Re: Science Lessons in the Mountains of New Mexico

["Deranged Mutant" <WlkngOwl@unix.asb.com>]

So where did you get this promotional hype? At least quote your 
sources. (Or did you write this?)

The tone of that piece sounds like an advert telling me to invest $$$ 
into Santa Fe Inst.

On 21 Jun 96 at 13:39, se7en wrote:
[..]
> The current thinkers are looking into not just mathematical complexity, 
> but complexity itself. Complexity theory. Complex systems of any 
> definition--the weather, perhaps, or the human immune system, or the 
> organizational behavior of insects--and how their workings and 
> adaptations might hold lessons for other fields, not least business.
[..]

Methinks "Complexity theory" (aka Dynamical Systems Theory) is 
wonderful hype to get research grants.  Certain people think by 
throwing money into this area that they can predict better, when much 
of theory deals with how these systems *cannot* be well predicted in 
*some* areas of behavior.  Other people over-mystify the complexity of 
a system and declare *nothing* can be predicted, of course.

Something akin to 60s-70s electrical utility exces bragging to each 
other on golf courses about how they own nuke plants.  Hip thing now 
is for the company to invest in research or use methods based on 
"Chaos Theory"... you'll be really cool at parties if you drop those 
words to people. Any form of analysis that uses lots of variables 
gets labelled as having to do with "Chaos Theory" and the research 
grants grow, even though it may not deal with those variables as a 
*dynamic system*. Substance though?

Not that studies in compelx systems are useless. By far the opposite.
(though the question of useful to *who* is important.  Using chaos 
theory to enhance methods of central control rather than allowing 
emergent behaviors is one downside of what some people are looking to 
the Santa Fe institute for.)

Other than noting crypto in the first paragraph and mentioning 
SmartCards, what does this have to do with crypto and socio- 
political implications of widespread use of crypto?

ObCrypto: similarities in literature on chaos theory and 
cryptanlysis.  I've seens refs to using various forms of chaotic 
equations or cellular automata for crypto, but most of the writers 
seem ignorant of any crypto-literature (never mentioning that 
Wolfram's PRNG is crackable, for instance). 

Backburner Idea: if all 1D CA's are equivalent to LFSRs, and if [need 
to find refs to this alleged proof] all 2+D CA's have an equivalent 
1D CA, then if a crypto algorithm can be duplicated as a CA...

Alas I ramble on about ideas which I am not an expert at...

Rob.


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