Conference noted::sf

444.0. "Ideas" by BEING::POSTPISCHIL (Always mount a scratch monkey.) Sun Feb 15 1987 18:51

    Mention of the Bell Effect gave me an idea.  Physicists are currently
    dealing with the possibility that there are non-local connections
    between certain events.  In other words, things can happen at different
    places at the same time (or too close for communication at the speed of
    light) which show a correlation.  It does not seem possible to transfer
    information more quickly than light, because the events only show the
    correlation when compared.  For example, doing a certain experiment
    might yield a stream of bits in place A and another stream of bits in
    place B which are totally random as far as any analysis can tell until
    they are placed together, at which time the exclusive-or, or XOR, of
    the bits shows all ones or perhaps some pattern which was determined by
    the experimenter.
    
    This could have utility as an unbreakable code.  Perform the required
    actions, yield a stream of bits at A and B.  Take your message, XOR it
    with the bits that arrived at A, and transmit the encoding to B, where
    the bits that arrived at B are used to decode the message.
    
    To a person without either set of bits, the encoding would be as
    perfectly random as the experiment could make it.  No mathematical
    analysis could reveal the message any better than it could by working
    on a random string. 
    
    
    				-- edp

Hope this isn't too off the subject, but isn't there a school of spiritualism
that works by piecing together seemingly unrelated information gleaned by
mediums in different parts of the world to come up with hidden "messages"?  In
other words, no one medium is getting the whole message...

    This encryption method has in fact been used in several
    applications which require high security.  The first
    commercial use of this method took place about 4 years ago.
    
    -S