At 6:29 PM 9/9/96, Duncan Frissell wrote:
At 01:49 AM 9/9/96 -0700, Timothy C. May wrote:
And the net effect of crypto anarchy is to destabilize and marginalize central governments, which is a net positive effect. If some eggs get broken in the process, the biological imperative will generate more eggs. No big deal.
Particularly since governments murdered 160 million in the last 100 years while we civilians have only managed to murder a paltry 20 million or fewer. A savings of 160 million deaths leaves a lot of room for a non-harmful increase in private murder. We could increase the private murder rate by 8 to 10 times and still break even.
Note too that most terrorism is aimed at governments (even if practiced on civilians). In the absence of government, terrorist incentives may be reduced.
Remember, folks, it is _governments_ which interfere with natural movements of people, capital, but not birds. I don't want to jeopardize my reputation as a List.Racist, but I think one of the longterm (not in the next 15 years) implications of the things we talk about will be the increased lowering of national borders. (Yes, I have long talked about national borders being only speed bumps...here I'm talking about _physical_ borders.) Some good insights into the "border issue" are in the current movie "Lone Star." See it to appreciate things from a Mexican's perspective, when Texas is viewed as being essentially Mexican. (Some great humor, too. And a good murder mystery. And a love story. Conspiracy, humor, murder, love...all the ingredients of a great story. All three major American races collide, and mix. No role for Asians, though. Another movie...maybe a Wayne Wang movie.) ("Lone Star" is this year's "Pulp Fiction," just as "Usual Suspects" was last year's "Pulp Fiction.") Crypto anarchy means the undermining of governments, and hence handouts to people by government. People will only move physically for physical jobs, and not for handouts. People will flow to where the jobs are, and jobs will flow to where the people are. Isn't this what we really want? --Tim May We got computers, we're tapping phone lines, I know that that ain't allowed. ---------:---------:---------:---------:---------:---------:---------:---- Timothy C. May | Crypto Anarchy: encryption, digital money, tcmay@got.net 408-728-0152 | anonymous networks, digital pseudonyms, zero W.A.S.T.E.: Corralitos, CA | knowledge, reputations, information markets, Higher Power: 2^1,257,787-1 | black markets, collapse of governments. "National borders aren't even speed bumps on the information superhighway."