-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- I recently read Atlas Shrugged by Ayne Rand. I noticed two crucial technologies that seem like good analogs for cypherpunk technology. In case your not familiar with the story, the most productive industrialists, engineers, etc. decide to remove themselves from society until the government stops interfering. They create their own little community in a secluded valley where they can work without supporting the government. The first relevant technology is a mirror that hides the valley. The industrialists have built a small town, but from the air it looks like a barren desert. The mirror conceals their transactions from everyone else. This sounds like encrypted, untraceable communications and transactions. Black markets flourish, but from outside they look like barren static. The second technology is a self-destructing laboratory. This allows an engineer to experiment with secret technology without the need for physical security. When the police break down the lab door, they find nothing but a fine powder, and they can't even guess what he's been up to. This sounds like tamperproof hardware or software. To the authorized user, it's useful equipment. To everyone else, it's nothing more than random instructions. Did Ayn Rand anticipate crypto-anarchy? --- Yours Truly, ][adon Nash --- in founding a family or a state, or acquiring fame even, we are mortal; but in dealing with truth we are immortal, and need fear no change nor accident. --- ][enry David Thoreau, 1850 --- -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: 2.3 iQCVAgUBLGOgRjIwr9YMSTuBAQEF9gQAuTn0qIBBg/rgJFFdpnaWZHeVQBc9BBX0 6MPz3a9FfOen4MSL00XD+dOn96Fc4gzXma6h1kXU70i8u5L/uysVJvSrBEPjQEHv Gt8JuWxgvZoQSAkrv0Q0KhKA6cI4Tv15PhGiEN2jGoBE2qHO9T1CTfrJSrF/FsZt RFYGUqK1KEo= =JvXB -----END PGP SIGNATURE----- -------------- Yours Truly, ][adon Nash -------------------------------- in founding a family or a state, or acquiring fame even, we are mortal; but in dealing with truth we are immortal, and need fear no change nor accident. --------------------------------- ][enry David Thoreau, 1850