At 7:33 PM 1/26/96, Peter Monta wrote:

...

I just read the new and improved Dorothy Denning essay at

http://www.cosc.georgetown.edu/crypto/Future.html

This can be found at http://www.cosc.georgetown.edu/~denning/crypto/Future.html

...

One should realize, of course, that whether Crypto Anarchy prevails depends not upon the varied philosophical leanings of citizen-units May and Denning, but rather upon whether our mathematics is more powerful than their jackbooted thugs.

What I found interesting was the lack of meat behind "Crypto Anarchy is Not Inevitable". It seemed to boil down to the vacuous "if everyone could just agree that key escrow is a good thing, there would be no problem".

This is the main reason I haven't bothered to rebut her points: there were essentially none to rebut. (There are substantive criticisms of my points that can be made, including discussions of what might be done to delay or even head off crypto anarchy completely. I had dinner a few nights ago with David Friedman, author of "The Machinery of Freedom," and he made some incisive comments about how the State might go about heading off this future. I'm glad he's on our side, and not the government's.) Two other reasons I have not sought to rebut her analysis: First, I doubt many people saw either my original article (available on Bob Hettinga's page: http://thumper.vmeng.com/pub/rah/anarchy.html) or Denning's reaction article. Second, I stated my views, she stated her views, not much more to say. Especially as she has not had an active presence on the Net, either in talk.politics.crypto or in other forums I have seen, and thus a real debate on the Net has not been possible. Mostly I know I can't change her views, so why bother? Other people may have their views affected by what I say, and for these people I have certainly written enough. --Tim Boycott espionage-enabled software! We got computers, we're tapping phone lines, we 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: 2^756839 - 1 | black markets, collapse of governments. "National borders aren't even speed bumps on the information superhighway."