Thanks for finding this. Once you read a bizarre sentence like that, you begin to suspect that the level of research Brown puts into subjects which you may know

Thanks for finding this. Once you read a bizarre sentence like that, you begin to suspect that the level of research Brown puts into subjects which you may know less about, such as religious history, to be similarly dismal. I doubt these kinds of books are even a little bit instructive as the article makes out. Rather they leave you knowing less about the world than you did before you started. However, I couldn't help but read a bit further, where the Achilles Heel of TRANSLTR is identified - 'rotating clear text': > The notion of a rotating cleartext function was first put forth in an obscure, 1987 paper by a Hungarian mathematician, Josef Harne. Because brute-force computers broke codes by examining cleartext for identifiable word patterns, Harne proposed an encryption algorithm that, in addition to encrypting, shifted decrypted cleartext over a time variant. In theory, the perpetual mutation would ensure that the attacking computer would never locate recognizable word patterns and thus never know when it had found the proper key. The concept was somewhat like the idea of colonizing Mars-fathomable on an intellectual level, but, at present, well beyond human ability. Of course, neither Harne nor the notion of 'rotating clear text' actually exist!