[117069] in Cypherpunks
Re: Project: Hardening Crypto Against Big Brother's "Black
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Sean Roach)
Wed Aug 25 23:44:23 1999
Message-Id: <3.0.6.32.19990825222037.007cfb90@mail.intplsrv.net>
Date: Wed, 25 Aug 1999 22:20:37 -0500
To: cypherpunks@algebra.com
From: Sean Roach <roach_s@mail.intplsrv.net>
In-Reply-To: <4.1.19990825122901.00ba6320@popserver.com21.com>
Mime-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"
Reply-To: Sean Roach <roach_s@mail.intplsrv.net>
At 12:32 PM 8/25/99 -0700, Steve Schear wrote:
...
>I think I posted something about this a week or so ago. "Indescriminate
>weapons" are illegal, but with all the recent automated video
>identification technology coming on tap its quite possible that an
>automated threat assessment system could be created that had sufficient
>descrimination to use force (even lethal force in the case of "hot
>entries," especiall warrentless ninja jobs) and pass judicial muster.
I doubt that the government will let that happen any time soon. Not
because they want to be able to get in and out without having to answer to
anyone, (well, that too,) but because they will be squeamish about taking
humans out of the decision loop to use deadly force.
It will have to be implemented as a means to humanely capture rodents and
other vermen without endangering the family pets first. Then it might
graduate to lethal elimination of non-pets, while ignoring Rover, Felix,
and Mickey. Finally, after it has been used for years to kill squirrels,
skunks, rats, oppossoms, raccoons and other pests, without taking the lives
of those animals deemed "pets", or their offspring, (and only taking the
lives of stray dogs lacking in identification to make clear that they are
not strays), will anyone even be able to suggest using it to protect
installations from human targets without being given very weard looks.
Sort of animal testing, with with real rats, not lab rats.
At least that's what I suspect will be the direction this will go. It
might be 50 years before our political and legal system allow the first
traces of this into home defense. But then, my grandmother told an uncle
of mine that he'd never see man walk on the moon.
Sean Roach
