On Tue, 30 Apr 1996 angels@wavenet.com wrote:
The Internet is beyond the stage of small communities exercising informal social controls (peer pressure).
Disagree strongly. The net is a LARGE number of SMALL communities. This is why spammers are so offensive: they trespass and violate boundries. This is why killfiles were invented. You ask about people who don't know about killfiles. Teach them. This requires no formal organization.
paradise. Does anyone really doubt the extent of State control and power across the Net?
Yes. If there was state control of the Internet, there probably wouldn't be any anonymous remailers. And the Cyberangels would go away.
My point is that this is inevitable.
Very few things are inevitable; that's a very strong word. The Cypherpunk Agenda is to provide exactly those tools which make this "inevitable" thing absolutely impossible.
The Internet is a mirror of the rest of the world, not a new form of society, and I fail to understand why anyone should be surprised that that is the case.
Disagree modestly.
I disagree with this statement. I do not believe that laws breed more laws nor that laws lead to less freedom. I believe bad laws compromise freedom (eg CDA) while good laws protect freedom.
Have you taken a good hard _honest_ look at the War on Drugs? I also believe that bad laws compromise freedom and good laws protect freedom. One of the problems is that good laws often breed bad laws to patch things up.
Cryptography enhances and protects privacy, which does not inevitably lead to greater security. Security for the sender, yes, in that no one else can read the message, but security for the Community? Doesnt that depend what the message said?
No. True security for the community rests in a shared social standard which discourages actions which are harmful to the community or individuals. Security which requires a class of Guardians to protect everyone else is not security. It's safety, but it's temporary safety. Jon Lasser ---------- Jon Lasser (410)494-3072 - Obscenity is a crutch for jlasser@rwd.goucher.edu inarticulate motherfuckers. http://www.goucher.edu/~jlasser/ Finger for PGP key (1024/EC001E4D) - Fuck the CDA.