Re: Had an idea - looking for a math buff to tell me if it's possiblewith today's technology.

[Steven Bellovin <smb () cs columbia edu>]

On May 19, 2011, at 9:48 35AM, Jamie Bowden wrote:

> I know you're having fun with him, but I think what the original poster
> had in mind was more like thinking of a file as just a string of
> numbers.  Create an equation that generates that string of numbers, send
> equation, regenerate string on other end.  Of course, if it was that
> easy, someone would already have done it

Yes.  I guess I was too terse with my answer, but this is known as
Kolmogorv complexity.  It's a well-known concept, and in general
you can't construct such equations/programs/what-have-yous.  Wikipedia
even gives a proof of that...


                --Steve Bellovin, https://www.cs.columbia.edu/~smb