Slashdot | Google Expands Usenet Archive to 20 Years

[Tim May]

On Tuesday, December 11, 2001, at 08:07 AM, Trei, Peter wrote:
> What expanded capability for ego-surfing!
> What expanded ability for better-forgotten posts to rise
> from the dead!
>
> Seriously, this is neat. My earliest listed posting is from
> 28 November '82. The first mention of the cypherpunks list
> appears to be a post from Eric Hughes on 25 September '92,
> which refers to the list as 'recently formed'.

Yes, it's great to see Google finally get around to doing what DejaNews 
said would be done.

Interestingly, I see a January 1992 use of the term "cypherpunks":

http://groups.google.com/groups?q=+%22cypherpunks%22&hl=en&as_drrb=b&as_mind=
17&as_minm=5&as_miny=1981&as_maxd=11&as_maxm=12&as_maxy=1992&rnum=9&selm=1992Jan11.
232019.3543%40highlite.uucp

This predates Jude Milhon's naming of our list by about 9 months. And 
the earlier reference was not in the same context. Still, interesting.

A search on "cypherpunk" gives a history of the term and the early 
meetings at the Hackers Conference, the early CP meetings, etc.:

http://groups.google.com/groups?q=cypherpunk&hl=en&as_drrb=b&as_mind=17&as_minm=
5&as_miny=1981&as_maxd=11&as_maxm=12&as_maxy=1992&rnum=1&selm=1992Nov16.154438.
14092%40kumr.lns.com


The first mention of "cryptoanarchy" (the spelling I used then)  is in a 
9 January 1991 post from John Gilmore, citing my item on cryptoanarchy 
at the 1990 Hackers Conference:

http://groups.google.com/groups?q=cryptoanarchy&hl=en&as_drrb=b&as_mind=17&
as_minm=5&as_miny=1981&as_maxd=11&as_maxm=12&as_maxy=1992&rnum=1&selm=14631%40hoptoad.
uucp

"
Cryptology, Computer Networks, and Big Brother
Tim May
slide presentation

	Views privacy and freedom from the point of view of "cryptoanarchy",
	in which cryptographic technology provides people the ability to
	communicate in privacy, despite the best efforts of governments
	to prevent their doing so.  Examines technical developments that
	led to it, and social possibilities that result from it.


(I wrote "The Cryptoanarchist Manifesto" for the 1988 Crypto Conference, 
where it was privately distributed to a few folks. I'd been using the 
term in talks around the Bay Area for several months prior to this, 
e.g., in a talk with Marc Stiegler, Phil Salin, Jim Bennett, Dave Ross, 
Chip Morningstar, Randy Farmer, and some others.)


--Tim May
"He who fights with monsters might take care lest he thereby become a 
monster. And if you gaze for long into an abyss, the abyss gazes also 
into you." -- Nietzsche