-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- At 01:57 PM 5/10/97 -0700, Kent Crispin wrote:
I would expect a "cypherpunk riot" to be a little more aimed at cyberspace than real-world suburban neighborhoods. Wouldn't you?
Several points come to mind: Tim hasn't suggested that a riot would be useful or likely. He's mentioned various forms of political violence (e.g., assassination and terrorism) but he hasn't mentioned riots. They're not the same thing. Riots aren't necessarily violent, nor are they necessarily or often useful to their participants .. in fact, they may be counterproductive to the aim(s) of their participants, except where they give the participants an opportunity to take symbolic or emotionally satisfying action .. which usually provides very little long-term change. But they may be useful to the riots' "opponents", who may also be their instigators. I think you've been sucked into conflating "cypherpunk" with "cyberpunk", e.g., people who define themselves socially by their (positive) relationship to technology. A cyberpunk riot would probably take place in "cyberspace", and would probably include messages from corporate sponsors, clean and orderly virtual streets, and attractively drawn avatars. A cypherpunk is defined socially/politically by a (negative) relationship to existing political structures. The Internet *is* a cypherpunk riot. -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: 4.5 iQEVAgUBM3T3OP37pMWUJFlhAQFRPQf/W+O4gZFmfceU+6kXVki/UXsQAh05YQZy xv8dmlgjtSFUqyTyzyr9KbZe5RvOdx7OI+F7lZlT1ze9DXzBSRZH1Daf4lf7Cabc O8UNsEEz/uk1KB1mL/8W8NApHIBIYf7rU/ZVR34sQfUHXCSQ2UU7SjqVKMU+wmhf dG4AgI0FddN/Px8jJRzPfiyp0aWWe1+kF9rrI3b7lU5V0ruG0oO5sldnALW1yXTo ZRxWyBIBnlttrQaDLbWQRh0qqVNXkNi08AuVTTX78v80W44vdBKBqdUIrDlDpaew L+O6o/riY9AjdWM2uY9tuEMHKIX5vASJEL+6dCWMH4EkOz2rBux3LA== =UUDT -----END PGP SIGNATURE----- -- Greg Broiles | US crypto export control policy in a nutshell: gbroiles@netbox.com | http://www.io.com/~gbroiles | Export jobs, not crypto. |