Decode the Message
Gardner said that it would
millions of years in order to decode the message at 1977 computer speeds.
In order to decode the message, we need d
since the decoded message would equal
message ^d mod n.
There is no way to solve for d unless we can first decompose
n into its prime factors p and q. But, this takes a lot of computer power.
One could work for years and years and still never find p and q.
We need p and q so that we can solve
e d mod (p-1)(q-1) = 1 for d.
In 1993, Arjen Lenstra a Belcore formed an international
group to factor n and break the code.
With 600 volunteers using 1600 workstations,
mainframes, and supercomputers
they broke the code in 6 months by factoring
the 129 digit number n.
In April 26, 1994, the presented the results and collected their $100 prize.
Decoding the Message
The decoded message is
20 08 05 00 13 01 07 09 03 00 23 15 18 04 19 00 01 18 05 00 19 17 21 05 01 13 09 19 08 00 15 19 19 09 06 18 01 07 05
Turning the Decoded Message into Words
00->_ 01->a 02->b 03->c
04->d 05->e 06->f
07->g 08->h 09->i 10->j
11->k 12->l 13->m 14->n
15->0 16->p 17->q
18->r
19->s
20->t
21->u 22->v 23->w 24->x 25->y
26->z.