Zero Knowledge in the Cave

Bill Sommerfeld sommerfeld at orchard.arlington.ma.us
Fri May 16 14:33:53 EDT 2003


> You reason that if there were no connection between the passageways,
> the only way the explorer could come out the passage that you named
> would be if he had gone in that same one.  He would have to guess
> which one you were going to choose, and if he were right, he could
> come out that one.  But you have repeated the test dozens of times.
> The chances that someone could guess right so often is infinitisimal.
> The only logical explanation is that the passageway does exist.

A skeptic of the above scenario could claim that the "explorer" was
actually a pair of identical twins (one of whom was hiding in the cave
before you entered) rather than a single individual.

One possible defense against this would involve an uncopiable but
verifiable token given to the "first" explorer.

					- Bill





---------------------------------------------------------------------
The Cryptography Mailing List
Unsubscribe by sending "unsubscribe cryptography" to majordomo at metzdowd.com



More information about the cryptography mailing list