Jim McCoy wrote: | And perhaps more importantly, do you really want anyone you connect to | on the net to know your location to the nearest 10 meters? What is | Dennings fascination with building Big Brother? She read Snow Crash, and it scared her. This is flippiant, but I believe it comes close to the truth, in that tends to provide a cogent explanation for her political actions, as I've observed. (Dorothy-- Since someone will forward this to you, I'd be fascinated to hear your reactions in public or private.) Snow Crash is a book about a future in which governments are ineffective. Companies run things, and have complete local control. The world has gone to hell, and as a result, life is nasty, poor, brutish and short. Many people do not look forward to this world. Thats an understandable reaction; when I first heard about anonymous assasination markets, I thought it was pretty bizzare as a world to look forward to. Then I heard Neal Stephenson speak. And he brought up a very good point, which was Hitler killed more people than Charles Manson because Hitler had a big country, and its large army. I look forward to smaller, weaker government that can't put the Japs in holding camps, surround and harras the Branch Davidians, etc. The debate, really, boils down to Hobbes v. Locke, or Plato v. Aristotle. Its not going to be resolved anytime soon by a philosopher. Many of us have read Mill, Hayek, Freidman, Nozick, and decided that we prefer that world view. That Dr. Denning has decided that she likes Philosopher-Kings is not particularly unusual, except in the computer business. Go read Leviathan. Think about what we're talking about here. Its a scary new world that I expect will be created, by the UNSTOPPABLE advance of technology. There is no weapon created that is not used by someone who judges the cause to be worthwhile. Nukes, chemicals, and biologicals have all been used against civilian populations. I judge that stopping the advance of cryptoanarchist technology will fail (in the long run), and not be worth the price. I suspect Dorothy disagrees, and there lies her fascination with building in Big Brother. Adam -- "It is seldom that liberty of any kind is lost all at once." -Hume