From: gnu (John Gilmore)
Date: Thu, 12 Aug 93 09:58:12 PDT
To: cypherpunks@toad.com
Subject: Re: Secure voice software issues
In-Reply-To: <9308120629.AA17113@netcom4.netcom.com>
Message-ID: <9308121657.AA20346@toad.com>
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain


My proposal is that we get some software working that produces poor
quality speech in realtime on fast hardware that most people don't
have.  Then, improved search algorithms will bring higher quality.*
The natural evolution of faster hardware will make it available to all.

I think that we as cypherpunks have been thrown off a bit by the policy
issues and the publicity we've received.  It's time to get back into 
active development.  Remember, architecture *is* policy!

	John

* The way these algorithms work is that the sender goes through a
laborious process to find the best "encoding" (literally -- out of a
code book) that matches the sounds it is trying to communicate.
Typically the quality depends on how much time it has to do this;
spending more time looking at more possibilities, makes it more likely
that you find one with a very small difference between the real signal
and the encoded signal.  We can start off with stupid algorithms that
just give up and use the best-so-far when they run out of time, and
gradually improve them to be more intelligent about the *order* in which
they search.  This requires no change to receivers; it's backward
compatible.