On Mon, Jun 29, 2020 at 07:23:34PM +0000, таракан wrote:
My understanding of cypherpunks is that they are/were a group of people trying to defeat evil things such as, indeed, Clearview and using their deep knowledge of cryptography to counter the use of digital technologies by a fascist power (imagine the Third Reich equipped with computers...)
Tracking/Controlling people isn't really knew but let us say there was always ... ways to escape... to find another land, another ID, where there was no question.
We ought remember that the world is ever changing, intentions ever in play - the Covid event is cause for some to push for their "fascist utopia", with "immunity" passes/passports, human tracking, and literally global per human tracking. Certain freedoms and localities of exemption from the past, are all (afaict) under attack. I.e., we must remain more than vigilant, but pro-active, and ideally consider those beyond ourselves - if all my actual neighbours are tracked/monitored, then I am left standing out in the crowd as the odd one out, the one to literally target. On this basis, we have no real option but to establish freedom, and the right to privacy, for all. Any exception will be used against us. I do not accept the giving up of the right to privacy.
Think about the fictional character of Jean Valjean in "Les Misérables"(the book by Victor Hugo) ... As a convict he wore a mark on the arm, identifying him and had his infamous condition as a former forcat noted in his passport. This doesn't prevented him to become a notable, a rich entrepreuneur named Monsieur Madeleine.
The action is at the beginning of the XIX century in Post-revolutionary France.
Now imagine the same man in ... 2020... an escaped forcat... how can he live?, how can he change his identity? How can he transfer funds? Anything he will do, any move he will make will be noticed, tracked, recorded. The law enforcement will look at him everywhere , in all possible databases and if he wants to have a new French passport "the hard way", he shall have to tamper protected memory and insert false the records inside a biometric passport, which is extremely difficult. Corruption and social enginering may not work any more and making fake French passport should involve deep knowledge of cryptography...
Yes, and implicit in the words you use here, is an acquiescence. Consequent to acquiescence, is "usage by tptb". Biometric ID will never be limited to a "secure" chip in your passport - the centralised beast computer will instantaneously confirm you, regardless of document/chip you carry.
Who can do this? Only Cypherpunks.
What you're saying is true, but unfortunately entirely insufficient. If I believed that a master passport hacker would provide sufficient escape from the beast, I woul personally become one. But that would be almost useless. Why? Because each ID hack is a temporary (at best!) plugging of one hole in the bucket. And this plugging of holes is EXACTLY what the powers that be want competent people to be doing. Why? Because they are left relatively free to go on and enslave the entire world, and so ultimately we few stand out in the crowd of compliant sheeple anyway. Systemically for the sociopaths, pathways of courageous challenge achieving limited and ever temporary results for passionate and principled individuals, is a very good thing for sociopaths - these "plug a hole in the bucket" "opportunities" are EXACTLY what the oligarch sociopath ordered. Today's "valiant hacker" is yesterday's valiant Knight of the realm.
It can be argued that only 'criminals' should care about changing their identity but if you are targeted by a fascist regime, getting a new ID is a question of life and death.
yet to my understanding, escaping and defeating the net which is building itself, making the world as a gigantic jail, should be the mission of cypherpunks, or to whatever organization that would succeed to them.
Imagine a real fascist power taking control of the entire planet , how much time they need to seek and destroy opponents or individuals listed as potential dangers? maybe just one hour...
Yes this is what we must realise - we have no option but to handle, truly handle, the whole system. What to do? We must establish certain fundamental human rights as inalienable: - privacy - travel - private and anonymous travel - speech - survival - the right to do those things needed for our survival - collect water, grow food and medicine, build housing, make things, trade Let's create our shared world,