![]() It was a forerunner of the strategic bomber, the guided missile, and the 'smart bomb.'Īs recently as the 1970s there were no cryptology courses in university mathematics or computer-science departments nor were there crypto textbooks, crypto journals, or crypto software. It was instead evidence of faith that technology could substitute for manpower. Why the Maginot Line Failed In fact, the Maginot Line, the chain of fortifications on France's border with Germany, was indicative neither of despair about defeating Germany nor of thought mired in the past. ![]() What would amaze past mathematicians is not just the number of conferences but that they exist at all. Sponsored by the cryptography firm, the conferences are attended by as many as 10,000 cryptographers, computer scientists, network managers, and digital-security professionals. But they would be absolutely astonished by the RSA Conference, the world's biggest trade show for cryptographers. The Crypto Wars If mathematicians from the 1970s were suddenly transported through time to the present, they would be happily surprised by developments such as the proofs to Kepler's conjecture (proposed in 1611, confirmed in 1998) and to Fermat's last theorem (1637, 1994).
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