Refutations Considered Unnecessary

[Declan McCullagh]

On Wed, Jan 10, 2001 at 10:06:25AM -0800, Tim May wrote:
> e) Brin's book would be just another drop in the ocean, anyway. His 
> vision of the future is unlikely in the extreme (t.v. cameras in 
> police offices...sure, whatever), so refuting his "bad memes" is just 
> a waste of time

Right. Everyone's forgotten it; books like that (and Crypto, and
Database Nation)  have a short half-life.

> As for his views toward "crypto anarchy," what else would one expect? 
> If the future many of us think is likely is in fact _actually_ 
> likely, then what does it matter whether Levy makes dismissive 
> comments on his book tour or not? I didn't find him making dismissive 
> comments in his book, which is what will be read, anyway. (And even 
> if he did, see previous point...)

He didn't make dismissive comments, and was actually more critical
(though mildly) when we had conversations about it in the past.

The thing, though, is that Crypto only spends a paragraph or two --
really -- on crypto anarchy. It's not a focus of the book, or even the
chapter, its name notwithstanding.

-Declan