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January 2018: Science
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(Listopia) The Code Book: The Science of Secrecy from Ancient Egypt to Quantum Cryptography - Simon Singh - 4 Stas
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There was a year limit for the full prize. It was solved but after a year. I forget who got how much money.
What an interesting book and straight up your alley. Funny coincidence that I just finished reading about Mary Queen of Scott’s and the codes she used to engineer her network of plotting. Her network passed her letters nearly across many kingdoms and several uprisings were started through this vehicle. My other association, and it’s not quite codes, is Gematria. What is Gematria? It’s actually a number weighted look at the Torah, the Hebrew bible. (It’s possible that few besides you Jason will find this interesting). The examples would be that certain letters and vowels carry a numerological weight, and therefore a word total could carry a number of mystical weight. But to shift or change just one letter links two words, thereby linking them by having one word have the capacity to elevate to another. Here’s an example. (I know I have digressed from Jason’s book, but I imagine he will forgive me. I am sure the conversation will turn back to codes.) The example is the words motzah and mitzvah. Motzah is a think cracker that was bread that failed to rise during the exodus of the Jews, from Egypt to Israel, slavery to Freedom. Mitzvah refers to good deeds and holy deeds. By changing just a letter or adding a vowel the word totals are elevated to a holy whole number. I have always thought that was extremely cool. Mystics make much of the number meaning combinations and links. And privately Jason, I could share more about numerology in this vein.Lovers of codes will find many find many novels to enjoy, the Davinci Code, the Four, and numerous spy novels. I have always appreciated a good code book myself.
The science of cryptogrpahy. I never knew it was so fascinating.
On Goodreads the book is titled "from Ancient Egypt to Quantum Cryptography", but everywhere else I have found the title to be "from Mary Queen of Scots to Quantum Cryptography"
This book takes you through the history of cryptography and cryptanalyst, revisiting some of the most famous points in history, such as using cyptanalysts to discover the evidence that lead to the execution of Queen Mary as well as Alan Turning and the decipher of the Enigma code used by the Germans during WWII, and how important both ciphers and breaking cipher are. He explains how each code and crypt works. He also brings light to things that are not famously known in history such as the Vigenère cipher, the Polish find the first weaknesses in the Enigma code. Then, he turns his attention to ancient languages. Though they are not cryptography, breaking ancient langues uses the same techniques for breaking ciphers. In depth explanations of solving Hieroglyphics, demotic, and linear B is amazing. These people, those who come up with ciphers and those breaking them are truly geniuses who can think outside of the box. Where we are today is examined and also the political issue of privacy vs government surveillance. Finally, the last chapter discusses where we are headed in cryptography. Quantum cryptography.
At the end of the book, there are 10 ciphers for you to try to break. I have not tried it yet, but I plan on trying. The book was published in 1999, and a 15000 reward was promised to the first person to break all 10 ciphers.
I highly recommend this book.