Jane Jefferson wrote:
Also Sprach Adam Back:
I await with interest the last phases of Dimitri's experiment, when the cypherpunks list becomes a moderated forum.
That appears to be the main brunt of his efforts, to "push the envelope" of free speech in order to force it's definition. Perhaps to exhibit the necessity for a controlling authority, and thus justify the existence of the various agencies which are trying to control the flow of information in this country and elsewhere.
If what you say is true, then Dr. DV K's efforts are quite possibly the most important issue being addressed in this conference, because behind free speech, lies the most important issue of all--when does it start, and when does it stop. Cryptography, above all, enables the ability of a group or an individual to keep their communications secret, safe from prying eyes. The military-industrial complex proclaims this necessary for the purposes of state-security, and denies that it is used in order to keep their 'sins' from being exposed. (If you believe this, then please contact me by private email regarding an ocean-front property I have available in Tucson, AZ. If you act quickly, I will throw in a set of the Amazing Ginzu Knives as an added bonus.) The crypto-cognizant citizen proclaims cryptographical ability as a means of empowering their rights of free speech. The more intelligent of them recognize as misinformation the government's feeble claims that they cannot successfully investigate someone moving tons of illegal drugs into the country unless they have the capacity to eavesdrop on the private correspondences of 'all' of their citizens. (Which is the equivalent, in my mind, of claiming that AIDS cannot be held in check without knowing the details of all of the citizens sex-lives.) In short, I believe that if the issue of free speech is not one of the central issues on the CypherPunks list, then the list is merely one more heartless, unfeeling extension of the Great Machine which is grinding inexorably forward toward the day when we will all have its numbers tattoo'd on our forearms. As far as I am concerned, any CypherPunk who believes that the socio/politico issues surrounding cryptography are not important enough to be an integral part of this list is falling into the same type of trap as those who think that they can become good cryptographers without becoming good cryptanalysts. Those who seek to become merely cryptographers seem to think that 'numbers rule'--those who seek to be able to analyze the end-result of those 'numbers' realize that the minds, hearts and souls 'behind' those numbers tell the story of how people think and feel, and the motivations behind their cryptographical intent. (And also reveals where their vulnerabilities lie.) Thinking that cryptography is about 'numbers' is akin to thinking that equality is about 'skin-color'.
"In peacetime, a warlike man sets upon himself." -- Nietzsche
"In times of war, a peacelike man sets upon others." Bubba Rom Dos Toto