Doug Cutrell writes
CRYPTO ANARCHY AND THE SOCIAL BODY (META STRONG CRYPTO) ....
THE SOCIAL ORGANISM
The social organism does not exist. If it did exist, and was an organism then it would have goals and purposes. If it had goals and purposes, then these goals would probably be best served by prohibiting strong crypto, encouraging children to rat on their parents, teaching a uniform ideology in compulsory public schools, and forcibly dissolving families and other private bonds and relationships.
Strong crypto -- the tools of crypto anarchy -- represents a break in these primal functions upon which the social body is based.
So why does the number one chimp spend a lot of time hanging out in private with the number two chimp? Why do male dolphins go off in groups of two and three and do syncronized swimming games together? The significance of strong crypto is that it allows us to interact privately with the whole world, not that it allows us to interact privately. It allows us to interact privately on a large enough scale to sustain a modern business and a modern economy. We have always been able to interact privately for a subsistence economy, which is why medieval tax rates were so low. (There is considerable disagreement as to what medieval tax rates were, and it is difficult to distinguish between irregular robbery, which was sometimes large, and regular taxes which were alway low, but the large number of peasants required to support one man at arms, indicates a modest tax rate) It is impossible to predict what the outcome of crypto anarchy will be because, as Hayek has pointed out, it is impossible to predict the consequences of freedom. The weakening of central control will probably mean that some aspects of medieval and dark age society will recur, but at a vastly higher standard of living and literacy. -- --------------------------------------------------------------------- We have the right to defend ourselves and our property, because of the kind of animals that we James A. Donald are. True law derives from this right, not from the arbitrary power of the omnipotent state. jamesd@netcom.com