No it bloody doesn't.

[ciphergoth]

Mathematicians who know fuck all about crypto are fond of saying that their latest discovery might have crypto applications.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/2146295.stm

In this case, as usual, it doesn't.

Why is it crypto, of all fields, that attracts this idea that you don't have to know a damn thing about it to innovate in it? All fields get crackpots, but even crackpots have a vision that there are people employed to do some research in this field already, whereas there seem to be an endless supply of people who act as if they are the first to think really hard about encryption.

Update: Whoops, I spoke too soon. It turns out that Carl Pomerance among others is involved in this research, so I guess it is legit. I'm surprised.

Comments

Re: I take it innovation has low value

[valkyriekaren.livejournal.com]

I didn't really understand this until I read Cryptonomicon, so maybe the book exists already. And has a plot!