[118529] in Cypherpunks
Re: TONIGHT: Crypto History - Simon Singh Talk 10/1 Menlo Park
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Tim May)
Fri Oct 1 00:46:11 1999
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Date: Thu, 30 Sep 1999 21:23:56 -0700
To: cypherpunks@cyberpass.net
From: Tim May <tcmay@got.net>
Reply-To: Tim May <tcmay@got.net>
At 7:09 PM -0700 1999-09-30, John Young wrote:
>Simon Singh writes in "The Code Book" that Whit Diffie
>is "the first cypherpunk" for his crypto challenge to authority,
>dress, hair, and disdain for convention. Is this true or hypherpunk?
Labeling by journalists is an art unto itself....
I think Whit first showed up at our CP meetings sometime in the first 6
months, though not the first, second, third, etc. meeting.
Did he identify himself as "one of us"? Doubtful. He was doing his thing.
Did we attempt to emulate _him_. I know I didn't. And I presume Eric
Hughes, John Gilmore, Hugh Daniel, Jude Milhon, Sandy Sandfort, Bill
Stewart, and the other early CP attendees did not. We're all what we are.
So, journalists like to draw sweeping conclusions. And, to be fair, the
term "cypherpunk" has become generic.
--Tim May
Y2K: It's not the odds, it's the stakes.
---------:---------:---------:---------:---------:---------:---------:----
Timothy C. May | Crypto Anarchy: encryption, digital money,
ComSec 3DES: 831-728-0152 | anonymous networks, digital pseudonyms, zero
W.A.S.T.E.: Corralitos, CA | knowledge, reputations, information markets,
"Cyphernomicon" | black markets, collapse of governments.
