From: Spike Jones (spike66@ibm.net)
Date: Sat Feb 19 2000 - 11:12:20 MST
Please some of you information theorists, tell me if this is possible:
Alpha and Charlie have a mutual friend Bravo, but do not know each
other. All three have email, but have no website of their own. Suppose
Alpha wants to know a piece of info about Charlie [something harmless,
such as how many pets Charlie has] with the following stipulations:
0) Alpha does not wish to reveal his or her identity.
1) Charlie is willing to play the game, but wants to pass the info
*only* to the unknown Alpha.
2) Bravo is helping both, allowing Alpha to pass questions or any
other needed info to Charlie without revealing Alpha's identity. It
is assumed that giving Charlie Alpha's email address reveals Alpha.
3) Charlie and Alpha are not required to borrow someone else's
email address or website or involve a fourth person in any way.
[Sending snail mail is an example of involving a fourth person.]
Information scientists: is this theoretically possible to do? I suspect
it is not, but I am unable to derive a proof. spike
This archive was generated by hypermail 2.1.5 : Fri Nov 01 2002 - 15:26:55 MST