From: sglass@netcom.com (Sheldon Glass)
Date: Sat, 23 Jul 94 11:30:00 PDT
To: cypherpunks@toad.com (Cypherpunx)
Subject: Travelling ants
Message-ID: <199407231820.LAA07482@netcom4.netcom.com>
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| From:    Ben Goren <ben@Tux.Music.ASU.Edu>
| Date:    Sat, 23 Jul 1994 10:24:48 -0700 (MST)
| Subject: Travelling ants
| 
| A recent RISKS digest had an article that described a computer that 
| simulated a colony of ants with independent software units that 
| interacted in certain ways. The article said that the "ants" were able to 
| find an efficient solution to the traveling salesman problem.

I bought Rudy Rucker's Hacker and the Ants (0-688-13416-5) in May.
Jerzy Rugby's an artificial life hacker who battles millions of "strange
viral pests appearing from out of nowhere to wreak havoc throughout the
net" in his quest for truly intelligent robots.  I really enjoyed the
story.  Like Stephenson, Rucker makes cyberspace a blast.  Recommended
buy.

Remember folks, don't allow 0xdef6 as the Godel sentence if you're into
this kind of thing.

| Wouldn't such a system be perfect for a public key cryptosystem? It seems 
| that mechanisms already designed for knapsack algorithms would work; it 
| would remain to be worked out if the traveling salesman problem has the 
| same cryptographic problems as the knapsack problem.

I wonder if e$ fundraising could support grants to investigate good
ideas?

| b&

Sheldon
- -- 
sheldon glass             | "... if you think ah *enjoy* steppin an fetchin an
sglass@netcom.com         | talkin this way, you crazy."
#include <std.disclaimer> |
   finger for PGP key                       from _Wetware_ by Rudy Rucker

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