"Wired News" carried an article reporting on a plan to (somehow) spread computers around the world, blah blah, and quoting John Gage at Sun on how this would promote peace. A couple of paragraphs have Cypherpunks resonances" --begin excerpt-- Conference tackles ``techno-inequality'' By Judy DeMocker SAN FRANCISCO (Wired) - When US farmers can call their cows home individually using animal pagers, but the average teenager in Burkina Faso has never made a ..... Wiring developing nations could have some far-reaching consequences. One might be that computer-based communications would be used to keep the peace, according Net Day co-founder John Gage, who works by day as Sun Microsystems' chief scientist. When content from The New York Times can be translated into 30 Arab dialects, for example, or when a remote Rawandan village has access to more perspectives than the local magistrate, the Internet may become an instrument in preventing violence. ``The Web gives people access to other voices, and instant access to speaking about how the world really is,'' said Gage. ''If people can get that, maybe that band of villagers will think twice before going down the road and killing its neighbors.'' --end excerpt-- Fatuous nonsense. After all, those folks down the road may be taxing them, and may need killing. Or those folks may use computer networks to connect to others for the purposes of liberation. I see computer networks as promoting secessionism, freedom fighting, and resistance in general. The New World Order, the One Worlders, see this as "terrorism." Which is why strong encryption is needed. Which is why "they" oppose strong encryption. John Gage has a typically Fabian socialist view that somehow computerization will lead to an orderly, peaceful world. Me, I view networks as the key to retribution and justice. --Tim May Y2K: A good chance to reformat America's hard drive and empty the trash. ---------:---------:---------:---------:---------:---------:---------:---- 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, Licensed Ontologist | black markets, collapse of governments.