Underestimating long-term consequences of cryptoanarchy

Tyler Durden camera_lumina at hotmail.com
Tue May 6 08:05:44 PDT 2003


Kevin S. vanHorn wrote...

>>Likewise with governments. I still need my trash taken out, and for 
>>potholes to be fixed.
>
>
>What makes you think government is needed at all for these?  My trash is 
>taken out by a private company, not by any government.  And privately built 
>and maintained roads have existed for a very long time.

Of course. But you've got to read further into my post to see the point.
I'm thinking that in the future, some aspects of government might be 
competitive with the private sector to obtain public $$$, much like the US 
mail now competes with UPS and FedEx. Like in Stephenson's Snow Crash, many 
functions might be opt-in, including possibly war....

For instance, imagine where budget items are voted on directly, and 
regularly by voters. Would IraqII have occurred? (I bet not.) (My Jazz 
musician brother has suggested that "you should be able to vote any elected 
official directly into jail, no questions asked".)

But my point is that heavy crypto will probably have unforseeable effects on 
the notion of the state, probably not wipe it out.

-TD

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