[65096] in Cypherpunks
Re: Crypto Anachy MUD
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Jon Leonard)
Tue Sep 10 01:46:50 1996
To: frissell@panix.com (Duncan Frissell), cypherpunks@toad.com
Date: Mon, 9 Sep 1996 22:10:44 -0700 (PDT)
From: "Jon Leonard" <jleonard@divcom.umop-ap.com>
Cc: jleonard@divcom.umop-ap.com (Jon Leonard)
In-Reply-To: <2.2.32.19960909183805.008b9c70@panix.com> from "Duncan Frissell" at Sep 9, 96 02:38:05 pm
Duncan Frissell wrote:
> Did anyone make the point (I gave up on the thread) that we already have a
> great Crypto Anarchy MUD with lots of the coding already done. We call it
> the Internet. Digital cash, strong crypto, remailers, everything.
Tim May expressed doubt that it was worth the effort: Not much easier
than the real thing, and not as good. That's the closest to your point,
I think.
> I have never been able to figure out why anyone would want to play games on
> a computer in any case when the whole system is a game. Word processing,
> spreadsheets, telecoms -- it's all a game. And they pay you to play it.
I've never figured out why anyone would play games at all -- the whole
universe is all a game too.
For whatever reason, some people (including me) like to play games. I've
been working on a MUD anyway, and the question is whether it would be
interesting enough to add crypto-anarchy aspects to it to be worth the
effort. Obviously you think not.
There are a few significant differences:
We don't have fully anonymous digital cash, and not everyone can issue it.
Strong crypto isn't universally deployed.
Remailers don't allow easy two-way traffic.
Few employers are willing to pay pseudonymous entites.
You don't get imprisioned or killed for too-risky behavior on a MUD.
Running a MUD invites less unwelcome attention than do some of the services
discussed on cypherpunks.
Finally, a MUD has the potential to spread crypto-anarchic ideas to people
who would not otherwise have considered them.
It may be that I'm wasting my time, but I could come up with some useful
new crypto protocol too.
> DCF
Jon Leonard
