| Robert Morris | Wednesdays 12:00 - 2:00 PM |
| March 23 through April 27, 2005 | DOC House |
It is well known that the major powers read each others codes and ciphers throughout World War II. Most of the history that we read is about the successful efforts at a place called Bletchley Park in England where the Allies read German messages. But the activity was much more widespread than that. The United States was reading Japanese ciphers, Germans were reading British ciphers, and everyone was reading Italian ciphers.
Perhaps the oddest aspect of all this was that each of the major powers, even when they were reading enemy ciphers, were convinced that their own ciphers were secure.
The course will consist primarily of lectures by the study leader, with some guest lecturers as available. There will be some history of recent wars (primarily World War II), some easy mathematics, some discussion of the effects of codebreaking on diplomacy, and on fighting war. It will be helpful, but not essential, to have some access to a computer (pc or Apple).
There will be some suggested, but not required, reading, principally from The Codebreakers, by David Kahn.
Everyone will have the opportunity to try his or her hand at encrypting and decrypting simple ciphers.
Class is limited to 20 members.
BOB MORRIS received a Bachelor's and a Master's degree in Mathematics from Harvard and then spent twenty-five years in the research area of Bell Laboratories. He is a professional mathematician who spent some years in the black world of spy vs. spy.
