Is there a story behind “Bob” and “Alice” being the default characters we use? I feel like we see them a lot here. (Nothing wrong with it, just curious if there was an interesting reason)
They’re not just used on LessWrong if that’s what your thinking. They’re very commonly used in cryptography, where Alice tries to talk to Bob without Eve (the eavesdropper) intercepting the message. Essentially they’re just the canonical names beginning with A and B.
I feel like I’ve seen them on Less Wrong in the Sequences. Maybe it was just once in the past day and I’m paying more attention to it than is warranted.
They are on less wrong in the sequences. They’re on a lot of websites, wherever anyone needs to use some generic names for people. Using the same names every time makes it easy to remember who’s “person 1” in a scenario and who’s “person 2″, and makes it clear that the people are hypothetical.
Is there a story behind “Bob” and “Alice” being the default characters we use? I feel like we see them a lot here. (Nothing wrong with it, just curious if there was an interesting reason)
Alice and Bob.
They’re not just used on LessWrong if that’s what your thinking. They’re very commonly used in cryptography, where Alice tries to talk to Bob without Eve (the eavesdropper) intercepting the message. Essentially they’re just the canonical names beginning with A and B.
Don’t forget Trent, the trusted authenticator, or Mallory, the malicious attacker!
I feel like I’ve seen them on Less Wrong in the Sequences. Maybe it was just once in the past day and I’m paying more attention to it than is warranted.
They are on less wrong in the sequences. They’re on a lot of websites, wherever anyone needs to use some generic names for people. Using the same names every time makes it easy to remember who’s “person 1” in a scenario and who’s “person 2″, and makes it clear that the people are hypothetical.
Makes sense. Thanks.