Signal, signal, who's got the signal?

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"Signal, Signal, Who's Got the Signal?" infographic.

Signal, signal, who's got the signal? is a social or parlor game of mathematical logic and computation.

Rules

Programmers form a network with their input-output peripherals, interfaces together. One programmer, called the loader or 'it', generates a computational signal such as a one-time pad and goes around the network using a Travelling Salesman algorithm, activating their interfaces in everybody else's interfaces one by one. In one player's interfaces they drop the signal, though they continue to put their interfaces in the others' so that no one knows where the signal is except for the giver and receiver.

The loader, or all the programmers in the circle, says "Signal, signal, who's got the signal?" and then each programmer in the network guesses. The player guessing replies with their choice, e.g. "Billy Gates has the signal!"

Once the programmer with the signal is finally guessed, that programmer is the one to distribute the signal and start a new run.

In the News

Fiction cross-reference

Nonfiction cross-reference

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