Empennage Seminar -- Sun Microsystems

[stevenw@iglou.com (Steven Weller)]

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

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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