[109117] in Cypherpunks
RE: Transparent Society
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (lcs Mixmaster Remailer)
Wed Mar 10 23:52:47 1999
Date: 11 Mar 1999 04:40:03 -0000
To: cypherpunks@cyberpass.net, ptrei@securitydynamics.com
From: lcs Mixmaster Remailer <mix@anon.lcs.mit.edu>
In-Reply-To: <D104150098E6D111B7830000F8D90AE84DE093@exna02.securitydynamics.co
Reply-To: lcs Mixmaster Remailer <mix@anon.lcs.mit.edu>
ptrei@securitydynamics.com writes:
> I expect the idea has been explored a number of times -
> "I see you" by Damon Knight has a non-dystopic version,
> in which a lone inventor perfects a distant viewer, which
> can also view into the past (there is hardly an attempt
> at a scientific explanation). The device is fairly simple,
> and can be reproduced with common components.
>
> The inventor goes to an elaborate pains to widely
> disemminate copies of the device, and plans to build
> more, while protecting his own anonymity (at least
> for a while).
This was one of the more interesting parts of the story, and actually
can be considered a precursor of Chaum's mix-type remailers.
The inventor was worried about being found. He figured, how would
someone go about finding the inventor of the device, given that they can
see anywhere they want to and back in time, but in a rather cumbersome,
manual manner? (The device is a hand-held viewer with distance and time
controls; you aim it at what you want to see.)
He sets up all the manufacturing and distribution remotely. He never
visits the plant where the devices are made; he never visits any of the
people involved. They know him only by his mail instructions. I don't
recall if they discussed how he paid them anonymously.
For his mail, he used a low-tech version of remailers. His concern was
that someone might try to trace the letters he sent back. They could
see the letters arriving at the factory, follow the mail truck back to
the post office, and identify the letter as it is sorted. From there
it is traced back to some kind of bin or mail bag which comes from some
other part of the country. They can't zoom in on the letter within the
bin because there is not enough light, it is too crowded, and there are
too many other similar-looking letters.
What they can do is to trace the bin itself back to the original post
office, and watch all the letters which go into it. Surprise, they
don't find any which match the letter they are looking for.
What the inventor did was to address his letters to their actual
destination, then paste an address label onto them with a different,
false address. He used a paste which would only hold for a day or so.
After that time the false address label would fall off as the letter
jostled with other letters in the mail bags. The letter would emerge
from the bag with the true address, but when the letters were inspected
going into the bag, none would have that same address.
Pretty clever.
Unfortunately it would seem more likely that he would be caught by his
nosy former neighbors. "Wonder what the old man was doing puttering
around in his workshop all last year. Let's take a look..." With an
entire society of snoops and busybodies checking on all the dirt that's
been going on for the last few years, he'd have been discovered instantly.
