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Death Note: L, Anonymity & Eluding Entropy

gwern.net

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Re: Death Note: L, Anonymity & Eluding Entropy

#21

Post by sidww2 »

buu700 wrote: post #19

It's kind of funny that you posted this now, because at the moment I'm actually hacking on the last level of Stripe's Capture the Flag with Low of Solipsism, L's theme, Kira's theme, Near's theme, and Zetsubou Billy looping in the background. As a side note, has anyone else considered the possibility that it's entirely possible that Light could have simply set up a server which would schedule his victims' deaths for…

But he wanted the world to know that there was a Kira. His ambition was to be the God of the world. He could anonymously send instructions to the world to do what he wanted only if people knew there was a Kira.

Re: Death Note: L, Anonymity & Eluding Entropy

#22

Post by Natsu »

throwaway15213 wrote: post #17

How much can you trust each bit of information you gained though? For example, it might be very possible that Light could be intentionally waking up at the middle of the night to do his killings. In which case you would've ruled out japan, which then ruins your subsequent analysis which is all somewhat based on him being in japan. Verifying every bit of information gained or even assigning a probability to how much y…

The show itself used quite a few very interesting methods to do it. Basically, L played a lot of hunches and won big several times.

The part about the time of day was found out long after L had narrowed things down to a small region of Japan by provoking Light into killing someone who appeared on a "worldwide" broadcast that was actually only broadcast in Light's prefecture. The time of day part was actually used to hypothesize that Light was a student, whereupon the pattern changed to show people killed every hour of the day. And L saw through that by assuming (correctly) that Light had access to police data. It seemed like he was always watching Light's reactions to his moves, rather than the moves themselves.

Probably one of the most clever traps of all was after they met in person, when L was able to trap Light by getting evidence that Light knew something he should have no way of knowing at all by means of false evidence. He played it off as Light being too dumb to figure out the riddle, but the only reason he couldn't solve it was because he thought the answer was impossible (and he shouldn't have known that).

Re: Death Note: L, Anonymity & Eluding Entropy

#23

Post by Lockyy »

Natsu wrote: post #22
throwaway15213 wrote: post #17

How much can you trust each bit of information you gained though? For example, it might be very possible that Light could be intentionally waking up at the middle of the night to do his killings. In which case you would've ruled out japan, which then ruins your subsequent analysis which is all somewhat based on him being in japan. Verifying every bit of information gained or even assigning a probability to how much y…

The show itself used quite a few very interesting methods to do it. Basically, L played a lot of hunches and won big several times. The part about the time of day was found out long after L had narrowed things down to a small region of Japan by provoking Light into killing someone who appeared on a "worldwide" broadcast that was actually only broadcast in Light's prefecture. The time of day part was actually used to…

One problem with the article I realised earlier was that it described the broadcast to Kanto as a gamble because it wasn't broadcast anywhere else, which is wrong. It was broadcast in each region one after another to find out which region it was in. It wasn't a gamble at all, it was a very clever way of finding out where Kira was watching from.

Re: Death Note: L, Anonymity & Eluding Entropy

#24

Post by Tichy »

I have recently thought about a possible future where everybody could kill everybody else anonymously. No idea how that would play out - probably with extinction?

I think technology could provide such a future, for example something like those tiny poison drones in the movie Dune.

Or maybe it will be possible to genetically engineer a virus to just kill one specific person - kind of like Stuxnet was targeted at one specific factory...

Re: Death Note: L, Anonymity & Eluding Entropy

#25

Post by gwern »

Cushman wrote: post #14
ufo wrote: post #5

I hate to be pedantic, but mistake #1 misses the point a bit. While the serial killer doesn't want to be found, he certainly wants to be known .

If you really want to scare people, you should make every cause of death "Batman". Or maybe "space laser".

The death has to be possible; Light tests out the limits early and finds IIRC that if you specify an imprisoned criminal dies outside the prison, the Death Note just gives up and kills them normally or something like that. 'Batman' and 'space laser' are right out, as is making criminals solve NP-hard or Halting problems.

Re: Death Note: L, Anonymity & Eluding Entropy

#26

Post by mikecane »

Tichy wrote: post #24

I have recently thought about a possible future where everybody could kill everybody else anonymously. No idea how that would play out - probably with extinction? I think technology could provide such a future, for example something like those tiny poison drones in the movie Dune. Or maybe it will be possible to genetically engineer a virus to just kill one specific person - kind of like Stuxnet was targeted at one s…

See the Twilight Zone episode or Matheson's story: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Button,_Button_%28The_Twilight_...

Re: Death Note: L, Anonymity & Eluding Entropy

#28

Post by archangel_one »

buu700 wrote: post #19

It's kind of funny that you posted this now, because at the moment I'm actually hacking on the last level of Stripe's Capture the Flag with Low of Solipsism, L's theme, Kira's theme, Near's theme, and Zetsubou Billy looping in the background. As a side note, has anyone else considered the possibility that it's entirely possible that Light could have simply set up a server which would schedule his victims' deaths for…

As I recall, part of the rules of the Death Note was that the user has to picture the face of the victim as they write the name, so they have to have a name and a face to kill. I assume a printer doesn't manage to do that, although I do suspect at times that some printers are fairly malevolent.

Re: Death Note: L, Anonymity & Eluding Entropy

#29

Post by commieneko »

glimcat wrote: post #15
Cushman wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you really want to scare people, you should make every cause of death "Batman". Or maybe "space laser".

"Death by ironic circumstances. Time of death chosen from within the allowed range such that hazards to bystanders are minimized, then such that irony is maximized, then randomly." Solving for maxima in the Law of Universal Perversity should do it.

Might as well wish for a Deathnote that was Touring Complete.

The story emphasises that Deathnotes are fairly literal, and that if you try to push it you'll just get a heart attack death.

Re: Death Note: L, Anonymity & Eluding Entropy

#30

Post by ff0066mote »

Just a note to the author:

I'm getting a lot of [Math Processing Errors] when I view your article: http://imgur.com/PSeMX I haven't looked at the source to see what was going on, so it might be that I'm blocking flash or something.

Otherwise, it was great! :) Thanks for a fun read!

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