toad.com and be done with it.)
When are cocksuckers John Gilmore and Guy Polis planning to die from AIDS? --- Dr.Dimitri Vulis KOTM Brighton Beach Boardwalk BBS, Forest Hills, N.Y.: +1-718-261-2013, 14.4Kbps
At 10:29 AM -0800 1/31/98, Tim May wrote:
But what mattered is that, for the level of security needed on the battlefield, the system was "essentially secure" against Japanese translation. Sure, in time the Japanese could have found some experts on Navajo, could have trained their own code talker translators, etc. But they didn't have this time. (And if we posit "enough time," then the U.S. military would have had enough time to drop the Navajo code talkers and replace them with Ebonics code talkers. Dat be da jive, mo fo.)
When I was in China, I noted that French accented English was "essentially secure" against understanding by our Chinese hosts. We Americans did a lot of English to English translation on that trip. ------------------------------------------------------------------------- Bill Frantz | Market research shows the | Periwinkle -- Consulting (408)356-8506 | average customer has one | 16345 Englewood Ave. frantz@netcom.com | teat and one ball. | Los Gatos, CA 95032, USA
- aside from the NSA sucking up everything in sight relating to languages, doesn't Chomsky's theoretical 'Universal Syntax' (all human languages have an identical fundamental syntax) negate the effectiveness of the Code-Talker approach in the long run?
Not really; at its core, Chomsky's theory is a claim that every human can learn any human language -- something that 2-year old infants prove every day. I.e., nothing in language is specific to any particular human social or racial group: the differences are learned. There is a fair body of research that indicates that, after (roughly) puberty, humans do not learn foreign languages in the same way that infants learn their first language; but rather overlay the new language on top of their existing language.
- on the other hand, the lovely ambiguities of natural language would seem to be capable of effectively obscuring the meaning of the message even if the plaintext were revealed.
The code talkers used a variety of puns and allegorical metaphors to hide the underlying meaning from someone who could translate Navaho but lacked the overall shared culture of the Navaho sailors. During the 1940's, only a handful of non-Navaho (generally linguists) were fluent in the language (probably less than two dozen). Incidently, in a recent episode of the South Bronx tv series, a crime was solved because a black policeman was fluent in Japanese. Martin Minow minow@apple.com
participants (5)
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Bill Frantz -
dlv＠bwalk.dm.com -
Gary Harland -
Martin Minow -
Tim May