was: Re: Cryptography Imaginary Property: Formalities of Cypherpunk
On Jan 13, 2015, Troy Benjegerdes <hozer(a)hozed.org> wrote:
>> Otherwise you would find yourself in an interesting world where applying
>> encryption to data (both of which are not property, right) magically
>> transforms something immaterial and "not-property" into "property".
>
> If I have an image I took of my farm, turn it into digital bits, and put
> the DVD in a safe, so nothing can copy it, it's my property.
>
> If encrypt the image, and keep the private key in my safe, so nothing can
> copy the original image, it's my property. Now maybe I install some robots
> with guns to defend the safe too....
This provides a potentially interesting corollary with money and
currency in terms of how it is conceptualized and conceived, as to
what threats or dynamics may or may not exist, in a given framework or
vantage. For instance, someone could imagine based on the default
discourses available that paper currency has maximal autonomy in
comparison to electronic money or currencies. And so that money (a
physical thing) could be put into a safe inside a private dwelling and
stored or exchanged outside the banking system, etc. Say for instance
a person has ten dollars saved in a safe and they use that money at a
local cash register, as if it an anonymous transaction at the level of
monetary exchange. (The maximal gap being the legal trading or
exchanging of paper currency for other items outside retail channels,
where there is no middle-man infrastructure for the transaction, such
as a cash register or other technical infrastructure or accounting
apparatus.*)
Someone might believe that the paper currency is only trackable in a
retail setting by networked CCTV cameras and receipts and "traffic
analysis" or other correlations between income and expenditures in a
background calculation, not involving bank notes themselves. And in
some sense, a notion of ~privacy may accompany use or storage or
carrying of paper currency, as part of this view, where its function
is in proportional support of their own material existence,
proof-of-work in some abstract yet most tangible sense, as if truth
realized in material form. Identity and all sorts of dynamics tied to
how much a person has, can wield, what it is used for, perhaps the
most vital variable in a given life, enabling lifestyles or great
suffering depending on this relation. Yet what if the idea of money is
not accurately conceptualized in the same terms applied to other
things, that may be subsequent or dependent upon this relationship
between people and 'their' money.
What if for instance the symbolically protective safe with an
electronic latch has a hidden money counter embedded in its circuity
that is equivalent to technology of smart meters, where contents
inside the safe could be read remotely, if there were nanoscopic RFID
tags for tracking paper currency yet not identified as such because it
involves a covert infrastructure. So for instance a secret agent could
prowl the streets reading the interior condition of peoples private
finances, legal or illegal, whether connected to mortage or real
estate payments to banks or landlords, or the IRS keeping tabs on the
real score for targeted populations. Something like this could be
feasible, yet what would it mean if 'the information' connected to the
paper currency or material object or thing as actually covertly
modeled as data and as such was being tracked and monitored
systematically over time. The modeling of money at this level of
individual granularity then would be possible to analyze and review
similarly in terms of cash register exchanges, if hidden RFID money
counters were installed within these _networked devices where the
receipts are centrally accounted for in today's profiling culture, as
part of a threat monitoring environment. So where a person uses their
currency could then indicate pathways through a economic or financial
ecosystem which money laundering then would seek to short-circuit or
avoid interaction with.
The idea then that this material stuff may have a hidden information
or data connected with it that involves its modeling and tracking that
is accounted for in other unknown dimensions, as this relates to
issues of rights, and potentially covert means of control and hidden
power to shape events, via knowing something about the cards other
players are holding. For instance, if a landlord were to use an
illegal device to read the private bank accounts in real-time to
determine maximal rent to charge tenants, this could apply a form of
pressure that may otherwise have a different balancing due to abstract
aspects of these relations. Having more information could lead to more
power or even a power imbalance or one-sided accounting, which seems
to be the game at the large and small scales, how all of this is
accounted for.
In conceptual terms, a worldview seemingly exists that perceives the
world within previous centuries of physics, whereby a person inside
their dwelling is not effected by others on the outside of this
boundary, such that the walls and locked doors and windows that seal
and secure the enclosure is capable of keeping out unwanted forces via
this "physical barrier" that is immediately perceived by the senses.
