What would a society without cryptography look like?
In this world you have access to computers powerful enough to decipher messages as long as the method used to encrypt it has at least one theoretical weakness (those computers cannot defeat an impregnable encryption method).
In other words: if it's feasible then the computers can solve it in less than one second.
Therefore, you can't easily transmit ciphered information (keys, passwords, etc.) and you can't hide anything but with physical vaults.
- What would this society look like?
- (Edit to narrow the subject) How could those people still transmit secured messages? Is it possible?
I asked a related question in Physics. See Could quantum computers break any code for more information.
Edit: I removed the part which stipulate my world could have a law forbidding people from ciphering information here.
This post was sourced from https://worldbuilding.stackexchange.com/q/20730. It is licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0.
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