One argument that might go against the idea of cryptography for human senses is that one might envision a future of enhanced humans that have abilities to interact with cryptographic protocols in a native way. Such ideas are currently more mainstream in science fiction, but it might be that at some point this could be possible in reality. One example of such future is presented in Hannu Rajaniemi’s novel The Quantum Thief [58].
In the book, the Martian society has developed a very elaborate system called gevulot (Hebrew for ”limits”), which is essentially a PKI system that allows the people to achieve various levels of privacy and even choose what parts of conversations and interactions can be ”remembered” by the parties involved. The citizens of Mars have developed skills and an etiquette on how to use this system in their daily lives. Of course, the people living in the society have vastly transcended our current human capabilities.
On the other hand, it might be possible to realise a system much like gevulot with current cryptographic methods such as attribute-based encryption, homomorphic encryption and other advanced cryptographic primitives. Thus, it would be great to have these systems work in a way that would be accessible to ordinary humans. This then would be an argument in favour of researching cryptography for human senses.
Hannu Rajaniemi’s new science fiction novel The Quantum Thief. http://bit.ly/dmV10t— Stephen Gordon (@ironnoir) November 10, 2010
