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October 20, 2005
Book Report
I finished The Code Book by Simon Singh last week. A fascinating journey through centuries of cryptography. Well written and interesting. Cryptography isn't my field, but his descriptions seem accurate and they make sense. Can anyone vouch for the accuracy of this book?
From the Preface:
"In writing The Code Book, I have had two main objectives. The first is to chart the evolution of codes. Evolution is a wholly appropriate term, because the development of codes can be viewed as an evolutionary struggle. A code is constantly under attack from codebreakers.... the book's second objective is to demonstrate how the subject is more relevant today than ever before. As information becomes an increasingly valuable commodity, and as the communications revolution changes society, so the process of encoding messages, known as encryption, will play an increasing role in every life." pp ix, x.
Interesting and great background reading for class.
Posted by DavidK at October 20, 2005 03:38 PM | Permalink