Cyberspace, Crypto Anarchy, and Pushing Limits
A concise and thought-provoking article, Tim; I've missed your presence on the Extropians list since your departure. Glad to see you still in top form.
...Perhaps we should be thinking more about the implicaitons and effects of strong crypto, digital money, ideal remailers, etc., assuming that certain practical problems that bedevil us today are, or soon will be, solved. To some extent we already do this...
Always keeping in mind, of course, that these are merely theoretical exercises, correct? The idea of crossing a bridge when you come to it is fine, but we're talking here about bridges that don't exist yet, and won't without a lot of effort on our individual parts. The building can never be built without a solid foundation.
And of course many of us have found Vernor Vinge's "True Names" to be an excellent (and quickly readable) treatment of how things could work in a world of fast, cheap, and secure communication.
I haven't been able to track down a copy yet, although I've read all of Vinge's other works by now. (His future version of the Net still seems all too possible. "Death to vermin", indeed!) [many excellent points elided]
I hope some of you agree with me.
I think your post sums up the possibilities of cryptoanarchy to empower individuals quite well. My one bitch at this point is that privacy in the real world is so much harder to achieve than in the virtual world of cyberspace.