Co-inventor of public-key encryption, winner of the Turing prize, and advocate for world peace—Martin Hellman shares his insights on technology, conflict, and personal development.

Martin Hellman achieved legendary status as co-inventor of the Diffie-Hellman public key exchange algorithm, a breakthrough in software and computer cryptography. That invention and his ongoing work in cryptography and digital signatures earned him a Turing award in 2015. He has since followed that up with a second act devoted to promoting world peace and personal development.

I was recently able to meet with Mr. Hellman for a far-ranging conversation about the technological and personal synergies that have shaped his thinking and defined his career. It was both a pleasure and an honor to interview one of the true luminaries of technology innovation.

  • anon@lemmy.dbzer0.comEnglish
    45·
    6 months ago

    a love letter to feds.

    Tyson: Your battle with the government to make private communication available to the general public in the digital age has the status of folklore. But, in your recent book (co-authored with your wife Dorothie), you describe a meeting of minds with Admiral Bobby Ray Inman, former head of the NSA. Until I read your book, I saw the National Security Agency as bad and Diffie-Hellman as good, plain and simple. You describe how you came to see the NSA and its people as sincere actors rather than as a cynical cabal bent on repression. What changed your perspective?

    Hellman: This is a great, real-life example of how taking a holistic view in a conflict, instead of just a one-sided one, resolved an apparently intractable impasse. Those insights were part of a major change in my approach to life.  As we say in our book, “Get curious, not furious.” These ideas are effective not just in highly visible conflicts like ours with the NSA, but in every aspect of life.

    Tyson: I love the story there of how Admiral Inman kind of created the opening for bridging between you and the NSA.

    ACAB

    FUCK THE NSA