[92770] in Cypherpunks
Re: Jim Bell article excerpt (Was: Letter on Jim Bell)
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Adam Back)
Thu Jan 8 04:38:09 1998
Date: Tue, 6 Jan 1998 19:08:45 GMT
From: Adam Back <aba@dcs.ex.ac.uk>
To: declan@well.com
CC: cypherpunks@cyberpass.net
In-reply-to: <v03007803b0d8265bac75@[168.161.105.216]> (message from Declan
McCullagh on Tue, 6 Jan 1998 13:21:27 -0500)
Reply-To: Adam Back <aba@dcs.ex.ac.uk>
Declan McCullagh <declan@well.com> writes:
Declan reposting something he wrote last year:
> After I pointed this out to Bell on the phone [someone might
> assassinate annoying neighbors], he fired email back a few days
> later saying, "Assuming a functioning Assassination Politics system,
> nothing stops you from contributing to my death." He suggested that
> maybe assassins would develop scruples: "You'd be able to purchase
> deaths of unworthy people, but it might be only at a dramatically
> higher price. Doable but not particularly economical."
You interpret Jim as implying "maybe assassins would develop
scruples";
this doesn't look like the meaning of what you quote Jim as saying:
"You'd be able to purchase deaths of unworthy people, but it might be
only at a dramatically higher price."
it looks more like Jim was suggesting that free market forces would
tend to prevent deaths of lesser known people. Think about it -- it
would be dead easy to get a contract on Barney due to the number of
people who know and hate him -- but on an average neighbor, who is
completely obscure, you'd easily have to fund the entire bet yourself.
Adam
