RE: The 'No-Tech' Build
R. Sale > 12-08-2020, 06:10 PM
What I want to do is to suppose that we start with blank parchment. It's the first half of the 1400s. We have information to be recorded / transmitted and it must be done in the most secure manner possible. What are the options? What are the possibilities?
As I understand it, the various cipher systems in use at that time were not all that complex, They could 'potentially' be broken by others of that time and would not withstand modern analysis. On the other hand, there were (at that time?) one way ciphers, where information could not be recovered, - (without knowing the cipher key?) [[Is this valid in the 1400s?]]
So, if one option is too easy and the other is impossible, what about the combination? What about a one way cipher with a hidden key? Conceptually it's simple. Security is high. In fact, the security problem no longer depends so much on the language system as it does on the ability to disguise (and recover) the hidden cipher key. An unreadable text cannot tell us how to read an unreadable text. For that we must rely on the illustrations. If all illustrations are fantasy, then how is one option validated over another? If illustrations are validated by tradition, then the interpretations are grounded in a known reality. If traditional references are too obvious for those who were knowledgeable of those traditions, then the obfuscation, the level of ambiguity, is too weak.
Six hundred years later, these forgotten traditions have been covered by a thick layer of dust. As various investigators have helped to cart the dust away, perhaps a bigger picture will emerge.