this post was submitted on 16 Feb 2024
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[–] [email protected] 3 points 9 months ago (1 children)

If the word “cryptography” here is what throws anyone off, it’s not some advanced field of study, it just refers to the physical manifestation of messaging, which a child can get behind.

No it doesn't. Cryptography is specifically encoding messages in a way that is hard for someone without the specific secret key to decode, even if they know the methodology.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 9 months ago (1 children)

So much for a non-native English speaker wanting to have some verbal legroom on Lemmy.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 9 months ago (1 children)

You provided a definition that doesn't even loosely resemble the correct one.

There's no need to use words you don't understand, especially when they're wildly unrelated to whatever you're saying. They just add confusion.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 9 months ago (1 children)

You say that like it's that big a leap. In any case, sorry I wasn't 100% linguistically perfect, even post-elaboration. Half of people say I should be concise, the other half says I should elaborate more, so I figured someone would sound unpleased.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 9 months ago (1 children)

Because it's a giant one.

There is no valid interpretation of cryptography that resembles the way you defined it in any way.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 9 months ago (1 children)

Is that based on what you see when you look it up?

cryp·tog·ra·phy

noun

the art of writing or solving codes.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 9 months ago (2 children)

That's a terrible definition, but "codes" is doing the heavy lifting.

It is not a code, in that definition, if it does not require knowledge of a key to decode.

It is literally impossible for anything that doesn't have a secret key to qualify as cryptography. That is the entire defining trait.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 9 months ago

That’s a terrible definition

How so?

And what do you think I've been talking about this whole time if not forms of substitution?

[–] [email protected] 1 points 9 months ago (1 children)

no. replacement cyphers are cryptography, too.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago)

The "key" is the mapping of cipher alphabet to message alphabet.

There has to be a secret to be cryptography. The meaning has to be hidden without the secret information (though primitive/weak attempts can have a small enough search space to be brute forced). But the content being hidden without that information is the entirety of what the word means.