Re: Why the interest in really big primes? Re: new confuser

From: Brett Paatsch (paatschb@optusnet.com.au)
Date: Sat Jun 14 2003 - 03:45:20 MDT

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    Spike wrote:
    > >> But if we transmit a long list of Mersenne primes, (the
    > >> same in any base, in any corner of the universe) we
    > >> demonstrate that not only are we a clever species, we have
    > >> computer resources to simply waste on foolishness...
    >
    > >Ah the classic "we speak softly but carry a long list of
    > >Mersenne primes" deterrent. Very cunning.
    >
    > Doh! The possible new Mersenne prime (number 40)
    > reported a couple weeks ago turned out to be a
    > computer error. }8-[ So we are still at 39 for now.
    > Do let us hope that we discover no rapacious
    > extraterrestrials with 40 Mersennes in the next few
    > months, before we have a chance to arm ourselves.

    Holy Broken Arrow one of our Mersennes is missing?

    I guess that leaves us looking for a "few good Mersennes".

    Praps we should wider our thinking in terms of planetary
    defence. We made need to think very laterally.

    I'm thinking high tech aggressive aliens would still be curious.
    Perhaps we can use a "Trojan horse" or alternatively
    the "throwing diseased animals over the wall ploy".

    We could alternative digitise and transmit the dna or either
    some of our finest, (Godel and Heisenberg might give them
    pause for a while), or some of our nastiest and let their
    fiendish curiosity construct the means of their own undoing.

    - Brett Paatsch

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