wrote on Apr 1^st, 2003 at 3:58pm:

Let's think about this....if man has created it,then man can defeat it... ...learning is always a step ahead of technology because it is required to invent new technology in the first place...

orolan wrote on Apr 1^st, 2003 at 8:58pm:

"Legitimate proven technologies are safe only for a few months, while "snake oil", quackery and old wives' tales may last for an eternity." That better?

No orolan.  Not better.  I know it's off the subject completely, but the RSA encryption algorithm is a bit of long lasting technology that has not been cracked.  It is, however, based on the belief that P != NP (i.e., the set of problems solvable in deterministic Polynomial time is not equal to the set of problems solvable in Nondeterministic Polynomial time).  The statement P != NP is based on belief, and not on fact.  It has not been proven that there is no efficient algorithm for factoring large positive integers.  It has also not been proven that there does exist such an algorithm.  Thus, the belief that RSA encryption (as used by PGP and others) is absolutely safe is a dangerous one at best.  A good general reference on the matter is "Computers and Intractibility" by Garey and Johnson.

This is just to demonstrate that some technologies exist that people put an unfounded amount of faith in other than just the polygraph.  These technologies can still be valuable and useful to the people who use them.  The art of making gross generalizations on subjects where the artist has a lack of expertise should be left to the politicians, in my humble opinion.

By the way, I have found this site and this subject in general very interesting and informative.  I personally find lie detector tests an affront to my right to privacy.  Thanks George.