Cipher_Challenge (cipher-challenge on Bluesky)

Created by the School of Mathematical Sciences @UniSouthampton.
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[Cipher_Challenge (cipher-challenge on Bluesky) @Cipher_Master]

@GCHQ One of your colleagues pointed out to me that the 25th National Cipher Challenge (starting in Sept) is not actually the 25th anniversary competition, but the 24th. In the same spirit of collegial pedantry I have to ask: can a first of anything really be described as "annual"?

[Cipher_Challenge (cipher-challenge on Bluesky) @Cipher_Master]

@RealGeoffBarton I suppose DJ would be an an easier way to get people to hear you without being able to see your lips move.

[Cipher_Challenge (cipher-challenge on Bluesky) @Cipher_Master]

We've a few tickets spare for the National Cipher Challenge event at Bletchley on 4th March. With speakers including Rob Eastaway.If you or your school took part in the competition in the Autumn, email us at [email protected] with your details so we can see if we can fit you in.

[Cipher_Challenge (cipher-challenge on Bluesky) @Cipher_Master]

@charlesarthur @graceyldn They install mini black holes in the machines to keep them stable - it's why they are so hard to move. That together with the fast spin plays havoc with the measurement of time.

[Cipher_Challenge (cipher-challenge on Bluesky) @Cipher_Master]

@jamestitcomb Did the department misunderstand the minister's request and ask an AI to write a skills website perhaps?

[Cipher_Challenge (cipher-challenge on Bluesky) @Cipher_Master]

@FoggyCrazyTimes @rastokke Maybe get him to look at https://t.co/3QZO4elOIF: a story, a mystery, and some tricky ciphers to solve. We have published the solutions to this year's competition, but he can still try them, and we will launch the 25th edition in September.

[Cipher_Challenge (cipher-challenge on Bluesky) @Cipher_Master]

@C_Hendrick "The question is what education looks like when the technology underpinning it improves exponentially" - If one horse can pull a heavy cart at 1 mile an hour and two horses can pull it at 2 miles an hour then think how fast 20 horses could pull it!

[Cipher_Challenge (cipher-challenge on Bluesky) @Cipher_Master]

@edujdw @ReemKhan_07 You shouldn't continue to prop up this thread.

[Cipher_Challenge (cipher-challenge on Bluesky) @Cipher_Master]

@SusanElkinJourn Thought, just for a moment, that you meant you had played Mr Wickham (rather than (re?)viewing the play)! A reminder to us all just how much capitalisation matters.

[Cipher_Challenge (cipher-challenge on Bluesky) @Cipher_Master]

@Sheena2907 Do the columns of the matrix add to 0 independent of the values of x,y and z? In which case I think the matrix has to have determinant zero.

[Cipher_Challenge (cipher-challenge on Bluesky) @Cipher_Master]

Merry Christmas to everyone in the National Cipher Challenge community. Hope you all have a restful day if you are celebrating, and an enjoyable day whether or not you are.

[Cipher_Challenge (cipher-challenge on Bluesky) @Cipher_Master]

@littmath I can't help wondering how we would deal with a world in which the machines can produce and verify enormous quantities of mathematics. Who will decide what is worth reading and how will they decide that? Scarcity of resource has shaped mathematics. What will abundance do to it?

[Cipher_Challenge (cipher-challenge on Bluesky) @Cipher_Master]

@howie_hua Bit harsh on Norm!

[Cipher_Challenge (cipher-challenge on Bluesky) @Cipher_Master]

@thetimes Looking at those boards it looks like the kids are learning quadratic reciprocity - that would be AMAZING if true!!

[Cipher_Challenge (cipher-challenge on Bluesky) @Cipher_Master]

@alz_zyd_ Is there any point in reading a novel now that LLMs can be trained on them? Or play chess now that Deep Mind can beat the best? How about paint a picture now that we have diffusion models? .... Who will read the papers the machines write if you don't bother learning the basics?

[Cipher_Challenge (cipher-challenge on Bluesky) @Cipher_Master]

@alex_prompter I will have to read this paper, but the list of "brittle" failures reads like a list of weaknesses shared by human scientists. Modern scientific communities have evolved a whole host of social mechanisms to moderate them and I am not sure that LLMs couldn't do the same?

[Cipher_Challenge (cipher-challenge on Bluesky) @Cipher_Master]

https://t.co/Vkg3QnF87d

@BBCnews - surely heptopus?

[Cipher_Challenge (cipher-challenge on Bluesky) @Cipher_Master]

@bletchleypark We love our annual visit to @bletchleypark for the National Cipher Challenge prize giving and can thoroughly commend their hospitality. If you get a chance to visit, we would recommend you take it - the atmosphere is great! (Love the audio scape in the grounds)

[Cipher_Challenge (cipher-challenge on Bluesky) @Cipher_Master]

@Millais_Maths @unisouthampton Really pleased to have you on board!

[Cipher_Challenge (cipher-challenge on Bluesky) @Cipher_Master]

@VictoriaCoren Maybe you were thinking of wickest?