Underestimating long-term consequences of cryptoanarchy

[Tyler Durden]

>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. Hell, I'd recommend he stick with technology and 
stop worrying about blacks and other "social problems".

In response to the main post 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 prospered, but probably by 
virtue of the fact that it might be the single largest real estate dealer in 
the world.) The church morphed, changed, fought itself and the rest of the 
world and found a nice cozy niche for itself.

ANd part of this is due to mere social inertia... but also, the church 
probably still serves a function that people need (or at least want), and so 
they continue to feed it $$$ and whatnot. But the Catholic church has become 
one possible option, and arguably they've learned to "compete" for donations 
and members.

Likewise with governments. I still need my trash taken out, and for potholes 
to be fixed. And although these services can be provided privately (maybe) 
if strong crypto gives people opportunities, government might be forced to 
learn how to do some things more efficiently so that people can "opt-in" if 
they choose to. Hell, this has already happened to some extent with the US 
mail service.

So while I don't believe heavy crypto will kill off governments, I DO 
believe it will eventually force them to change into something we probably 
can't imagine too well right now.

-TD



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