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Cyphernomicon 4.10

Goals and Ideology -- Privacy, Freedom, New Approaches:
Libertarian Issues


   4.10.1. A technological approach to freedom and privacy:
           - "Freedom is, practically, given as much (or more) by the
              tools we can build to protect it, as it is by our ability
              to convince others who violently disagree with us not to
              attack us.  On the Internet we have tools like anon
              remailers and PGP that give us a great deal of freedom
              from coercion even in the midst of censors. Thus, these
              tools piss off fans of centralized information control, the
              defenders of the status quo, like nothing else on the
              Internet."  [<an50@desert.hacktic.nl> (Nobody),  libtech-
              l@netcom.com, 1994-06-08]
           + Duncan Frissell, as usual, put it cogently:
             - "If I withhold my capital from some country or enterprise
                I am not  threatening to kill anyone.  When a "Democratic
                State" decides to do something, it does so with armed
                men.  If you don't obey, they tend to shoot....[I]f
                technological change enhances the powers of individuals,
                their power is enhanced no matter what the government
                does.
                
                "If the collective is weakened and the individual
                strengthened by the fact that I have the power of cheap
                guns, cars, computers, telecoms, and crypto then the
                collective has been weakened and we should ease the
                transition to a society based on voluntary rather than
                coerced interaction.
                
                "Unless you can figure out a new, improved way of
                controlling others; you have no choice." [D.F., Decline
                and Fall, 1994-06-19]
   4.10.2.  "They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little
            temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety."
            [Benjamin Franklin]
   4.10.3. a typical view of government
           - "As I see it, it's always a home for bullies masquerading
              as a collective defense.  Sometimes it actually it actually
              has to perform its advertised defense function.  Like naked
              quarks,
              purely defensive governments cannot exist.  They are
              bipolar by nature, with some poles (i.e., the bullying
              part) being "more equal than others." [Sandy Sandfort, 1994-
              09-06]
   4.10.4. Sadly, several of our speculative scenarios for various laws
            have come to pass. Even several of my own, such as:
           - "(Yet Another May Prediction Realized)...The text of a
              "digital stalking bill" was just sent to Cyberia-l." [L.
              Todd Masco, 1994-08-31] (This was a joking prediction I
              made that "digital stalking" would soon be a crime; there
              had been news articles about the horrors of such
              cyberspatial stalkings, regardless of there being no real
              physical threats, so this move is not all that surprising.
              Not surprising in an age when free speech gets outlawed as
              "assault speech.")
   4.10.5. "Don't tread on me."
   4.10.6. However, it's easy to get too negative on the situation, to
            assume that a socialist state is right around the corner. Or
            that a new Hitler will come to power. These are unlikely
            developments, and not only because of strong crypto.
            Financial markets are putting constraints on how fascist a
            government can get...the international bond markets, for
            example, will quickly react to signs like this. (This is the
            theory, at least.)
   4.10.7. Locality of reference, cash, TANSTAAFL, privacy
           - closure, local computation, local benefits
           - no accounting system needed
           - markets clear
           - market distortions like rationing, coupons, quotas, all
              require centralized record-keeping
           - anything that ties economic transactions to identity
              (rationing, entitlements, insurance) implies identity-
              tracking, credentials, etc.
           + Nonlocality also dramatically increases the opportunities
              for fraud, for scams and con jobs
             - because something is being promised for future delivery
                (the essence of many scams) and is not verifiable locally
             - because "trust" is invoked
           - Locality also fixes the "policeman inside" problem: the
              costs of decisions are borne by the decider, not by others.
 

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