The Privacy/Untraceability Sweet Spot

[Nomen Nescio]

Gil Hamilton (great nym!) wrote:
> Didn't you already sign on?  Surely through your careful study of the
> archives you know that one of the founding documents for this list is
> Tim's "Crypto Anarchist Manifesto".  It's practically the charter.
> See, for example,
> http://www.eff.org/Privacy/Crypto_misc/cryptoanarchist.manifesto

Equally relevant is the companion Cypherpunk's Manifesto,
http://www.eff.org/Privacy/Crypto_misc/cypherpunk.manifesto, by Eric
Hughes.  Hughes was co-founder of the cypherpunks, with Tim May, although
May has maintained a larger presence on the list.

Eric Hughes' document is largely forgotten other than "Cypherpunks write
code."  But let us look at one of its concluding points:

   For privacy to be widespread it must be part of a social contract.
   People must come and together deploy these systems for the common
   good.  Privacy only extends so far as the cooperation of one's
   fellows in society.  We the Cypherpunks seek your questions and your
   concerns and hope we may engage you so that we do not deceive
   ourselves.  We will not, however, be moved out of our course because
   some may disagree with our goals.

List subscribers may be surprised to see such sentiments from a
cypherpunks founder.  Privacy as a social contract?  Depending on the
cooperation of one's fellows in society?  Seeking engagement with those
who disagree?

Where is the hatred, the aggression?  Where is the applause for shooting
policemen in the face, or killing innocent children to make a political
point?  Where is the disdain and thin-skinned, spiteful resentment
at criticism?

None of these are inherent characteristics of the cypherpunk philosophy.
It is often forgotten that the cypherpunks movement is not primarily
political or legal or even technical.  It is moral.  Cypherpunks have
a vision of a morally superior society, and they seek to achieve it
through technology.

The cypherpunk world replaces coercion with cooperation.  It provides the
shield of anonymity against those who would offer violence and aggression.
As we move into the information age, control of information is control of
the individual.  Thus, privacy, control of information about one's self,
is freedom.

And as Eric Hughes points out, cypherpunk technologies are ultimately
based on social cooperation.  By definition, anonymity is meaningless
unless it is attained as part of a group.  "People must come together
and deploy these systems for the common good."

If it sounds ironic or paradoxical that cypherpunks are motivated for
the common good and bound by a social contract, you've been mixing
with the wrong cypherpunks.  Learn to see the cooperative philosophy
behind the movement and you will come to a better understanding of its
potential and its problems.

Cypherpunks don't have to be misanthropes and curmudgeons.  There is
need for idealists, for visionaries, for those who want to make the
world a better place than they found it, who want to improve the lives
of all classes of people.  Only in this way will the full potential of
the cypherpunks philosophy be reached.

===

"Any message posted to cypherpunks via an anonymous remailer gets an
automatic +2 on hit points, for it practices what it preaches."
-- Anonymous