We're seeing an interesting debate about the nature of power in Washington, the role of different lobbying groups, and why things are as they are. At the March meeting of the Cypherpunks in the Bay Area, I outlined a fairly straightforward model of the power blocs jockeying for position and influence, and discussed when and how the interests of the blocs intersected with the interests of other blocs. This model has a lot of ancillary conceptual baggage, which I'll try to explain as I go along. At the simplest level, there are 3 main _blocs_ in the crypto debate: * Public groups, users, citizens, Cypherpunks, EFF, EPIC, etc. * Corporations, sellers of tools, exporters, etc. * Government, law enforcement, FBI, NSA, etc. (I almost consider adding "the press" as a 4th group or bloc, but choose not to expand the bloc list too much. As we will see, their role is somewhat different, anyway.) Text messages like this one are poor for discussing dynamics, best done on blackboards with dynamic arrows, erasures, etc. But this is the diagram I put up at that March meeting: Public/Users / \ / \ / \ Corporations - - - - - Government Simple, yes. Some points about these blocs: * Forget teleology--these blocs have no "ultimate goals." No grand mission, no longterm ideological direction. Self-reproduction is vastly more important than "evolution" (which implies some guiding hand toward some higher state). * This is a slight exaggeration, as certainly many individuals in these groups _believe_ they have longterm goals or ideologies. My point is that viewing these blocs as organisms is more on target than viewing them as ideological units. Thus, corporations succeed and get bigger and spread their "memes" around. Government agencies which control power get larger...it's not that they "seek" to get larger, as is popularly thought, it's that differential reproduction and growth favors such policies...like branches growing toward the sun and outgrowing their neighbors (and then the genes of the trees which grew are more common, due to survival, than the genes of trees which did not grow, for whatever reasons). * Certainly subcomponents of these organisms may "decide" that certain policies will enhance their individual growth rates, or personal happiness, etc. Thus, their are apparently groups within PGP, Inc., as disclosed at that same March CP meeting, which see it in their interest (and they will claim, in the mother organism's interest, whether true or not) to establish closer working relationships with agencies in government. Other names for this opportunistic, not suprising behavior: empire-building, brass-polishing, careerism, greed, etc. * These blocks are "basins of attraction," and are like any other game, hobby, interest, or career. People start following football and then begin associating themselves with some team. Or they take up a hobby and this becomes their world, a world they follow closely, root for, lobby for, etc. They are "organisms," with their own (apparent) lifecycles, habits, instincts, etc. * Memes. Enough said. (If anybody doesn't know about memes, do a Web search, or read Dawkins' "The Selfish Gene.") Evolutionary game theory, Axelrod's "The Evolution of Cooperation," and Wright's "The Moral Animal" (to name but a few of the many important books in this area). * Recall De Tocqueville's circa 1840 famous words of warning about the American experiment (paraphrased from memory, and translated): "The great American experiment in democracy will last only until the voting public discovers it can pick the pockets of others at the ballot box." This is another way of expressing this "bloc" idea. Special interest groups, lobbying groups, etc. OK, so let's look at crypto: Users of crypto, concerned citizens, the public Cypherpunks, EFF, ACLU, EPIC, etc. / / Public/Users / \ / \ / \ Corporations - - - - - Government - - NSA, FBI, military, / law enforcement, regulators, / SEC, FCC, etc, PGP, Inc., RSADSI, Cylink Verisign, Netscape, etc. Now this diagram can't capture the dynamics, and may even look "obvious" or "banal." But some structure is useful in analyzing group dynamics. For one thing, it's useful to note that the interests of corporations, for example, are not at all the same as the interests of users. Even if they make some of the tools users want to see! Corporations are organisms, and will cut deals with the other players to enhance their own growth opportunities...either as an overall corporate goal or due to sub-corporate group manouverings, as with the groups within PGP, Inc. working on key escrow schemes with government agencies and committees--these subgroups may even see themselves as the "true spirit" of the companies, and/or may make power grabs to make their memes the memes of the larger company...this happens every day. And each of these groups splits into multiple pieces. Some groups get sucked into the "orbit" of the other power blocs. Thus, as we have been discussing with Declan, journalists and lobbying groups in Washington (the arguable "fourth bloc" (fourth estate) that could be used for them) find themselves powerless