Shortest distance between two points is not always a straight line | Metaquestions
This post is probably very brief and disingenuous for any mathematician out there, it is aimed at as many people as possible and I hope it comes across in an easy to understand way. We will see I suppose 🙂
I find myself explaining MaidSafe many times to many people and try to do so in  a language and counting system they will understand. I ‘get it’ that people want this, so do I, but to understand MaidSafe it’s really not possible to think in our comfortable world of linear number lines and counting. The term used to describe what I am talking about is ‘non euclidean maths’. I dislike that a lot as its like calculus or similar, a term to scare people off. This is not necessary as it is way simpler than a confusing term.  It is also way more simple if you immerse yourself in this type of maths, many people will not and never understand you, but it leads to many hours of quiet solitude and relaxation as a whole new world of possibilities opens up in front of you. I find that you can lose yourself in such counting systems, a bit like the Gauss clock counting base number systems, it’s very unusual and interesting. Not at all clever, but very different.
MaidSafe is based on an XOR network at is root. This is not really the crux of what makes it different, but it seems to be what people focus on (“what if my computer goes off?”, “I can Sybil attack this easily!” etc.). I figured it was time to try and explain this as understanding issues like mutating data such as safecoin etc. are impossible without understanding this way of thinking.
