[107989] in Cypherpunks
The world Jones made
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Anonymous)
Sun Jan 31 09:10:42 1999
Date: Sun, 31 Jan 1999 15:00:25 +0100
From: Anonymous <nobody@replay.com>
To: cypherpunks@cyberpass.net
Reply-To: Anonymous <nobody@replay.com>
What is crypto ?
I mean really, deep down, after all is said and done, what does the crypto
boil to ?
Is it just encrypted e-mail so that it is not harvested and stored by
organized thuggery ? Is it an encrypted link between two businesses, banks
or whatever that keeps evil hackers away from the clean data ? Is it a way
for terrorists, pedofiles, drug pushers and pornographers to conspire ?
And the answer is no. Above issues are rather irrelevant in the big
picture.
In order to examine what crypto really is, let us take an imaginary jump
into the world in which the "crypto" has happened.
Mr. Jones had cheap and unbreakable crypto available to him all his life.
His personal communicator has it, his computer has it, his house has it,
his car has it, his private library has it, and all the people he deals
with have it. Cypherpunks' wet dream. How does this make Mr. Jones
different from the real Mr. Meak that lives in our dimension ?
First of all, Mr. Jones is immune from all laws that have a bit pattern as
their main concern.
He may be indulging in pictures, videos or simulations of child vaginas,
old women anuses, anaemone tentacles or any other organic or artificial
formation of cells or molecules that he finds exciting and nobody could do
anything about it. He may be reading books devoted to extermination or
glorification of any particular variant of life, he may be conspiring with
his friends to chop up, fry and eat the tax collector and nobody could do
anything about the conspiracy. Nobody would know who all his friends are
in the first place.
The main consequence of this is that granfalloon groupings do not affect
Mr. Jones at all. It is impossible to organize anybody against Mr. Jones
because it is impossible to demonstrate that he does not conform. It is
also next to impossible to organize Mr. Jones with other people he does
not personally know because they allegedly have something in common. How
can you prove it to Mr. Jones ? There goes patriotism, religion and other
cults.
Mr. Jones does some things for his customers, and some other people do
things for Mr. Jones. Some of the services and goods that change hands are
visible (like pizzas and paint jobs), some are not. But no one except Mr.
Jones and his customers or vendors knows how much "money" these are
equivalent to. Or, for that matter, how much money Mr. Jones has on his
virtual e-cash accounts backed by the small bank in China.
The local Prince, even if he manages subdue few thugs into carrying him
around has serious problems when it comes to persuading Mr. Jones to part
with a percentage of his wealth now and then. There is no reliable metric
for Mr. Jones' wealth. So Mr. Jones, having no thugs of his own, will have
to pay based on the visible wealth. House, women, clothing, etc.
Next, Mr. Jones is able to maintain his own personal world and share it
with whomever he sees fit. The lack of conformity pressure can make this
world quite unique and unpredictable to others. Mr. Jones and his friends
may be dreaming of building a space ship or a collective on an old oil
tanker. They may be preparing to kill all people exactly 5'8" tall next
Wednesday. No one would know.
While Mr. Meak may have some privacy while chewing a sandwich in his
parked car during the lunch break, or staring into darkness before going
to sleep, pretty much all his other activities are hardly original in any
sense. Exposure makes him vulnerable and therefore he conforms.
Crypto is, above all, a re-conquest of the personal realm beyond one's
scull. Crypto is an antidote for "the more people do something the better
it must be" mentality that goes unquestioned in Mr. Meak's world.
And it is obvious why the transition to Mr. Jones' world will be opposed
and fought on every step. And why it may not happen at all - the lack of
demand. The number of people that have some residual personality to speak
of may already be well below the critical mass.