unless they suck up to the government or one of the other power blocs. The rules of the FDA, for example, start to become the rules of the journalist...or at least he starts "playing the game." Likewise, a journalist based in Silicon Valley will socialize with other Valley folk, will follow the successes and failures of Valley companies, and will almost always come to think of the Valley as "his team." Like a sports team, or hobby, or game, or any other such "basin of attraction." (Regionalism is not necessarily the most important. Journalists will still remain "loyal" to their profession, lawyers to theirs, programmers to theirs, etc. They will look to their professions for advancement, power-building, etc. Part of the game. Growth, and memetic self-reproduction.) But "company towns" like Silicon Valley, Washington, and New York City exert a powerful influence on those living in such areas... Back to crypto. The interests of these groups are not at all coincident, and we must never lose sight of this. Roughly speaking, these three major blocs fit as follows: * Corporations survive and grow by selling things and driving out competitors. Crypto and software companies want to sell licenses, browsers, etc. Netscape wants to sell stuff. (I slip, like anyone, into saying "wants," implying some teleological wish or goal...and to some extent this is how the company will frame the issue...but a more accurate picture is that Netscape will cease to be important if it doesn't sell enough products and will become a dominant force if it sells a lot of products--the translation to "wishes" and "goals" happens in the usual way.) * Government is like a giant corporation. (Arguably, one could collapse that leg of the tripod and call it "Washington, Inc.") Advancement for individuals and departments comes as power grows. Every sub-bloc is looking for those warming rays of the sun to extend its branches and leaves. Empire-building and self-perpetuation. "The only purpose of a politician is to stay in power." Nietzsche's "will to power." Or differential reproduction. Republicans and Democrats jockey for more power, and to stay in office. * Washington, Inc. gets bigger and bigger because no forces effectively exist to limit growth. Each department or office seeks to grow maximally, as this enhances the careers, salaries, and power of individuals and other departments. Lacking any natural predators, and facing no physical limits to growth, this organism balloons larger and larger every decade, despite minor year-to-year attempts to "reduce the size of government." * These organisms seek mechanisms to enhance their growth and power. Economists speak of "rent-seeking," as when the "Doctors, Inc." bloc seeks to enhance their power, compensation, and self-perpetuation by making it hard for others to become part of their profession. (High-falutin' notions that doctors guilds exist to provide maximum health care quality benefits are utterly trivial compared to the game-theoretic, rent-seeking, empire-building reasons...they form a guild because they _can_ form a guild.) * What about the third leg of the tripod, the "public"? Even there the mechanism involves growth, survival, the will to power. Cypherpunks seek to have an influence, even to be interviewed by Japanese television! Individually or as part of "Cypherpunks, Inc.," they seek influence, growth, power. (Of course, these tendencies are influenced by external factors. For example, those of us living far away from D.C., or even fairly far from San Francisco, take a dimmer view of influencing legislators and reporters than those living close enough to get partially pulled into their orbits, their games.) * And the various "public interest" factions all have their own goals, strategies, and notions about growth and power. EFF once sought to be the dominant "third leg" power broker, had some defeats, and then essentially left Washington to lick its wounds and (maybe) to regroup or to alter its focus (which it appears to be doing by concentrating on legal cases, a la Bernstein). EPIC has its notions of growth, Voter's Telecomm Watch its notions, etc. * Some groups are more explicitly ideological, some are more willing to compromise. Cato is ideological, NRA is once again ideological (after a period of trying to cozy up to factions in the government as a way of growing and gaining influence...failure cause them to retreat to their "ideological corner"). Enough for now. The important thing to remember is that allies are not permanent, that the ills of Big Government can be seen in organistic, Darwinian terms, and that "good and evil" have very little to do with anything. I hope this diagram helps a little, at least in explaining some of my views. Your mileage may vary. --Tim May There's something wrong when I'm a felon under an increasing number of laws. ---------:---------:---------:---------:---------:---------:---------:---- 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: 2^1398269 | black markets, collapse of governments. "National borders aren't even speed bumps on the information superhighway."