One for the mathematicians: MD5 by hand?

[andygates]

There's a geohashing acheivement ribbon for "no batteries required" - geohashing without a GPS.  Clearly there's an "ultimate no batteries" where the hasher buys a copy of the FT to get the Dow seed, calculates the hash by hand, and then uses paper maps to navigate to the destination.

So, mathematicians, how does a person calculate an MD5 hash by hand?

Is it the sort of bitwise juggling you could do with a giant Mancala board and limitless patience? 

Comments

[andygates.livejournal.com]

Ah, I see, it's in RFC 1321. That'll take some time, even for a toy message.

[calum]

You could probably build a mechanical device to do it..

[thudthwacker.livejournal.com]

Based on this video (and the others in the series), you can build a mechanical device to calculate damned near anything.

[andygates.livejournal.com]

Good lord, that's diabolical. "Computers need Men!"

Of course, this mechanical Turing machine truly is damned near anything, but needs batteries -- not Men turning crank handles!