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Death Note: L, Anonymity and Eluding Entropy (2017)

gwern.net

11–20 of 145 posts

Re: Death Note: L, Anonymity and Eluding Entropy (2017)

#11
post #8
post #6

If it's true that privacy is dead, how come Satoshi is still unknown?

The deathnote game is played iteratively. Satoshi ceased publishing before running out of bits.

This is true. I would very much like an article in this style examining Satoshi and how many bits he theoretically had left.

Re: Death Note: L, Anonymity and Eluding Entropy (2017)

#12
One thing the author seemingly didn't address - the overlap in entropy between the different mistakes. For example, Mistake 2 in timing leaked 6 bits, but those same 6 bits got leaked as a part of Mistake 4 in using confidential police information. Mistake 4 on its own is possibly the worst, but if you consider what L already knows, it's only 5 incremental bits lost.

Despite that, loved the article.

Re: Death Note: L, Anonymity and Eluding Entropy (2017)

#13
post #4

This was well cited with a lot of fun media references. The author makes a few interesting points on rationale for randomization, calling known unknowns and confounding factors as something one could plan for and avoid. Anybody know of other writers that do research and writing in this style? I quite enjoyed it.

Gwern Branwen has a large body of work on a broad range of topics. You could go to the top of his web page https://www.gwern.net/ , pick a topic that interests you, and start reading.

Re: Death Note: L, Anonymity and Eluding Entropy (2017)

#14

The ability to kill anyone one chose would be a far more terrifying weapon if used to instill fear. If someone used to this ability to kill individuals who didn't fit their agenda but kept anonymity about their goals, whatever changed they wished would only happen fairly slowly and haphazardly - those replacing the dead wouldn't have that much chance to produce different policies. Also, even a bunch of seemingly rand…

The Death Note could control what the victim did before their death. So Global Warming Kira could definitely have those random company heads die next to a piece of paper with "the deaths will continue until CO2 declines" written on it.

Re: Death Note: L, Anonymity and Eluding Entropy (2017)

#15

The ability to kill anyone one chose would be a far more terrifying weapon if used to instill fear. If someone used to this ability to kill individuals who didn't fit their agenda but kept anonymity about their goals, whatever changed they wished would only happen fairly slowly and haphazardly - those replacing the dead wouldn't have that much chance to produce different policies. Also, even a bunch of seemingly rand…

The Death Note could control what the victim did before their death. So Global Warming Kira could definitely have those random company heads die next to a piece of paper with "the deaths will continue until CO2 declines" written on it.

Then you could write, "Before their death, the CEO of Gas Inc. will invent nuclear fusion, spread it to every market, and then live a long and happy life."

Re: Death Note: L, Anonymity and Eluding Entropy (2017)

#16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The Death Note could control what the victim did before their death. So Global Warming Kira could definitely have those random company heads die next to a piece of paper with "the deaths will continue until CO2 declines" written on it.

Then you could write, "Before their death, the CEO of Gas Inc. will invent nuclear fusion, spread it to every market, and then live a long and happy life."

There's a limit of a few days, if I remember correctly, on how long you can control people for before they die.

Re: Death Note: L, Anonymity and Eluding Entropy (2017)

#17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The Death Note could control what the victim did before their death. So Global Warming Kira could definitely have those random company heads die next to a piece of paper with "the deaths will continue until CO2 declines" written on it.

Then you could write, "Before their death, the CEO of Gas Inc. will invent nuclear fusion, spread it to every market, and then live a long and happy life."

There are rules that would prevent that (they can only do things within their means, 1 month time limit).

What could work is an investment in such technologies, public announcements and then disappearing, maybe falling off a yacht or such a thing.

Re: Death Note: L, Anonymity and Eluding Entropy (2017)

#18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The Death Note could control what the victim did before their death. So Global Warming Kira could definitely have those random company heads die next to a piece of paper with "the deaths will continue until CO2 declines" written on it.

Then you could write, "Before their death, the CEO of Gas Inc. will invent nuclear fusion, spread it to every market, and then live a long and happy life."

In the show this was limited to things that were both possible and that the target might realistically be able to do.

Re: Death Note: L, Anonymity and Eluding Entropy (2017)

#19
post #3

This website really impressed me - a lot of interesting stuff to read, for sure.

It's a very cool format, for sure.

Scrolling through it quickly makes me feel like like I loaded a webpage that hasn't loaded images properly and show a little X icon instead.

Re: Death Note: L, Anonymity and Eluding Entropy (2017)

#20

This website really impressed me - a lot of interesting stuff to read, for sure.

Agree wholeheartedly. It's rare to find a website today that is so abjectly different than the rest of the web.

Abject =~ despicable
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