And yet this can be illusory form of protection. It is similar to the
view that someone cannot tell what another person is thinking,
including if they are lying, if they do not divulge information. That
the true condition or state cannot be read or accessed otherwise, such
as via ESP or mind reading whether by natural means (psychic) or
technological (brain scanning as mind reading). So too the dwelling,
like the safe, whereby the issue involves a paradigmatic change in
conceptualization, and in turn, a recontextualization of the event and
assumptions. In this way, paper currency in a non-electromagnetic
evaluation cannot have these other covert dynamics functioning,
whereas if it is allowed or rather acknowledged as the physical
reality (Einstein/Maxwell, 18th-19th century onward) then this is the
foundation for these various global infrastructure-related systems
that are at the core of physical development of civilization, yet
modeled or perceived inaccurately or insufficiently in terms of their
"informational or data" dimensions and dynamics, for how such things
more likely exist, in the day to day.
Thus assumptions may exist about a certain level of autonomy that are
nowhere near accurate to the condition 'things' are being mediated
within or forces and dynamics and pressures that are interacting in
what could be geological terms, at macro-scale. Whereby mountain
ranges are built up and ice ages occur within realms of finance and
connected ecologies, desertification, migration patterns, which could
then be tracked via money, down to fine grain individual particles
(citizens), which then gets into potentially metaphysics whereby fluid
dynamics or other issues of geometrical stacking or whatnot could be
used to determine how to shape situations at an abstract level, as the
primary 'reason' or approach for societal human problems, via
quantification and such modeling, which could be wildly inaccurate in
terms of what is going on, and involve brute force dynamics to push
changes through or keep things moving via crude if not unwieldy
techniques that perhaps function as religion in their unchanged, yet
heightened religious state, where financialization is high theology.
In other words, it is to structurally associate the probable case that
bank notes today are thoroughly tracked as a system, and likewise as
mentioned, the biggest gap would be the distance between these notes
and the surrounding infrastructure, for when they become pingable and
enter back into the exchange system, perhaps not unlike tracking
meteors that leave observational orbits then return at a later time.
It would seem this is most closely comparable to assumptions about
Schroedinger's cat, whereby a person may assume the 'thing' (in this
case a feline, a living being) cannot be "known" without direct
observation within a contained and secured area. Yet, this ignores the
issue of entanglement of information and data, prior to placement of
the cat in an isolated location (ie "safe"). If the cat were modeled
in various informational terms, it could be remotely read beyond this
limiting boundary, say if its state was connected to that of another
cat and there were certain parameters that mapped to each other
diagnostically, whereby what may amount to physical intuition or
embodied knowing may indicate whether the cat still existed the same
beyond a given boundary or not, via signs of another entangled entity
that is thus read in terms of these diagnostic signals. Or, that an
RFID chip in paper currency could be remotely read and tracked via
infrastructure and in this way indicate the nature of events within a
protected boundary, at a distance, as well as in dimensions otherwise
not accounted for. And that this is basic, that paper money has an
informational dimension (serial numbers, etc) associated with, and in
this way also is entangled and involved in a centralized data
modeling, whereby some of the most valuable information available
would be tracking these 'things' that may be viewed as personal
property by some, potentially, as related to their work-output or
value as citizens, correlated with their importance, ego, lifestyle.
In some sense, money as the highest truth in some peoples lives, the
ultimate way of tallying the score.
