Comments
Clive Robinson • June 26, 2013 8:32 AM
As we know this sculpture is not the only ciphertext one belonging to a US TLA.
Which kind of raises the question to a philisophicla one of “why do the commission ciphertext sculptures?”
I’m sure it’s not just for the amature Ahabs harpooning their sarnies for lunch, but for some other reason…
Anon • June 26, 2013 9:32 AM
Love the untold story.. Public gets it in ’99.. CIA had it in ’98.. NSA.. ’93
And all this way before 9-11 and the resulting investments into the NSA/DHS…
Makes you wonder how far ahead of the curve they really are now…
matt • June 26, 2013 11:34 AM
I hope the last one is just garbage that doesn’t say anything. (I’m sure I’m not the first to suggest this).
Interesting • June 26, 2013 1:09 PM
It’s interesting that the letters are sculpted as cut-aways.
Maybe the last message needs to be solved from shadows and light on the ground that are created when the sun is at a certain angle?
Or maybe all of the messages come together on the ground to create an even deeper message?
Jon • June 26, 2013 6:16 PM
Interesting, but the dig about using computers is uncalled for. I mean, it’s not like Stein didn’t use tools too – if he were after a true challenge and enlightenment he’d have eschewed those bourgeois pencils and paper, and just have done the whole thing in his head.
Anyway, it’s not like you can just throw some cyphertext at a computer, hit the big red DECRYPT button, and have it spit out the result. The challenge is to configure the computer so that it knows what it’s supposed to be doing with the input, and does it in an elegant way. There’s plenty of challenge to be had there.
Danny • June 26, 2013 7:35 PM
Statement – never heard of Kryptos Sculpture before, and even now I am not interested to read it’s wiki entry for a minimum of info.
Quote from article:
“I was hit by that sweetly ecstatic, rare experience that I have heard described as a ‘moment of clarity.’ ….. continued this for several pages, then computed mathematically which rows were most likely to represent the correct plaintext letters, and searched for logical combinations between adjacent letters …..”
Huh? This sounds to me as plain old Kasiski method. Index of coincidence – ring a bell? So this guy took 400 hours only to have his Eureka moment when finally employed this? I would start with that first thing!
Jose Galofre Manero-SPAIN_europe • January 27, 2014 3:02 PM
- iF Letters 64-69 “NYPVTT” = “BERLIN” then K4 can be:
“…..PEOPLE TO CREATE A SAFER FREER WORLD AND SURELY THERE IS NO BETTER PLACE THAN BERLIN THE MEETING PLACE OF EAST AND WEST.”
— By Ronald Reagan, address at the Brandenburg Gate, June 12, 1987.
Because if K4 is a real text (like K3), then i should find key phrases/quotes related to Berlin (place). I look for the most important and beautiful texts (Kennedy & Reagan speeches)
And here I found this fragment:
http://www.americanrhetoric.com/speeches/ronaldreaganbrandenburggate.htm
This is a very nice solution but I have not a mathematical explanation.
Bye from Spain.
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Sidebar photo of Bruce Schneier by Joe MacInnis.
Woo • June 26, 2013 8:24 AM
aah damn.. I thought it now has been completely decoded. Seems the last 97 characters still hold their secret tight..