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babylon 5 - What is the meaning of a two part poison?


In Season three:



Londo poisons Rifa using a "two part poison"



What is the meaning of such a poison? Since the first is totally ineffective without the second half, why is poisoning someone in advance with the first half meaningful?



The analogy is a perfect encryption system - one time pad. You take a message M, and a secret key K, and then encrypt the message by xoring it with the key to get M⊕K. Neither K nor M⊕K leak any information alone, they're only meaningful if you have both parts.


So, is the threat that "I have poisoned you with one half of the poison" merely symbolic in this case? Why did this threat have the intended effect? If instead the threat was "do what I want or else I'll poison you", would that have worked as well?



Answer



The most common use of a two part poison is to bypass protections against poison.


Whether it is a device that scans for poisonous elements in food, or a personal taste tester, the two non-poisonous components are more likely to be ingested by the targeted victim.


In the event that the poisoner announces that they've administered the first half of a two part poison, it is likely a statement that "I managed it the first time, and I can do it again, so consider warning to have been served."


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