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57 lines
2.4 KiB
Plaintext
57 lines
2.4 KiB
Plaintext
To: cypherpunks@toad.com
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Subject: law vs technology
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From: "Wei Dai" <weidai@eskimo.com>
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Date: Fri, 10 Feb 1995 13:32:02 -0800
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Priority: normal
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Reply-To: weidai@eskimo.com
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Sender: owner-cypherpunks@toad.com
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-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE-----
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Recently there's been a great deal of discussion on this list
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about upcoming legislations (HR666 S314 etc.). Maybe it's time
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to step back a little and look at the bigger picture. I've
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been assuming (perhaps incorrectly) for some time that most
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cypherpunks hold a belief somewhat like the following:
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There has never been a government that didn't sooner or later
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try to reduce the freedom of its subjects and gain more control
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over them, and there probably never will be one. Therefore,
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instead of trying to convince our current government not to
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try, we'll develop the technology (e.g., remailers and ecash)
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that will make it impossible for the government to succeed.
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Efforts to influence the government (e.g., lobbying and
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propaganda) are important only in so far as to delay its
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attempted crackdown long enough for the technology to mature
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and come into wide use.
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But even if you do not believe the above is true, think about
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it this way: If you have a certain amount of time to spend on
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advancing the cause of greater personal privacy (or freedom, or
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cryptoanarchy, or whatever), can you do it better by using the
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time to learn about cryptography and develop the tools to
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protect privacy, or by convincing your government not to invade
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your privacy? I argue that since there are many more people
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doing the former (EFF, CPSR, etc) than latter, that you'd be
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more effective if you spent the time on the former.
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Wei Dai
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6fcglCGgo/8=
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-----END PGP SIGNATURE-----
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E-mail: Wei Dai <weidai@eskimo.com> URL: "http://www.eskimo.com/~weidai"
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=================== Exponential Increase of Complexity ===================
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--> singularity --> atoms --> macromolecules --> biological evolution
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--> central nervous systems --> symbolic communication --> homo sapiens
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--> digital computers --> internetworking --> close-coupled automation
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--> broadband brain-to-net connections --> artificial intelligence
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--> distributed consciousness --> group minds --> ? ? ?
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