i think the factoring problem in this example reduces to knowing a secret. you don't factor the big number by being better at math than anyone else; you factor it by already knowing one of the factors, which other people don't know. (this is how public key cryptography works.)
(i find your question interesting because it's something i've idly speculated about before-- now i'm going to tie both your threads together-- by wondering if teaching all my friends to juggle would let me figure out whether they'd been replaced by doppelgangers who also stole their memories, if said doppelgangers didn't also have their skills... :) :) :) )
(or more generally, people have distinctive and recognizeable ways of doing a lot of physical skills-- walking, dancing, fighting, tapping morse code-- that might not be duplicated along with their knowledge.) )
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branchandroot
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Date: 2008-12-05 09:33 pm (UTC)(i find your question interesting because it's something i've idly speculated about before-- now i'm going to tie both your threads together-- by wondering if teaching all my friends to juggle would let me figure out whether they'd been replaced by doppelgangers who also stole their memories, if said doppelgangers didn't also have their skills... :) :) :) )
(or more generally, people have distinctive and recognizeable ways of doing a lot of physical skills-- walking, dancing, fighting, tapping morse code-- that might not be duplicated along with their knowledge.) )