So if all of this is ignored, and then an issue like cryptocurrency is
developed in a simpler context, as if _electronic money reliant upon a
thoroughly surveillance based infrastructure would be able to sustain
an anonymous monetary system or electronic currency, it could also be
heavily reliant on ~beliefs in strong cryptography to allow for such a
model or barrier to others interests or these larger state dynamics,
and thus issues such as not knowing who the author of Bitcoin actually
is could be taken on faith that all of this is still beyond the
control of others or tracking or in-depth accounting due to boundaries
and barriers presumed to exist in a certain viewpoint of these
parameters, whereas if recontextualized in an electromagnetic context,
if paper money were being thoroughly tracked within infrastructure,
how likely is it that electronic currency could physically, tangibly
exist beyond these same thresholds of control that collapse towards
the same central management and evaluation of such structural
interactions. Perhaps it is only experimental, yet what about the idea
of not having the concept modeled correctly in terms of issues like
property or security, whereby such barriers or boundaries may not
feasibly exist yet are relied upon to rationalize what the ongoing and
prevailing dynamics are. What if rose colored glasses are needed for
the true believers.
It just seems that an issue like privacy that is mapped to electronic
currency is least likely to exist, far moreso than paper currency yet
with the same issues of returning to a system to cash out or exchange
the electronic currency, where end-points or junctures allow this
accounting to take place, very probably in unknown dimensions that
exist beyond any known literature or experience of users who are not
vetted in top secret or other technologies or capacities, yet that are
the foundation for the entire system these devices, tools or processes
are built and function within, and rely upon. The circuit, the switch,
electrons, processors, networks, that themselves are entangled to
other things likewise and also thoroughly accounted for. It is to
question what if the data model for something like Bitcoin exists
beyond the Bitcoin data model, as this impacts issues of privacy,
anonymity, exchange, as this relates to a more accurate threat model,
that may not yet be accounted for in the dimensions or dynamics that
actually exist, and perhaps cannot be due to related security issues
involved.
Is cryptocurrency potentially a mirage in such a context, if
entanglement could be occurring in ways otherwise not recognized or
revealed. And if this taken into account, how might issues or privacy
or security be reevaluated, and how might public or private pressures
exist if this were the case and could be exploited or used as a basis
for blackmail or social engineering, out of view of its own
represented view and ideals. It is not to second-guess the need for
electronic currencies, though it is to wonder if auditing of
transactions occurs only within tiny finite sectors versus system
wide, as is likely the case with bank notes as this also directly
relates with material development.
It seems this is a conceptual issue related to 'things' in general,
where bank notes are a particular category of example. And yet if
taking into account the prime importance of money as data, and this
structural entanglement that everything is mapped and relies upon and
also functions within, in terms of forecasting and looking backward,
then when a CD-R is ripped into files and its data is secretly
tracked, is it not also entangled in some way to these other issues of
copyright and mediates issues of privacy, similarly to assumptions
with money, and in a literal sense, function as money via data that is
monetized in other terms, and then dealt with differently or
otherwise, beyond the limits or barriers or restrictions. Or moreso
perhaps, an electronic-book that is sold for a certain amount and is
restricted and has features to prevent file copying and distribution,
and when this occurs, remains structurally entangled in other hidden
dimensions of viruses and trojans or otherwise that then grant access,
feasibly legally via loopholes enabled once a condition of use has
been past or ignored, that then activate other dynamics, growing an
alternative network of surveillance and monitoring and essentially
auditing around these issues. And how closely is this relates to
issues of paper currency that is tracked that then becomes
increasingly electronic-in-nature, such that files are functioning as
currency or that data is monetized, in legal and illegal realms as
well as inbetween where challenges occur. In a non-electromagnetic
viewpoint certain arguments could be made about what is occurring, yet
that could be limited in their evaluation of the actual structural and
non-negotiable dynamics involved in the default scenario, if
unacknowledged or ignored. In this way, a larger threat exists within
electronic payments and currency itself if not accurately perceived,
because existing imbalances could be made structural and normalized
without addressing the power imbalances built-into the technology,
which may never be allowed to be recognized due to security and
secrecy laws, and thus further infrastructuralization of money, into
electronic data, then could lead to the securing of these hidden and
oppressive dynamics that can function in unjust ways, for the
furtherance of hidden power, by default of the ongoing scenario being
extended without critical review in the terms necessary to acknowledge
and limit such threats, instead of going along with them.
