[6771] in cryptography@c2.net mail archive
Re: time dependant
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Steven M. Bellovin)
Fri Mar 10 21:33:53 2000
From: "Steven M. Bellovin" <smb@research.att.com>
To: John Kelsey <kelsey.j@ix.netcom.com>
Cc: "Arnold G. Reinhold" <reinhold@world.std.com>,
"Matt Crawford" <crawdad@fnal.gov>, Cryptography <cryptography@c2.net>
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Date: Fri, 10 Mar 2000 21:21:16 -0500
Message-Id: <20000311022121.9AD5841F16@SIGABA.research.att.com>
In message <4.1.20000310193308.0094edf0@email.plnet.net>, John Kelsey writes:
>
> Nor do I. But there's a related engineering question: Does
> it make sense to build large systems in which there's no way
> for humans to overrule the actions of programs once they're
> set in motion? *That* is the question I'm raising, not
> whether mathematicians and scientists should have tried to
> somehow suppress the research that has made this possible.
> It's clearly possible; that doesn't mean it's a good idea to
> design systems like this.
Yup. To many of you, the phrase "mine shaft gap" will provide a clear example
of what I'm talking about.
Of course, in a crypto context this is a very hot button -- one of the
arguments used for key escrow was that we should make sure that messages are
decryptable in case of dire need....
>
> To use a more common example, I believe there were some cars
> (maybe experimental, I don't know) which would simply refuse
> to start the ignition until all passengers had their
> seatbelts on. There's no doubt that it's possible to design
> such a car. But you couldn't sell them without making it
> illegal to buy any other car, and users would flock to
> mechanics to have the feature removed in droves, regardless
> of the law.
Circa 1976, U.S. Federal regulations required that cars implement a state machine
-- get in, close the door, buckle your seat belt, start the car, leave it
buckled or loud obnoxious noises sounded. These were built and sold -- and
were so unpopular that Congress passed a law rescinding that (administratively
promulgated) regulation.
--Steve Bellovin
