-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- I agree with Tim that the future is likely to hold much evil -- as it always has -- and that privacy is unfortunately likely to play an important role in some of that evil -- as it always has. But my analysis of the problem has a subtly different perspective. We mustn't forget that, until very recently, strong, widespread privacy has been humanity's "default" condition. The evils to which Tim alluded would in my opinion be more accurately described as arising out of general advances in communication and consequent new market efficiencies. Progress always has two faces. The ob-crypto question here is, must we now rely upon pervasive LEA surveillance as humanity's only effective defense against the new evils created by technological progress? In other words, are we entering an era in which it is simply becoming TOO DANGEROUS to allow ourselves the traditional luxury of strong, widespread privacy? Many people, especially in government, seem to be answering the above question strongly in the affirmative. The Cypherpunks, on the other hand, have rallied around the idea that the unprecedented loss of privacy is itself an evil against which others pale by comparison. I admit it is a question which troubles me. I can only fall back on the principle that, as I believe Thomas Jefferson put it (quoting approximately from memory), "There is no ultimate safe repository for power other than in the people." Our only hope is in ourselves. --- mkj -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: 2.6.2 iQCVAwUBMHk4ZF11Wd4tm8clAQGFfwQAniCTN2dJ+3DrYHFXSq/dPfAzNggxkjlL r3ImCFcCA8JhXBUnGhon76eGtoAlAuuLMeFktACgI35TS+PU7oLtR/FRq68IxldD opnY+CA+4JstBkVHhnMfvW3UX4jZeo9MckaHdxwoZtwtM+D/pERw2Mb2M5r/uHA8 FQFfjsl1vBk= =kC7f -----END PGP SIGNATURE-----