One scenario is the small transfer of cash for a birthday gift, that
in certain monitored frameworks of bank notes could lead to
overzealous accounting of onesided power relations, where a landlord
is trying to recoup that birthday money as part of their own profit
model, while ignoring any such accounting of their own dubious gains
in exponentially more egregious and literally criminal terms. In a
paper currency model, they could RFID-read banknotes in a private safe
and use that as leverage against a person in power politics, as hidden
advantage and argument for administering and managing a tenant on
'their property'. Thus, they demand a piece of the birthday cake and
view it as stealing if not gaining their share of the money. The IRS
could be this way too, if corrupted to the degree necessary to prey on
the poor. It is one scenario to have this occur in paper currency, in
an informal economy in a context of small gifts or rituals that are
the bedrock of culture and community, though it is another to transfer
this menacing dimension into an electronic context, whereby no
distinctions would be made if extending the existing dysfunctional
evaluation of tax and revenue in highly politicized and
disadvantageous terms in regards to ruling classes and underclasses,
as warped power exchanges then become solidified in default practices
of ubiquitous electronic taxation or other subversive unacknowledged
dynamics based on hidden access to monetary or other profiling data,
to enforce power structures of some over others, beyond government
regulation or as government in its fallen state, of a despotic state
preying on its own citizens. In this way, the small gift for a
birthday in this electronic context likely would be taxed and a piece
of the birthday cake would be removed for the state if not the
overzealous landlord, and further erode what little autonomy or
privacy exists in peoples lives as human beings who exist beyond a
context of money or are not defined or beholden to it as the highest
truth, which instead would become the case, where such data accounting
(monetary or otherwise, event-based, history, tracking, offenses,
relations, finances, etc) would be this 'currency' and map to every
action and area of life and determine fate itself, where the labyrinth
of the day to day eventually captures everyone.
This seems to be the underlying condition and issue with electronic
money, not as a form of detached utopianism if not hedonistic lust for
unregulated or accounted for money, in some sense or applications, and
instead the foundational technology to enable the grid to activate in
its higher informational and interconnected dimensionality, as one
form of culture or another, human or antihuman, and this in a context
of a developing global to local police state that is thoroughly tied
into and has vested interests in surveillance technology 'being
right', or a view that is by default assumed correct due to its
institutionalization and further systematic progression, that everyone
should follow and will need to obey. An inaccurate modeling of crypto
in such a scenario could actually be leveraged to promote not prevent
these dynamics if not accurately accounted for. This is the problem of
ideology and answered questions where presumptions are wrong and
instead lead away from truth, not closer to it, the more and more
dialogue, discussion, or actions occur in these ungrounded terms.
(It is somewhat akin to a scenario of someone with a supercar
delivering pizza, say a Bentley or Ferrari, versus someone in a used
or inexpensive vehicle trying to work their way into a sustainable
career, either this job a step or allowing a certain income zone
whether livable or not. How might the issue of tipping occur, for
instance, in one scenario or the other. Is a thousand dollar tip the
minimum for a 15 dollar pizza, if lux. There is something about this
scenario that does not add up in normal terms. And this is much like
crypto today, electronic money, and other issues involved privacy and
copyright. I cannot explain the analogy, though it is similar to the
unknowability of electronic bank cards themselves and issues of
accounting for funds. In a context of electronic money, people could
receive 'free income' who are part of a connected group, in mirroring
to the unemployed lower classes, yet in a middle-class or upper-class
scenario and no one would be the wiser if it was a inside job, of a
particular political group. There would be no way to find out unless
on the inside of it. It is this kind of scenario that could play out
in a warped rules of accounting, today focused on those on welfare
cheating everyone, when it can be occurring in exponentially different
ways at higher income levels, where huge subsidies are occurring on
the backs of others lower, including at the price of their health and
subsistence, to allow people to have their wine collections and second
homes, and many cars, and yet feasibly contribute little or function
in only ordinary terms while receiving disproportionate gains due to
institutionalized corruption. That is the standard in electronic
money, potentially, supporting such dynamics if not accounting for,
protected by magic cryptography.)
