On Thursday, October 31, 2019, 03:45:00 PM PDT, Zenaan Harkness <zen@freedbms.net> wrote:

----- Forwarded message from Zenaan Harkness <zen@freedbms.net> -----

From: Zenaan Harkness <zen@freedbms.net>
To: cypherpunks@lists.cpunks.org
Date: Thu, 1 Sep 2016 22:35:47 +1000
Subject: Re: [WAR] ...
List-Id: The Cypherpunks Mailing List <cypherpunks.lists.cpunks.org>

On Thu, Sep 01, 2016 at 02:47:08AM -0600, Mirimir wrote:
> How about we implement a working AP system?

As I said in a previous thread, I now believe that to be fundamentally
flawed - that it will not achieve anything resembling justice, even in
the long term.

Fundamentally, the oligarchs and humans generally need a much higher
level of education and discourse.

"When all you have is a hammer ..."

In the current climate of a majority of extremely dummed down
"citizens", who are and feel disempowered, who cling to any iota of
power that presents such as any public lynching, where intelligent
"discourse" is simply not possible, restraint never exercised and
certainly not possible to exercise collectively, AP would be at best
a hammer to completely destroy society.

I support anarchism, not chaos.

----- End forwarded message -----

While it may seem to be over 23 years 'too late', I will indeed answer this last line of comment, assuming that I did not do so in September 1996:.

From above, "I support anarchism, not chaos."

To equate "anarchy" with "chaos" is the classic error. In my AP essay, I quoted somebody whose identity I never recalled: In part 5:

"Indeed, one common theme I've seen in criticisms of my idea is the fear that this system would lead to "anarchy." The funny thing about this objection is that, technically, this could easily be true. But "anarchy" in real life may not resemble anything like the "anarchy" these people claim to fear, which leads me to respond with a quote whose origin I don't quite remember:

"Anarchy is not lack of order. Anarchy is lack of ORDERS." "

-------end of AP quote-------

Sadly, I never remembered who I was quoting, but the person is probably one who I met in person in libertarian circles in the Portland/Beaverton area in the 1990-1994 time frame.

The idea that society NEEDS government to properly function is well-described by the term "statism". But we, the Cypherpunks, should understand more than any people that the 'traditional' mechanism to intermediate a society, a "government", can be replaced by computers, similar to the concept that "cash", or "currency", can be replaced by the various forms of 'digital cash'. That fact wasn't so clear in 1996, and some people simply weren't able to (or willing to?) work through the implications of an AP-driven society.

Jim Bell