How could public key cryptography evolve in a biological system?

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Imagine an ecosystem where animals have evolved highly developed mimicry of each other's calls (perhaps they have the universal vocal apparatus discussed in earlier questions). So predators lure prey, prey confuse predators, and rivals confuse prospective mates and each other.

So after that, they evolve an authentication mechanism. Think of the difference between a cheap garage door opener that is trivially defeated by recording the signal and playing it back later; vs the more advanced systems.

The animals evolve something like "code rotation" and use it as a signature on any call or cry (and later, language) so that simply replay attacks can't work. They need to share a secret with the sender once to authenticate that sender going forward.

That's the selection pressure. I'm asking: what are the biological mechanisms that provide for this? It needs to provide an evolutionary path for continuous improvement. It does noot need to be proof against our modern understanding of cryptography "” just against other animals that have an incentive to evolve a way to forge them.

posted almost 7 years ago

JDługosz‭

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