diff --git a/fromcrossbowstocryptography b/fromcrossbowstocryptography new file mode 100644 index 0000000..42e5045 --- /dev/null +++ b/fromcrossbowstocryptography @@ -0,0 +1,92 @@ +https://nakamotoinstitute.org/static/docs/from-crossbows-to-cryptography.pdf + +From Crossbows To Cryptography: +Techno-Thwarting The State +Chuck Hammill +weaponsrus@earthlink.net +Future of Freedom Conference, November 1987 +Public Domain: Duplicate and Distribute Freely +You know, technology—and particularly computer technology—has +often gotten a bad rap in Libertarian circles. We tend to think of Or- +well’s 1984, or Terry Gilliam’s Brazil, or the proximity detectors keep- +ing East Berlin’s slave/citizens on their own side of the border, or the +sophisticated bugging devices Nixon used to harass those on his “ene- +mies list.” Or, we recognize that for the price of a ticket on the Concorde +we can fly at twice the speed of sound, but only if we first walk through +a magnetometer run by a government policeman, and permit him to +paw through our belongings if it beeps. +But I think that mind-set is a mistake. Before there were cat- +tle prods, governments tortured their prisoners with clubs and rubber +hoses. Before there were lasers for eavesdropping, governments used +binoculars and lip-readers. Though government certainly uses tech- +1 +Hammill +From Crossbows To Cryptography +2 +nology to oppress, the evil lies not in the tools but in the wielder of the +tools. +In fact, technology represents one of the most promising avenues +available for re-capturing our freedoms from those who have stolen +them. By its very nature, it favors the bright (who can put it to use) +over the dull (who cannot). It favors the adaptable (who are quick to +see the merit of the new) over the sluggish (who cling to time-tested +ways). And what two better words are there to describe government +bureaucracy than “dull” and “sluggish”? +One of the clearest, classic triumphs of technology over tyranny I +see is the invention of the man-portable crossbow. With it, an untrained +peasant could now reliably and lethally engage a target out to fifty me- +ters – even if that target were a mounted, chain-mailed knight. Unlike +the longbow, which, admittedly was more powerful, and could get off +more shots per unit time, the crossbow required no formal training +to utilize. Whereas the longbow required elaborate visual, tactile and +kinesthetic coordination to achieve any degree of accuracy, the wielder +of a crossbow could simply put the weapon to his shoulder, sight along +the arrow itself, and be reasonably assured of hitting his target. +Moreover, since just about the only mounted knights likely to visit +your average peasant would be government soldiers and tax collectors, +the utility of the device was plain: With it, the common rabble could de- +fend themselves not only against one another, but against their govern- +Public Domain: Duplicate and Distribute Freely +Hammill +From Crossbows To Cryptography +3 +mental masters. It was the medieval equivalent of the armor-piercing +bullet, and, consequently, kings and priests (the medieval equivalent +of a Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Crossbows) threatened death and +excommunication, respectively, for its unlawful possession. +Looking at later developments, we see how technology like the firearm— +particularly the repeating rifle and the handgun, later followed by the +Gatling gun and more advanced machine guns – radically altered the +balance of interpersonal and inter-group power. Not without reason +was the Colt .45 called “the equalizer.” A frail dance-hall hostess with +one in her possession was now fully able to protect herself against the +brawniest roughneck in any saloon. Advertisements for the period also +reflect the merchandising of the repeating cartridge rifle by declaring +that “a man on horseback, armed with one of these rifles, simply cannot +be captured.” And, as long as his captors were relying upon flintlocks +or single-shot rifles, the quote is doubtless a true one. +Updating now to the present, the public-key cipher (with a per- +sonal computer to run it) represents an equivalent quantum leap—in +a defensive weapon. Not only can such a technique be used to pro- +tect sensitive data in one’s own possession, but it can also permit two +strangers to exchange information over an insecure communications +channel—a wiretapped phone line, for example, or skywriting, for that +matter)—without ever having previously met to exchange cipher keys. +With a thousand-dollar computer, you can create a cipher that a multi- +Public Domain: Duplicate and Distribute Freely + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + +