Underestimating long-term consequences of cryptoanarchy

Tyler Durden camera_lumina at hotmail.com
Mon May 5 07:28:14 PDT 2003


>In the case of printing, the result over the following century or two was a 
>rise in literacy rates (in the common languages, and this is when German, 
>French, and English, for example, largely solidified into their current 
>forms, viz. the Luther Bible, the King James Version, etc.). And the 
>Protestant Reformation was built on printed words and on the people's 
>ability to directly read the religious texts.
>
>A technology undermined the state and the church.


This is why I still bother reading Tim May's posts. Every now and then he 
comes up with a good one.

In response to this I'd point out that it would have been easy (and wrong) 
to say that, "The Printing Press, The telescope, town clocks and 
Protestantism will reduce the power of the church to the point where it will 
collapse." (Actually, many educated catholics probably thought this at the 
time.) And although the Catholic church did lose power on many fronts, it by 
no means dissappeared. (You could almost say it propered, but probably by 
virtue of the fact that it might be the single largest real estate dealer in 
the world.)



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