Re: Prime Number Question

dave wrote:
Joachim Schipper <jdNoOtSPAMschipper@xxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
dave <daf@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
Joachim Schipper <jdNoOtSPAMschipper@xxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
dave <daf@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
What would be the security impact to encryption technology if there
were discovered a simply algorithm for generating all prime numbers
directly (no sieve required), in batches, with each batch being used
to generate the next batch?
Such a method would most likely be rather inefficient; keep in mind that
the current best factoring method, the number field sieve, only becomes
the 'best' (i.e. fastest) at about 10^100 [1]. Anything that works in
batches will need quite a while to get to numbers that big.
See the website http://calculateprimes.com for information about the
new book documenting the algorithm which uses only addition and
subtraction to generate primes directly with essentially no filtering
required. The author, James McCanney, has masters degrees in physics
and math and taught many college levelmath courses at Cornell University. Ignore McCanney's spelling errors. One of my brothers had a PhD in
algebraic topology and his spelling was atrocious. It didn't affect his
math except when he was writing papers for publication.
The first paragraph gives a strong idea that this person is an
sensationalist and idiot, and further reading and Wikipedia confirm
that.

Wikipedia is known to be highly politicised. McCanney is *far* from an idiot,
but you are certainly entitled to your opinion.

Known by whom? Upon what basis do you form this opinion?

Given the above, whoever develops the theory necessary for such an
algorithm to work is extremely likely to be awarded the Fields Medal and
his [2] position of choice at his university of choice. (Also see:
Andrew Wiles.)
McCanney has an impressive track record in Astronomy, but his work has
been ignored by the scientific establishment. Ditto for Immanuel Velikovsky,
in whose footsteps McCanney treads.
Wikipedia suggests that he is a well-known idiot, yes.

Believe Wikipedia without reading McCanney's original work (which I
have) at your own risk.

Contrary to the politically correct notions of late, some opinions are worth more than others. We are correct in being skeptical of new ideas purporting to change the world. The reason is that so few ideas actually /do/ change the world.

Math and crypto theory is full of cranks and weirdos, and we would be well-advised to take any announcement of ground-breaking, world-shaking work with a healthy does of scepticism.

Regardless of how well this new work is presented, the proof of the pudding (as they used to say) is in the eating. Whether or not this person is a crank, a modest amount of published papers and peer review will sort it all out. This will happen regardless of how interesting or novel the ideas are, or how cranky or uncranky this person turns out to be.

These guys take as much delight in tearing apart ideas as in coming up with their own ideas. This is generally recognized as a Very Good Thing.

One thing is for sure: the maths and sciences establishment is not always fair about some things (and can be down-right ugly), but they will gladly accept and verify your good ideas and public service. Case in point: Alan Turing.
.

Relevant Pages

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